The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Nighttime Innocence

Judy left with Mr. Shears and this caused trouble to Ed, with not knowing what to do, he lied to Christopher. Christopher was lead to believe that his mother had a fatal heart attack and had died later in hospital. Ed was faced with a major decision to make and at the time lying was the only option furthermore seeing the idea that lying was necessary in that case. Christopher would have struggled to understand the concept of his mother leaving with Mr. Shears due to his condition. Later in the novel, Christopher discovers letters that his mother has sent him since she has been gone. Here we see the effect that a lie has on him; he began to feel sick and dizzy. Christopher curled up into a ball and started to have a bad stomach ache, the next thing he says he remembers was waking up and discovering that he had been sick all over him self. Christopher learns a lot from this lie. He goes on an adventure to find his mother as he is scared of his dad; this is because of the lie by omission Ed told. Ed killed Wellington and never admitted it. ‘I couldn’t trust him, even though he had said “Trust me,” because he had told a lie about a big thing’.

What makes fiction novels especially interesting are the larger messages hidden within them. The novel, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, by Mark Haddon does just that. The novel centers around a 15 year old genius Christopher Boone who has a mental disability of some sort, struggling with communication because of it. The book is comprised of a murder mystery novel Christopher sought to write after discovering the bloody murder of his neighbor's dog, Wellington. Gradually, the story focuses away from the main conflict and morphs into a complicated story about Christopher’s life. With that, Haddon brings out the complexity and hardships of human life, specifically through the topic of truth and deceit. The truth comes out eventually; fabricating it now will only prolong the unwanted effects later. Also, lies ruin relationships, possibly for good.

First person narration is a technique which allows the reader to understand perspective. In The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, a boy diagnosed with autism, lives his everyday life experiencing many issues. Mark Haddon chose to make Christopher, a boy with Autism, the narrator of this novel because Christopher’s first person narration has an overall impact on the story shaping it. First person narrative affects the novel as it lets the reader understand how Christopher, someone with Autism, may think about “dramatic” interactions and how he may interpret the actions of others.

Attention Grabber: In the “Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time,” we see a young adult, Christopher, traveling through life and overcoming obstacles he never thought he could.

This essay will be an analytical essay where the novel The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon will be analyzed and interpreted. The focus will be on the language of the novel and the themes and messages.

When Christopher’s father told Christopher the truth about killing Wellington and about the fact that his mother is alive and in London, Christopher goes into a state of shock and panic. Fearing for his safety, Christopher states, “I had to get out of the house. Father had murdered Wellington. That meant he could murder me, because I couldn’t trust him, even though he had said “Trust me,” because he had told a lie about a big thing.” (122) Since Christopher spent a large portion of his time and effort into finding out who killed Wellington, the startling revelation of his own father killing the neighborhood dog drove Christopher into mentally breaking down as he is not able to process this shocking truth or had even come to terms if his father actually did kill Wellington since he did not expect his father to be the murderer. As a result of Christopher no longer trusting his own father, the father goes through the process of regret and remorse over his own decisions and actions. Little by little, the father regains Christopher’s trust and is able to slowly mend relations with his son after a period of contemplation. His father regains his trust by buying him a puppy and spending more time with him at home. The journey in the father’s process of dealing with the consequences of

Father has murdered Wellington. That meant that he could murder me…”(122). For the sake of his own safety, Christopher decides that he must go to London to find his mother. On this Journey, Christopher's strengths and weaknesses have been challenged, but in order for him to discover the truth he must overcome these obstacles. Early into his journey, Christopher finds himself lost, frightened and alone. Considering Christopher rarely steps outside of his own hometown, he must learn to put his social anxieties aside as he experiences the pressures of London’s busy streets. When doing so, Christopher goes outside of his comfort zone, he ends up asking many people for instructions, and uses his own knowledge in order to figure out where to go. Christopher even risks his own life in order to save Toby, his pet rat. When doing so, Christopher overcomes these obstacles as he discovers the truth and realizes that maybe he is not so different after all.

Mark Haddon, in The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, uses language features such as narrative point of view, juxtaposition, characterisation and other stylistic devices to explore different perspectives in the text. These include Christopher’s point of view, a cultural point of view and the perspective of his mother. These language features and stylistic devices used in the text, provide a thoughtful influence on the audience. In the novel, Christopher Boone is a 15-year-old mathematically gifted boy with a photographic memory, however, he is living with Asperger’s syndrome. Christopher struggles to understand emotions, so when he finds his neighbour’s dead dog on the lawn, he decides to find the murderer and proceeds to write

‘The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time’ by Mark Haddon efficiently presents an internal unique view of a person with a disability, also the complexity of human emotions and relationships. Also, the effective demonstration of Christopher’s complicated everyday life results from his lack of understanding human emotions and social conditions. This is comparable to the challenging distinct disagreements between Christopher’s family members because of his behavioural problems. Haddon effectively highlights Christopher's disability throughout the first person murder mystery novel, which is also revealed in the language and structure of the book. The distinctive ideas present diverse concepts throughout the novel that relates to Christopher’s

Christopher has just found out that after being told by his father that his mother was dead, she actually was not dead. Christopher's father realizing the lie told Christopher another truth“‘ I killed Wellington, Christopher’” (Haddon,120). Wellington is the neighbors dog that Christopher liked and he was very mad when he found out that his own father killed the dog. This quote is significant because at that point Christopher feels scared because if “[father] had murdered Wellington[,] that meant he could murder me” ( Haddon, 122).

“I do not like people shouting at me. It makes me scared that they are going to hit me or touch me and I do not know what is going to happen.” These lines show one of Christopher’s biggest fears, physical contact is a personal challenge for him. We all have personal challenges in our life, adversities which we must overcome. Mark Haddon’s perspective on personal challenges is explored in the novel “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time”.

Christopher went to check on his neighbor’s dog Wellington when he looked up to see Mrs. Shears screaming, and calling the cops. After he was found innocent, Christopher decided to launch an investigation on who killed Wellington. When his father found out he told Christopher to leave it alone. Christopher ignores him and asks Mrs. Alexander questions soon their relationship grows and Christopher begins to trust her. When Christopher asked her why his father doesn’t like Mr. Shears she told him that his mother and Mr. Shears had an affair. When his father found Christopher’s book he learned that Christopher knows about the affair and that he was still being a “detective”. His father hid the book from Christopher, when he found the book he also found letters. The letters went sent from his mother, even after she “died”. When his dad found him with the letters he explained why he said she was dead, why he kept the letters from him, and why he killed Wellington. Later that night Christopher ran away from his father to London, England where his mother lives. When he arrived his mother took him in and he explained why he was there because being afraid of his father. When Christopher remembered his A level math class he and his mother move back to Swindon, England, soon Christopher begins to trust his

Haddon’s approach to this chapter has opened a renewed perspective for readers, as a sense of sympathy for Christopher and his ambition make him a likeable character, even if he see’s the world differently from

It develops the plot by the inciting force, the murder of Wellington, Ms. Shears’ dog. Christopher wants to find out who killed him, so he starts detective work, including talking to Ms. Shears. When his dad finds out he has been questioning her about Mr. Shears, he becomes angry, telling him he is not allowed to poke around in anyone’s business. Despite his dad’s wishes, he continues to do so, leading him to become curious in regards as to why his dad dislikes Mr. Shears. He ends up searching in his dad’s room and finds hidden letters from his mother, who he thought was dead since his childhood. He then ventures off to London to find his mother because he doesn’t feel safe with his father

First, knowing that he is autistic his mind is bound to switch forth and back very fast. In the book, Christopher notices that Wellington, the neighbor’s dog has died by being pierced by a pitchfork and Christopher is still marveling what transpired. The primary plot line in the narrative is Christopher attempting to find out who murdered Wellington. Nevertheless, his telling of the tale gets abstracted easily. Therefore, a lot of things are going on.