The curious incident of the dog in the night-time by Mark Haddon is about a very mysterious, logical and innocent autistic boy who stumbles upon his neighbors murdered dog, Wellington. As expected, his mind is intrigued about solving this current mystery, while writing a murder novel filled with all his clues and thoughts as well. Throughout his investigation Christopher not only has trouble with finding clues, but experiences the struggles with human emotions, family life, and the stigma revolved around his disorder. There are many themes provided in this brilliant novel, centered on the struggle of becoming independent, coping with loss, family redemption, the disorder of life, and most importantly subjectivity.
In this particular
…show more content…
It’s dark, cold and very mysterious. Christopher Boone is walking in his neighborhood and finds his neighbor’s dog Wellington, dead in a front yard with a giant pitchfork sticking out of its body. Christopher with his playful mind wonders what possibly could have happened and realizes that this could be his chance to write his very own murder mystery.
Christopher then walks into Mrs. Shear’s lawn to go and lay with Wellington because he has such a love for animals. Mrs. Shears walks out of her house in shock and screams at the sight she sees. This causes Mrs. Shears to call the police on him, forcing him to spend a couple of hours in jail. After the wait in the cell, his father comes to pick him up and strictly tells him to stop investigating the murder and tells him to stay out of peoples business. Christopher doesn’t want to stop investigating so he instantly begins to think about all the ways he can manipulate his father’s words and continue his detective work.
The next day, Christopher starts to ask around his neighborhood to see if anyone had witnessed the murder or had any clues that may help his investigation. He decides to pick his number one suspect as Mr. Shear’s. His theory states, since Mr. Shears recently left Mrs. Shears, he may have the capability of murdering her dog to make her upset. However his detective work comes slowly to an end once again, when his father finds out he didn’t listen to his words from the police station.
After a long day of pondering who the murderer was, Officer Darren decided to go out for a drink at the local pub. He saw Mr. Craill across the bar, and watched as he ate a huge meal consisting of a hamburger, fries, beers, steak, and mashed potatoes. It was quite peculiar that Mr. Craill was able to afford such a meal, because he did only have a part time job at a small town burger joint. Several things seemed suspicious that day about Mr. Craill, especially the fact that the gate that separated Craill’s yard from Dorothy’s yard was open along with Craill and Dorothy’s back
“When I am in a new place and there are lots of people there it is even harder because people are not like cows and flowers and grass and they can talk to you and do things that you don’t expect, so you have to notice everything that is in the place, and also you have to notice things that might happen as well.” Those are the words of Christopher, from Mark Haddon’s The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, explaining himself to why he acts and does not act a certain way. But with just that one quote, Christopher reveals his key abilities and disabilities, both physical and mental, of a detective. But even while having these disabilities, because of his Asperger’s syndrome, that may or may not hold him back as a detective, one
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.
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.
Mrs. Abbott began to describe her story and the purpose of the detectives’ invitations. Her husband, Mr. Abbott, was alive, but without thought or movement. Mr. Abbott,
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime is a fictional story about a boy named Christopher who has behavioral problems. One night Christopher finds his neighbor’s dog murder and sets out to find who killed him. Christopher’s investigation takes him to London to meet his mother. As Christopher travels to London he meets many different people and through his interactions with others he is able to develop and become more independent. Christopher developed and his interactions with other characters indicated that he developed his interactions with other and became more independent. Mark Haddon develops Christopher in a way that proves he is more independent and he is able to interact with people better than before.
The police were very concern and came back to the Moloney’s home, they knew that Mrs.Moloney killed her husband that night from the quiver in her voice. Once the police arrive, they questioned Mrs. Moloney and the look on her face was despicable, the policemen soon pushes Mrs. Moloney so hard she confesses to what she had done to her husband that night.
Christopher states that “I decided that the dog was probably killed with the fork because I could not see any other wounds in the dog and I do not think you would stick a garden fork into a dog after it had died” (Haddon 1). Christopher notices every little detail about situations he encounters, but the reader may understand the situation before he does. It is obvious to the reader that if a dead dog had been speared with a garden fork, then that must have been the cause of its death. Christopher’s stating the obvious makes the novel more comic. Adding to that, at first, when Christopher was reading the letters from his mom, he did not realize that his mom was still alive. He thought, “perhaps it wasn’t a letter from Mother. Perhaps it was a letter to another person called Christopher, from that Christopher’s mother” (123). At this point, the reader has already deduced that Christopher’s mother is still alive. Yet, he believes that his mother could be writing to another Christopher, which comes across as ironic. Given the evidence, Christopher’s thoughts and actions are funny to the
A suicide of a widow begins to spark rumors that the woman had killed her first husband.As part of the punishment it was thought that she was being blackmailed and having an affair with the wealthy Roger Ackroyd. A couple of days later, Roger Ackroyd is murdered and a lot of conspiracy surrounds his death since the facts were not adding up. In the village there were a lot of possible suspects, including Ackroyd's stepson and his sister in law, who all had reason to possibly kill him if they wanted. A former detective, Hercule Poirot, attempts to
“The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time” is a 2003 mystery novel written by a British writer by the name of Mark Haddon. With this novel Haddon was able to win three awards; one of which was the Whitbread Book Award for Best Novel and Book of the Year. Haddon writes the book in a first-person perspective, through the eyes of the protagonist Christopher John Francis Boone, a 15-year-old boy with behavioural difficulties. Throughout the novel Haddon uses numerous techniques to present this special world of Christopher’s to the reader enabling us to understand and see what he thinks and sees. To express this special world of Christopher’s, Haddon uses techniques such as language and symbolism as well as graphics to provide the
He forces himself to overcome many obstacles in order to figure out who actually murdered the dog, such as the police's disapproval of the investigation and his fear of strangers. This brings me to my first connection between Christopher and I, we are both very shy. In his book Christopher says “I do not like strangers because I do not like people I have never met before. They are hard to understand”. Like Christopher, I am uncomfortable around strangers because they are unfamiliar to me, but, like him, I don't let it get in my way.
Throughout the novel, “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time,” author Mark Haddon explores how several different perspectives are presented. This is apparent through the use of various techniques. One technique is the use of first person narrative perspective. Another technique is the change in narration through the use of letters sent to the protagonist from his mother. Finally, the use of maps, diagrams and mathematical problems also assist in showing these perspectives.
After the breakfast, they went off to fin John Collinson If the murder was personal, they needed information about Alfred’s personal life and problems he may have faced. John lived over the bakery. A small residence, with only three rooms, a bedroom, kitchen and a small closet. The entrance was in the kitchen area. A small table placed under the window where they sat to talk. The stranger sat and listened to John, but most of the times he was watching the empty streets. What is he thinking? I thought he cared about investigating. He sat and stared out the window until John said something that got his attention. ‘’My grandfather got in a conflict with the bank. This was years before the murders began. They believed he was refusing to pay his taxes.
This is open to interpretation, but he could physically see their was a dead dog and he used his logic to conclude that if his dad had killed a dog than he could kill Christopher which made him feel scared. He focussed mass energy on this fear that he wasn’t focussing on the lie the dad told because it was not concrete and it was just an underlining aspect of why Christopher wanted to leave his dad and go to London with his
His family’s confidence never dwindled; time after time, they joined a crusade to save Richard’s soul. Tensions began to increase when Aunt Addie enrolled Richard in the religious school where she taught. Labeled as a black sheep, Richard continued to defy the iron fist of his family. The conflict between Aunt Addie and Richard exploded when he was accused of eating walnuts in class. Richard knew the boy in front of him was guilty, but he abided by the “street code” and said nothing. Despite Richard’s denial, Aunt Addie did not conduct an investigation and immediately beat Richard in front of the class. After submitting to his aunt, he finally confessed the guilty suspect. Rather than to commend Richard for the truth, Aunt Addie attempted to beat him again after school. However, brandishing a knife, Richard defended himself. He had stood up for his dignity and pride, something that was worth more to him than anything.