preview

The Curious Incident Of The Dog

Satisfactory Essays

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, written by Mark Haddon, is an insightful novel narrated by the protagonist of the story, Christopher Boone, a fifteen year old boy who is on the autism spectrum. Christopher’s condition effects his perception of events in a way that makes his viewpoint somewhat idiosyncratic, as reflected in his narration. Despite the vast differences in the perception of events in the story between the protagonist and the reader, the intellectual value of the story is not necessarily diminished. At times, the narration can appear inconsistent through levels of sophistication conflicting with the established character traits, however this quality generally enhances the novel through its creation of empathy …show more content…

Preluding this, Christopher confesses that he “finds people confusing” (pg. 19), assimilating that he lacks the emotional maturity to process this revelation. It is this quality, where the reader often perceives situations with a greater understanding, which renders Christopher an unreliable narrator. Proceeding this, Christopher finds that his father was responsible for the death of Wellington, their neighbours dog, and concludes that his father “could murder me, because I couldn’t trust him” (pg. 152). Although the reader can understand that the events that occurred were terrible and frightening, they also know that Ed would never murder his son who he has so patiently cared for over the last fifteen years. The empathy that Haddon so carefully constructed through Christopher’s narration is pertinent to the quality of the production and beautifully draws the reader closer to the developing boy.
As well as this, humour is also a powerful tool used to enhance the polish of the book. On page ten of the book, Christopher bluntly states “This will not be a funny book. I cannot tell jokes because I don’t understand them.” In a statement packed with irony, Christopher unintentionally encourages the reader to find his uncomprehending recounts of humour highly comical. One example of this is when Christopher speaks to Mr. Thompson. Christopher records the slogan on his neighbour’s shirt: “Beer. Helping ugly people have sex for 2000 years” (pg. 47). The

Get Access