Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Nighttime Analysis

In the Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time, the main protagonist and narrator, Christopher, is deceived by his father, Ed. Through sleuth, he has found out that his so called “dead” mother is not really dead; but instead, she is in London with the husband of a neighbor. Along with this, Christoper has also learned that his own father has killed Wellington, the dog of the neighbor whom ran off with Christopher's mom. Christopher learns the truth behind the lies that his dad tells him and is both disgusted and terrified of his father. This causes him to run off to his mother to stay “safe” from his father. Due to this, the whole theme of the book varies. The theme starts off simply trying to solve the mystery of Wellington’s death, …show more content…
He essentially puts everything into an equation format because it's easier for him to understand mentally and emotionally. I think when he produces this “equation”, it's not due to the fact that the equation stipulates that his father will kill him, but that when Christopher feels fear, he constructs an equation to justify his fear. Without an equation, he wouldn’t be able to comprehend the terror he feels towards his dad. With the equations he creates, it puts his emotions in a structured, logical format that for him is easy to grasp and follow. These equations are essential to his daily life and serve as a regular escape to a calm place for him. It's very odd how he solves these equations and forgets he creates them; in a way, it’s like he's rejecting his own …show more content…
As seen throughout the text, Christopher has seemed to have a better emotional connection to animals than to humans. Therefore, when Ed killed Wellington, it really hurt Christopher immensely, because that was one of the only forms of a connection Christopher had with anything. For instance, “Also, dogs are faithful and they do not tell lies because they cannot talk” (Haddon 4). Throughout the text, Christopher expresses his liking for animals. One reason being that they are faithful, and never tell lies. Another being that they are easy to figure out and aren’t complicated. So when Ed killed Wellington, it destroyed Christopher. When Christopher finds out that his mother isn’t actually dead, he doesn't seem as dejected as he is when he finds out Wellington is dead. In a sense, Wellington seems symbolically connected to Christopher’s mom. When Wellington dies, his mom, in a way, is revived. Haddon connects these two characters to show how Christopher replaced his mother with Wellington. Christopher did this to cope with the fact that his mother had “died”. Christopher ties Wellington with his mother because he's unable to convey his emotions about his mom. So instead of dealing with the loss of his mother, he basically pretends it didn't happen and puts his thoughts and emotions towards the