The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time

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.

Moreover, Christopher’s first perspective informs the readers of the many privileges he has, despite his most obvious lack of ability privilege while on the autism spectrum. To start off, Christopher is an extremely structured character who plans things in great detail to a point where he can visualize it. This is exemplified in the novel when

Christopher proves to be unique because he is very curious, capable of great intelligence and he is most definitely persnickety.

Christopher’s abnormal personality can be seen as a weird but it is because of the experiences he had to face as a young adult with his father that made his perception on life and its values of life change. Christopher’s adventure way up north was described by saying, “...he was relieved as well—relieved that he had again evaded the impending threat of human intimacy, of friendship, and all the messy emotional baggage that comes with it.”(55) Christopher most likely felt like this because he felt betrayed by his father and saw no point in endeavouring trust into people close to him

In the novel, The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-time by Mark Haddon, the elements of Character of Father, the Aha-Moment of Christopher and the Conflict develops the theme when in making an effort to heal a relationship, one must be truthful in order to show a sense of trust and value to the person. Firstly, the Character of Father helps us to understand a level of effort he puts in trying to fix his relationship with Christopher. Father says “ And, um… I’ve got you a present. To show you that I really mean what I say. And to say sorry (Hadden 219), the quotation gives us a perspective that Ed really care for his son and that the golden retriever symbolizes a peace offering between them. However, he also shows effort in the relationship

When Christopher runs away from his father, and decides to go on a train to London to his mother, or when he finds out who killed Wellington the dog, he begins to do things he does not do regularly which shows how he becomes independent, as he states, “And I know I can do this because I went to London on my own, and because I solved the mystery of Who Killed Wellington? and I found my mother and I was brave and I wrote a book and that means I can do anything” (Haddon, 221). This quote demonstrates how he overcomes various challenges, gains confidence in his abilities and becomes more self-sufficient. Also, Christopher passing an A level math test, and having the desire to take more A level math and physics classes and pass them represents how he wants “to go to university in another town” and “get a First Class Honours degree and… become a scientist” (Haddon, 220-221), which shows how doing well on the tests and going to university allows him to be able to live on his own in the future and become more independent.

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.

When he goes into the store, it is very crowded. Immaturity directs his autism when he crouches on the floor with his hands over his ears. Immaturity is directing his autism, and drawing away from social integration because Christopher does not understand that because he is crouching down in the middle of the store, he is blocking everyone else who is trying to shop. Furthermore, when Christopher’s mother tries to move him, Christopher starts to scream in the store, drawing bad attention to himself, and drawing further away from his understanding of social integration. This shows many immature decisions directing his autism because he is not yet able to control his autistic traits, contrasting to in the end, when he is able to recognize his autistic traits, and control them with his mature understanding of social integration. In addition, Christopher shows immaturity in his past when he is able to recognize and reflect maturely on his immature acts that were directing his autism. When Christopher recognizes his behavioural problems that he used to have, he is able to reflect on the reasoning of his problems, and know that he has matured from his past. Determination directs his autism when he gets cross with people if the furniture is moved. This is because he is determined through his mother’s positive influences to keep everything in a strict order, and

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.

In literature, it is hard to have a character that is completely truthful; there is usually at least one scenario where the protagonist would be required to tell a lie to get out of a situation. Even in real life, the average person is guaranteed to tell at least a few lies in their lifetime. In the book, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon, the protagonist is a teenage boy by the name of Christopher. He suffers from a type of autism, and this is why he is physically unable to tell lies. This has a large impact on the plot because of the way Christopher deals with the problems he faces in the book. Instead of telling strategically placed fibs to get the information he needs, Christopher can only be brutally honest, which can be either helpful or harmful to his cause depending on the situation. Christopher being honest throughout the book is a major key to how the plot progresses.

His struggle to understand metaphors is another characteristic that can be associated with Autism Spectrum Disorder. Moreover, Christopher forces readers to reassess our relationship with language in efforts to make it speak directly to us and so that the only tool we should use to communicate is a direct reflection of our thoughts and feelings, as opposed to inherited means of expression such as metaphors. Throughout the novel, it is evident that Christopher prefers to be alone because he does not understand how to respond to people and interact in different social situations. In addition, Christopher struggles to connect with people on an emotional level. For these reasons, Christopher heavily relies on order and logic to help him understand and navigate the world.

In The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, Christopher is a boy who is socially inept so he finds comfort in the logical things of this world that he can actually figure out. There is evidence suggesting that he might have Aspergers but the author does not specify so the readers are left to be detectives and try to fit the pieces of the puzzle together that make up who he is and why he acts the way he does. Even though Christopher may or may not have Aspergers, it’s quite obvious that he sees the world very differently from most people. Everything is black or white for him; good or bad. He doesn’t understand the grey matter in between but what human being actually does?

For these reasons, Christopher’s character develops and changes throughout the book, and is showcased through his mental and emotional growth

In this section, many of Christopher’s struggles due to his autism come to the forefront. How does the development of Christopher’s character impact the development of the plot? There are many situations in how Christopher’s character impacts the development of the plot, such as his perseverance through getting to London, the struggle to become more independent and becoming more considerate of the decisions he made. It is really unique to see how his autism affects his decisions, for example, he decided to hide in the shed in fear of his father whereas, someone without autism wouldn’t have made such an immediate decision. Christopher's perseverance with fighting with himself and his fear is one major part of the plot.

Every individual faces obstacles that are necessary to overcome, whether it be for equity, justice or honesty. Throughout The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, by Mark Haddon, the main character, Christopher tells his story as a socially awkward teenage boy who has a supposedly deceased mother and lives with his father. Being an adolescent, Christopher faces obstacles throughout the novel that he has to overcome in order to grow. The only thing is, Christopher is not like everyone else. While discovering the truth and embarking on certain adventures, Christopher is in search of a form of justice that he truly deserves.