An Analysis Of Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Nighttime By Mark Haddon

Superior Essays
Have you ever read a novel that makes you ask many questions about why authors did this or put something where it doesn’t belong? Ever thought what’s going through an author’s mind while writing a book? Well it will happen when anyone reads The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime written by Mark Haddon. In this book the main protagonist and narrator is, Christopher an autistic child who struggles with social interaction and trust throughout this book. This novel started as a mystery novel quickly turn into a heart-breaking story about Christopher conflicts with trusting the people in his life and social acceptance from others. In The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime, Haddon presents animals in this novel solacing Christopher from struggles he goes through, which includes the truth about who killed Willington and truth about his mother is alive. …show more content…
In the beginning Mrs. Shears’s dog, Wellington is lays on the grass with a fork sticking out of it, but Christopher put his hand on the muzzle of the dog, pulling out the fork and touching the dog instead of calling for an adult. If it was a child I’m sure they would scream or call their parents, but Christopher is different. Christopher describes dogs as, “I cared about dogs because they were faithful and honest, and some dogs were cleverer and more interesting than some people.”(6). To Christopher dogs are more faithful and honest meaning they don’t lie like humans but they tell the truth.
Another possible reason why Haddon kills a dog, because of the popular phrase of a dog is a man’s best friend. The phrase highlights a dog close relation, loyalty, and it’s companionship to a human. Christopher never had any friends at school or outside of school except for his pet rat Toby or Wellington. With no friends at school a person can get really lonely, so Christopher relies on animals as a source of

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    “How does Mark Haddon’s The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time portray interesting ideas about themes?” By employing distinctive features, Mark Haddon effectively situates the responders to experience life through the perspective of an individual with autism. By openly disregarding the rules of conventional storytelling, Haddon’s implementation of exploring the everyday occurrences through the perspective of Christopher Boone, who happens to be a dramatically unconventional character, promotes the responder’s comprehending of the life of an individual who cannot grasp human interactions.…

    • 981 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    How does Haddon’s portrayal of the relationship between Christopher and his world move us to a deeper understanding of acceptance? It’s not so easy to talk about love in “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time” due to the narrator, Christopher Boone, struggling with acceptance of love. Christopher can recognize love when he sees it, but this can’t come close to accepting love. Exploring Chris and his relationship with his world will move us to a deeper understanding of acceptance.…

    • 711 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    In the novel, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Mark Haddon presents the idea that there are different levels of lying and the lies affect relationships. In the story, the reader learns that Christopher does not believe in lying and in turn he refuses to lie. Even though, Christopher says that he does not believe in lying, he tells white lies many times in the novel. However, Christopher’s father does not tell white lies, he tells more severe lies that have a strong effect on Christopher. Both Christopher’s lies and his father’s lies have a strong effect on their relationship and this causes a drift.…

    • 1235 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In the Curious Incident, Christopher is shown to be different through his behavior problems, inability to socialize and his odd choices of likings. Mark Haddon’s novel, The Curious incident of the Dog in the Night-time was published in 2003, and was hugely criticized for its inaccurate interpretation on the Asperger’s syndrome, by the people suffering from it if not directly pointed at. However, this was one of Christopher Boone’s, the main character’s, most defining features as it made him unique. This made it difficult to talk to others and interact with them very well, making his investigation on the death of the dog just that more harder and intriguing. Another feature that made him more interesting was his thought process, which was detailed,…

    • 828 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Parents often find themselves frustrated and lost when they fail to understand the actions of their children, but try their best to adapt to new situations. In The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon, the protagonist, Christopher Boone is a fifteen year-old autistic boy living in a dysfunctional family. Ed Boone and Judy Boone, the father and mother to Christopher, are estranged, with Ed being the primary caregiver to Chris. Ed faces many difficulties in raising his son alone in a world where few understand autism and where he himself does not fully comprehend this disorder. Furthermore, readers demonize Ed, and do not stop to consider how he positively influences Christopher by complying to his needs; asks for forgiveness…

    • 1032 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    “The dog was lying on the grass in the middle of the lawn in front of Mrs. Shears' house. Its eyes were closed. It looked as if it was running on its side, the way dogs run when they think they are chasing a cat in a dream. But the dog was not running or asleep. The dog was dead” (2).…

    • 797 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time is a novel written by Mark Haddon. It’s about Christopher Boone, a 15 year old boy, who lives in Swindon, with Asperger’s syndrome, a mild form of autism. Haddon used techniques such as motifs, diagrams and symbolisation to convey to the audience Christopher’s view of the world and in developing empathy towards people with disabilities. The audience is aware that he is unable to recognise facial expression and he needs to be taught to understand emotions.…

    • 1249 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    To a certain degree the audience understands Ed’s need to protect Chris from being hurt, but in a situation regarding his mother the readers feel indignant because Chris needs to know the truth about his mother. Hence, Haddon affirms that…

    • 1063 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Mark Haddon’s, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime, is a well written piece of fiction, that displays unique literary merit. From the very first page of the novel the reader is plunged into the interior mental landscape of a fifteen year old autistic boy named Christopher. Christopher’s understanding of the world is distinctly different than an ordinary persons. Haddon is successful in making The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime, a work of art attracting and entertaining both children and adult audiences. The structure in which Haddon writes The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime, mirrors Christopher's approach as to the way he processes and views things in the world.…

    • 445 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time, written by Mark Haddon, is written from the point of view of a mentally challenged teenager named Christopher John Francis Boone. The novel begins at the murder scene where Wellington, Mrs. Shears’ dog, lays dead with a garden fork through its abdomen. This event sparks an idea in Christopher’s genius mathematical mind to take an interest in the subject English and write a book with his teacher Siobhan about the mystery of Wellington’s death. Christopher contacts other neighbors to discuss the truth behind the death, however Christopher’s “widowed” father scolds him for searching for information and confiscates the mystery book.…

    • 642 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Pets sometimes give better company than any human can ever give. Christopher and Toby have really good companionship like I do with my dog. He gets along with Toby better than any human. When your mad your pet can really keep you calm. While I was reading The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night, I realized how much Christopher’s relationship with Toby is like mine with my dogs, because my pets affect my mood and provide comfort just like Toby does for Christopher.…

    • 385 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Logic is the reasoning assessed on the principles of validity. Emotion is the intuitive feeling as distinguished from reasoning. The rule of balance defines the way an individual’s morals bristle with prejudice, evaluating their motivation by pride and vanity in the discovery to reach new insights involving logic and one’s plight of present perception. These concepts can be evident with reference to The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, a novel-to-play adaption by Simon Stephens, through questioning the thought of subjecting logic with emotion and observing themes that alert the stability in the conflict of forming individual identity. Its main character, and narrator of the book, fifteen-year-old Christopher is mathematically…

    • 1118 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Christopher has a very special relationships with both his parents; however, one might be better than the other. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time is a novel by Mark Haddon in which a teenager with Asperger Disease takes you on his own personal crime mystery. Throughout the book Christopher runs into issues with his parents. At a moment in time he thought that one of them was dead and when he finds the truth he starts to separate himself from the one that lied. It's a battle between Father and Mother to see which one is the most merited for Christopher.…

    • 290 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In the curious incident of the dog in the night-time, Christopher's father is the most important character to Christopher because he is Angry and loving towards Christopher , which results in Christopher finding out the truth about his mother and forgiving his father for lying to him. Christopher's father is often angry. He displays this behavior throughout the book. In this quote Christopher’s father gets angry when he finds Christopher's book that Christophe is writing about the death of Wellington and the affair between his mother and Mr. Sheers. “So I was very surprised when he grabbed me.…

    • 1124 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Firstly, Christopher gives straight answers to the police officer. When Christopher is talking to the police officer, he says “why were you holding the dog” Christopher says “ I like dogs”... “is this your fork”? “No”. (Haddon,8).…

    • 855 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays