The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time by Mark Haddon

Millions of people around the world suffer from autism and other mental disabilities that make facing their fears a challenge for them. In the novel The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime by Mark Haddon, the main character Christopher Boone has autism and finds it difficult to pertain to many social situations. He fears strangers, things not going how he expected them to, and brown foods. This makes it hard for Christopher to control himself in circumstances that may seem simple to the average person. Christopher must learn to deal with both internal and external conflicts in the novel, as he becomes a stronger character through the many conflicts.

In The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, Mark Haddon uses Christopher’s unique voice to show the importance of human connection and communication within our world. In doing so, Haddon is able to communicate the importance of order and stability in Christopher’s life. This creates a unique perspective of an aspergus sufferer, enabling an exploration of the difficulties inherent in raising an autistic child and thus alters the perceptions of the reader concerning the complex connection between disability and dependence.

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.

Christopher’s mental instability places an enormous strain on his parents, together with their relationships with each other and Christopher. After Ed Boone becomes a single father, the relationship between him and Christopher is put under even more tension, as both are affected by a lack of stability. This is conveyed through a contrast between Ed’s emotive language and Christopher’s dry tone in his journal – ‘… and he said, “I need a fucking drink.” And he got himself a can of beer.’ This simultaneously demonstrates Christopher’s lack of empathy towards his father’s emotional state and Ed’s frustration at his son, and therefore the negative impact that the lack of stability of both characters has had on their

Through first person narration the reader gets Christopher’s factual perspective of his mother. From Christopher’s perspective the reader sees that his mother did not handle his behavioral problems well and was not as patient as Christopher’s father. Mother easily got frustrated with Christopher, this shown when she says, ‘Jesus, Christopher, I am seriously considering putting you in a home’ (pg. 61), as well as when she says, ‘You are going to drive me into an early grave’ (pg. 61). Haddon uses flashbacks to help the reader create the perspective of mother. The flashbacks are seen through Christopher’s perspective, from this the reader begins to develop a perspective of mother, she is shown as uncaring and selfish. The reader feels sympathy for Christopher as he is treated badly by his mother, and consequently the reader forms a dislike towards his mother. Christopher is an unreliable narrator, he finds emotions and motives confusing. Christopher accepts that people are being honestly easily, he does this because he does not lie. An example of this ‘he said she died of a heart attack “and “father said he didn’t know what kind of heart attack she had” (pg.36), Christopher quickly accepts what is father is telling him as the truth. He does not push his father, instead he accepts it as the truth. In the beginning of the novel, the reader is given an image of what mother is like, she comes across as selfish and not caring, perspective of her changes throughout the

The Curious incident of the dog in the night-time is a great novel, that gives a special perception of how an autistic boys views and interprets the world. By critical analyzing the story's theme, symbols, motifs, characters, and conflicts it gives a much more prevalent idea of the logical thinking and ideas of Christopher and his family. Also while reading the novel through a psychoanalytic theory, Christopher follows what seems to be the most logical actions to please his needs.

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 Curious Case of Christopher Boone The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time highlights the life of a young teenager, Christopher Boone. Christopher has been diagnosed with Asperger’s and is helped by his father and teacher. The story is told from his perspective. Because the story is told from his perspective, readers are given a broader perspective of different people.

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.

The novel, “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time,” is narrated by a 15 year old boy with a form of autism named Christopher Boone. It is about his search for order and stability in his life and how he copes with situations that lack this. At the beginning of the story, Christopher discovers that his neighbour’s dog, named Wellington, has been murdered. He decides to get to the bottom of this and solve the mystery of Wellington’s murderer while writing a murder mystery novel about it. As he begins to investigate the neighbourhood, Christopher’s dad discovers the book and confiscates it. While looking for his book, Christopher stumbles upon a box in his fathers closet containing his book as well as 43 letters. They are all from his mother and addressed to him. The letters are dated after her supposed death and reveal that she is living with Mr. Shears, the man she had an affair with, in London. Christopher is shocked and his father confesses that he lied about his mothers death and goes a step further by revealing that he was the culprit behind Wellington’s murder. Christopher leaves his father that night and embarks on his journey to London to live with his mother. He overcomes many obstacles, but is eventually reunited with his mother in London. After Mr. Shears shows his disapproval of Christopher joining them, his mother leaves Mr. Shears and takes Christopher back to Swindon. Christopher and his mother both live in a small flat and his father has

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time is told through the eyes of a fifteen year old boy named Christopher Boone. Christopher has a highly-functioning form of autism which allows him to understand complex mathematical problems, but also leaves him unable to comprehend many simple human emotions. His inability to understand metaphors, distinguish emotions, and his lack of imagination makes it possible to consider Christopher as functioning like a computer rather than functioning as a human being. Throughout the story, Christopher is faced with many challenges which he conquers using the stable and never changing system of mathematics. All of these factors suggest that Christopher does, in fact, function like a computer,

In chapters 59-89 in the novel The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon, Christopher sets out to investigate Wellington’s murder. He goes to Mrs. Shear’s house and explains to her that he didn’t kill her dog Wellington, but gets a door slammed on his face. When she leaves he sneaks into her backyard and looks inside the locked shed through the window. He finds the same garden fork used to kill Wellington inside her shed. Just then Mrs. Shears finds out that Christopher is in her backyard and threatens to call the police.

Has there ever been a time where an autistic person overcome his biggest fears and face the most difficult conflicts? The novel “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time” by Mark Haddon explores how an autistic teen has to face many complex conflicts throughout his life. Although Christopher meets many conflicts, he can overcome them with specific characteristics. The characteristics that allowed him to overcome when Christopher found out his mother was still alive was curiosity and being persistent, going on the train all by himself gave him confidence and knew father killed Wellington gave him fear. Therefore, the conflicts that Christopher encounters allows himself to trigger certain characteristics that will enable him to overcome the very complicated problems of solving the murder and finding his mom.

”The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time” by Mark Haddon is a novel narrated by Christopher Boone, a teenager dealing with Asperger syndrome. One day, he finds his neighbor’s dog dead in the garden and decides to begin an investigation to find a potential murderer. Unfortunately, he gets into trouble, ends up arrested by a local police officer, and has to be taken home from the police station by his father. Although the boy believes that his piece of writing is a crime novel, it reminds more of a diary as it gives the reader an overview of his thoughts and interactions with others, including his dad, from whose perspective I decided to create a diary entry.

Throughout the novel, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon, emotions are the most challenging problems of all for Christopher. However, beyond the drama of Christopher’s crises involving feeling, or interaction with other people, we glimpse a more general idea – that dealing with people and feelings is difficult. Discuss in relation to the themes and characters of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time.