Category: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime

Composers create texts to reveal the varying degree of complex perspectives in order to immerse others into an unfamiliar world of experience and insights.

Within Mark Haddon’s novel ‘The Curious Incident of The Dog in The Night-Time’ (2003), accomplishes this aspect through the use of incorporating unique themes and ideas such as love honesty and trust, isolation and obsession.

Haddon’s first person narration of Christopher Boone exposes the way in which he feels about love, honesty and trust. The protagonist states the he wants the absolute truth and honesty, yet he deceives the people around him to get his way by telling “A white lie..” as it “…is not a lie at all.” “…the truth but you do not tell all of the truth…” .The denotation of him insisting on wanting pure honesty but contradicts himself as he does not want to return it shows how he cannot take lying seriously and depends on the people surrounding Christopher to work around him. In combination to this, Christopher’s mental condition makes it almost impossible for him to show empathy therefore his interpretation of “… loving someone is … telling them the truth..” highlights his deeper understanding of love and trust. It also additionally emphasisies the paradox of Christopher wanting utter complete truth and honesty yet not being able to provide it himself.

His irrational actions to maintain truth and honesty engulfs readers into a new and intricate world accomplished through perspective.

Furthermore, as it is highly challenging for Christopher to cope with social interactions unable to comprehend feelings and affection that civilisation desires, he simply finds being in complete isolation is more comforting rather than associating with society. This is seen when father came “…home in his van, I moved the bed up against the door so he couldn’t get in…”. This isolation foreshadows that he will continue to be lonely throughout this murder mystery journey.

Whenever Christopher is isolated he always seems to be a lot more happier and calmer, he enjoys being by himself as he doesn’t like being around people, doesn’t like being touched and finds it frightening to be around crowds. When he wants to relax he would “…get into the airing cupboard outside the bathroom and slide in beside the boiler and pull the door closed behind… and sit there and think for hours…” this would make him “…feel very calm.” The emotive language evokes Christopher’s feelings allowing readers to see his method of calming down is very different from others. As he pays great attention to detail of his surroundings more then we would ever, this suggests that by distancing himself from society allows him time to process information without the interruption of others.

Thus, the more isolated he is, the more connected he becomes to the world as time alone allows him to fully comprehend and understand the works of society. His favourite dream also contributes to how distinct and disrupted his minds thought process is. The dream consists of “…nearly everyone on the earth is dead…” this contrast between a utopic world but everyone is dead builds juxtaposition as he is comparing a fantasy to a morbid scene. proving that Christopher is enveloped by his own vision wanting to live this world alone rather than with people as it is viewed to be much easier that way. Haddon allows viewers to observe a different aspect through a highly challenging point of view where misinterpreting feelings and actions happen frequently therefore results in isolation as being the best option.

In the same vein, complexity of human behaviour in response to facing challenging experiences forces the individual to distract themselves by immersing into something that will distract/entertain oneself such as an obsession of a murder mystery. Mark Haddon grants readers an insight into a new experience and perspective of obsession as one of Christopher’s way of coping with his struggle of reality. He engulfs himself into solving the mystery of his neighbours dead dog.

While the protagonist is obsessed in detective work, he sets himself limitations as he is afraid of the colours yellow and brown, stranger’s and will collapse screaming if anyone gets too close to him. In spite of these restrictions he would go to the extent of rising above and beyond his comfort zone in order to solve the mystery, this arises from his obsession towards the case. It can be seen when Christopher first starts his detective work, he doesn’t like talking to people but “…if you are going to do detective work you have to be brave…”, he exceeds past his comfort zone in order to unravel this mystery due to his dedication and desire towards the case . These obsessions are a way to distract Christopher from reality but is detaching him too much as he is oblivious to the fact that his family is slowly disintegrating.

After all the chaos and tragedy, once Christopher and his mother are reunited she obviously feels very emotional. She knows that Christopher wont hug her so she asks Christopher, “…let me hold your hand. Just for once. Just for me. Will you? I won’t hold it hard,’ repetition of just for emphasises on how valuable holding Christopher’s hand is but, this situation pushes Christopher’s personal boundaries which leads to him declining her request. The use of truncated sentence is also seen in the dialogue building a sense of importance for the mother. This is especially important when considered alongside Boone’s decision of stepping out of his reassuring ground to solve a mystery but he wouldn’t do a simple hand gesture for his mother. This establishes that his obsession over the deceased dog overpowers his love for his mother. Haddon displays a representation of such a complex and intricate perspective through the use of themes and experiences such as obsession.

Ultimately, Mark Haddon the composer of ‘The Curious Incident of The Dog in The Night-time’ granting readers into a never before seen point of view in a fully detailed manner achieving the connection between protagonist to viewer. He successfully accomplishes offering the audience into a rare perspective through the use of various experiences, themes and morals.

‘The Curious Incident of The Dog in The Night-Time’ (2003), explores the world through the perception of a 15 year old Christopher Boone. Mark Haddon, the author, expresses Christopher’s struggle with human, society and many other complex things in life throughout the novel to expose awareness of autism. Haddon used various techniques to achieve his goals for the novel. The use of an inadequate narrator, symbolism, dialogue and love and fear. How Christopher views the world forms the structure and the language of the book and everything stems from that.

‘The Curious Incident of The Dog in The Night-Time’ is narrated from the first person, and it’s from a perspective of a 15 year old boy which has a developmental disorder, ‘Asperger’s Syndrome.’ The use of first person narrator is always interesting. The story is mainly told from Christopher’s point of view, the readers hear his thoughts and feelings through his book. There’s potential for that narrator’s comments to be unreliable, even in the case of Christopher who says he always speaks the truth. John Mullin, a senior lecturer in English at University College London wrote an article in ‘The Guardian’, called ‘Three Innocent Eyes’. He explain how Christopher’s more of an inadequate narrator rather than just being unreliable. The inadequate narrator is seem completely unreliable, yet entirely trustworthy. It is his reality, it’s not a reality that people would normally accept and will consider normal. But that is how Christopher sees the world, and that’s how the action is conveyed. The reader sees events from his perspective and he’s given insights into his thoughts and emotions. Christopher’s narration allows the readers to view his perception of the world and what they symbolise.

To further understand Christopher’s perspective, Haddon uses symbolism throughout the novel to show Christopher’s interpretations of interest and comfort. Christopher also likes to have bordering systems, even deciding whether or not he will have a good or bad day, depending on how many cars he sees and what colour they are. “In the bus on the way to school next morning we passed four red cars in a row, which meant that it was a good day, so I decided not to be sad about Wellington.” (pg 31) This allows the reader to further engage into the mind of Christopher and it gives him the opportunity to explain his valuable reasoning for his abnormal behaviour. which results in his fear of, and inability to understand the perplexing world of people’s emotions. The readers see that Christopher’s world is very different, the way he sees it and how people would perceive that world. Symbolism is used through dialogue to grasp a better understanding of Christopher’s disorder.

In Haddon’s novel, dialogue is a reflection of Christopher’s memory, any records of dialogue is very accurately recalled. Some of the characters speak in a very colloquial manner as befitting their lifestyle and educational standards. Whereas Christopher speaks with short, direct and simple sentences, as he is threatened by the uncertainties of the world. Haddon includes many examples of Christopher’s efforts to understand the world. For example, “I got Siobhan to draw lots of these faces and then write down next to them exactly what they meant” (pg 3). Christopher’s autism carries many burdens therefore it can be very challenging for him to communicate with others. He tries to understand human emotions but is unable to do so, the emotions and ambiguity contained in language challenge Christopher. Characters in the novel are also unable to communicate effectively causing misconception between each relationship. The use of dialogue highlights Christopher’s love and fear of the world.

The use of love and fear for the novel allows the reader to develop a deeper understanding of the condition of Christopher’s symptom. Love and fear through Christopher’s perspective is different. Due to his condition, Christopher likes set rules about what he and others are allowed to do. He like facts and subjects such as maths, science which had right and wrong answers. For example, “I had to get out of the house. Father had murdered Wellington. That meant he could murder me, because I couldn’t trust him, even though he had said. ‘Trust me’, because he had told a lie about a big thing.” (pg 152) This passage is about father admitting to Christopher that he had murdered Wellington. Even though his dad said “trust me,” Christopher does not like lying and especially the fact that his father had lied to him. He felt deceived and hoaxed dispatches represents love and fear because his father loves him but is scared that he may lose him after this. Love and fear are both explored throughout the novel, to expose Christopher’s perspective of the world.

In Mark Haddon’s contemporary novel ‘The Curious Incident of The Dog in The Night-Time’ successfully explore the awareness of the autism spectrum. Haddon has exposed the perspective of a child with ‘Asperger’s syndrome’ through characterisation. Haddon exemplifies through the use of an inadequate narrator, symbolism, dialogue and love and fear. The use of language in the story allows the reader to develop a deeper understanding of the conditions of autism illness.

The murder mystery novel, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time, is written by Mark Haddon. The story is narrated from the perspective of an Autistic (ASD) teenager, Christopher Boone. Haddon portrays ideas about difference through a variety of ways throughout the novel. The first way being from the unusual perspective of Christopher, as he fails to understand basic emotions and social interactions. The idea of difference is also conveyed through the several genres. Unlike a conventional story, several genres have been developed as the story begins from a typical ‘who dunnit’ murder mystery novel and then develops into a journey of discovery type novel. As well as this, Haddon cleverly places Cristopher at the forefront of the novel in order to manipulate the rubrics of a conventional story through his abnormal writing structure. Thus, difference is conveyed throughout the story through the unorthodox perspective of the Christopher, Haddon’s use of multiple genres as well as his unusual structure of writing.

Haddon conveys ideas about difference using the first-person perspective of the unconventional story-teller Christopher. Through the experiences and everyday settings encountered by Christopher, Haddon is able to convey multiple ideas of difference that exists between the world which he has created and normal society. This allows the readers to experience an insight on how those with ASD handle basic emotions and social interactions in comparison to society and the conventional narrator. The differences between Christopher and the typical narrator are show at the beginning of the text. As Christopher states that he could identify the emoticons happiness and sadness, but he was ‘unable to say what these (other emoticons) meant’. This demonstrates how Christopher is unable to understand basic social communication methods. Christopher’s differences are further illustrated, as he is unable to be in a public place, because too many strangers and noises cause sensory overload due to his ASD. This leads to him groaning loudly in order to ignore what’s going on around him. This is shown when Christopher goes to the train station. “There were too many people, I felt sick, I closed my eyes and started to groan really loudly.” This further displays his inability to process social interactions and his emotions. His differences are also highlighted with the way Christopher expresses his love and with his inability to comprehend body language. In order to express his love with his father, they spread their fingers out in a fan and let their ‘fingers and thumb touch each other’. This is to prevent sensory overload. This expression of love is unordinary and causes Christopher difficulties in understanding body language. These difficulties are illustrated near the end of the novel when Christopher threatens a stranger with a knife and the man backs away with his fingers spread out like ‘he wanted to say he loved me’. Both of these examples demonstrate difference through Christopher’s inability to interpret body language, and his unorthodox way of expressing love. Haddon use of the perspective of Christopher, causes the readers to experience the life of a child with ASD, who struggles with understanding basic social interactions as well as with expressing and understanding emotions. The purpose of this is to create empathy amongst the readers for those with ASD.

Haddon portrays interesting ideas regarding difference through his almost immediate differentiation of the novel’s structure from conventional novels. Haddon cleverly manipulates the structure of a conventional story as he changes the genre of the book. He shifts away from the genre of a murder mystery novel towards the genre, journey of discovery. The victim of the murder is quickly made known as Christopher states that ‘The dog is dead.” Haddon’s use of short and sharp sentences is used to create tension amongst the readers in order to place significance on the murder of the dog. Christopher is positioned at the front of the novel as the detective and uses jargon in order to solve the murder. His constant use of terms such as ‘murder weapon’ and ‘prime suspect’ in reference to the garden fork and Mr Shears, is placed to intensify the importance of solving the murder mystery for Christopher. This causes the tension to grow within the novel and leads to a climatic resolution. Through Christopher’s persistent investigations on the murder mystery, he discovers the identity of the murderer, which is made known in the middle of the novel. The murderer turns out to be his father, and in a confession his father states that he had fabricated the death of Christopher’s mother. Haddon’s unconventional way of placing the resolution in the middle of the text allows him to manipulate the typical novel as he is able to change genres. ‘It’s not safe at home, I need to find mum.’ This illustrates how Haddon capitalises on the act of betray committed by Christopher’s father to change the genre of the novel to a journey of discovery. Christopher is now set on a path of independence in order to find his mum who lives in London. This forces Christopher to leave his home town of Swindon to find his mum. He is faced with a plethora of challenges due to his ASD, which he needs to overcome in order to find his mum and independence. This enables Haddon to develop a different way of writing, unseen by those in the narrative organisation, through the use of changing genres.

Dr. Temple Grandin once said that; “the most interesting people you’ll find are ones that don’t fit into your average cardboard box. They’ll make what they need, they’ll make their own boxes.”

Mark Haddon’s, Curious incident of the dog in the nighttime explores prevalent topics among today’s teen society. A fictional story in essence, narrated by the protagonist; a fifteen-year-old boy with Autism spectrum disorder, who certainly doesn’t fit into any average box of any kind. The Curious incident novel provides insight into the mind of narrator Christopher Boone. Christopher is a relatively high-functioning atypical teenager despite his level of Autism. He does, as the story develops, learn to overcome social and emotional obstacles in order to be accepted. Christopher’s character has a photographic memory and a logical way of thinking, giving him the ability to understand and comprehend different ideas and topics regarding his interests, however, Christopher struggles with social cues; finding difficulty in understanding other human beings, emotions, behaviours and reasoning.

Haddon’s novel explores themes and subjects which are unfortunately prominent among the world in which we live and specifically relevant to teenagers, including topics such as divorce, abandonment and betrayal. The introduction of this novel to high-school students, allows teen audiences to hopefully develop an understanding of the life and mind of someone who lives with Autism, as well as reaching outside of the typical monotonous teenage romance, science fiction and apocalyptic fictional stories which are common themes in reading lists for young, adolescent minds.

The story begins when one night, Christopher comes across his neighbour’s dead dog, and is picked up by police where he is wrongly accused of killing the dog and is held at the police station until his father can pick him up. Later, Christopher decides to write a book about the uncovering who in fact killed the dog. This book becomes the Curious incident of the dog in the nighttime. Although Christopher’s father, Ed Boone, a single parent after the death of his mother, opposes this idea, Christopher continues to investigate. Along the way Christopher uncovers some unknown family secrets, where the story takes a turn.

“I like dogs. You always know what a dog is thinking. It has four moods. Happy, sad, cross and concentrating. Also, dogs are faithful, and they do not tell lies because they cannot talk.” This quote from the book shows how Christopher sees the simplicity of a dog’s life, as well as some of the struggles of which he needs to overcome in order to be socially accepted. The words; “You always know what a dog is thinking” portray how Christopher encounters many difficulties with reading peoples’ emotions. Through the study of this novel, students are able to sympathise with peers who may also be on the spectrum and may allow them the opportunity to respond more appropriately in the face of diversity to frustrations that come with interacting with someone with differences. This allows them to develop more tolerance and a broader perspective. However, Christopher is able to detect to some extent situations where he could be percieved as being ill-mannered. This is portrayed in this quote; “other children at my school are stupid. Except I’m not meant to call them stupid, even though this is what they are.”

The novel is written in a journal format, allowing the reader to engage with Christopher through what he writes. Haddon uses literary techniques, someone like Christopher may use. For example, in the way that the chapters are ordered in prime numbers, rather than from one, two and so on, allowing the reader to grasp an outlook on Christopher’s logical way of thinking. The novel is written through the perspective of Christopher and is an insight into exactly what he is thinking at any given time, it often alternates from topic to topic. In this ADD, ADHD and anxiety-stricken generation, typical students can empathise and likely relate to Christopher’s leaps of logic. Making it an ideal selection for schools. This is shown in the following quote. “I think I would make a very good astronaut. To be a good astronaut you have to be intelligent and I’m intelligent. You also have to understand how machines work and I’m good at understanding how machines work.” This is an instance where Christopher goes from discussing why he liked order to talking about being an astronaut.

Curious incident of the dog in the nighttime is a must read for anyone, who’s ever met anyone, who’s a little bit different. It’s appropriate for a wide-range of audiences from high-school students to adults. It delves into the mind of a not so ordinary fifteen-year-old boy who in a world of complexity, finds comfort in order. If it does anything at all for the young reader, it may make them think twice before treating someone like Christopher recklessly. It is an eye-opening novel, which will benefit young adolescent minds through the focus on issues surrounding today’s world, rather than creating a false reality.

Mark Haddon is an author that has won 3 awards in his lifetime from the book The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime. This book has many characters that develop throughout the book such as Christopher Boone, Ed Boone, Judy Boone, Mr. Roger Shears, Sioban. Christopher Boon although autistic, is extremely gifted in math and science. The story revolves around Christopher facing accusation of committing murder against his neighbors dog. Creating a twist in the narrative with Christophers father being the one who actually committed the crime, the readers see how the father tries to gain his sons trust back.Anyone who reads Haddon’s works will find it fun and engaging because the story lines he develops are very intriguing. Mark Haddon is a great author that includes essential elements such as theme, character development, conflict, and resolution and it is proven in these three works, “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime”, “Trees”, and “The River Car”.

Honesty is a key component that Mark Haddon uses throughout his writings. In the book “The Curious Incident of the Dog in The Nighttime”, Christopher’s dad told him that his mother had died from a heart attack, however the truth is that his mother had left them. Later in the story, when Christopher realizes the truth that his mom is still alive, it overwhelmed him and made him sick. This was a big part of the story because it completely changed Christophers outlook on everything and especially his father. His father returned home to see Christopher unwell and had to face his son who knew he had kept this secret from him. ‘Mother had not had a heart attack. Mother had not died. Mother had been alive all the time. And Father had lied about this” Haddon (page 157), Ed Boone had lost his sons trust from being dishonest. Christopher’s father didn’t want his son to feel hurt knowing the truth about his mother’s absence, therefore he felt that keeping him from truth was saving him. Distrust is a theme that many people may go through in today’s society. Mark Haddon creates this theme that his audience can relate to, whether the reader was the one who lied or was the one who was told the lie. A lesson can be learned from this story and from real life experiences how distrust can break bonds between people and the struggle to rebuild those relationships when trust is broken.

Another theme that Haddon uses in the book is Trust. It is obvious in the beginning of the story that Christopher has trust issues with strangers, and can only trust his friends. To illustrate, Christopher gets nervous being in a conversation with someone he doesn’t know very well so, he removes himself from the conversation he was having with a stranger, ‘I began to get nervous because I didn’t know her well enough to know whether she was telling the truth about getting orange squash and Battenberg cake….So I walked away’Haddon (Page ). There are several people who can empathize with Christopher because there are situations where people feel afraid or shy to open up to people that are strangers to us. Christopher having trust issues with people he doesn’t know and removing himself from the conversation is something that happens to many people in the world today. The author does a great job letting the theme communicate to his readers by relating to how they act, feel, interact, and think when put in a real-world situation. Trust is used throughout the story and this is just one of many examples.

Mark Haddon has many other incredible works that are worth reading. His poems and books are structured very well and have meaningful messages in them. The Poem “Trees” is a poem that has a deeper message to it and that message can be discovered once read multiple times. The main message of the poem is self-identity which is a key component to life, because if someone is struggling to find out who they are, it may cause one feel lost in the world. The setting of the poem begins in a graveyard and garden discussing how the trees although different from one another, do not take too much attention. Haddon uses the trees to symbolize people in the world and how they are all different from one another. “They stand in parks and graveyards and gardens, some of them are taller than department stores, yet they do not draw attention to themselves” (Mark Haddon, Trees) ,society today is filled with people who have either found out who they are, or are trying to fit in and find their purpose in life. The theme of the poem is self-identity and it is expressed deeply within the structure of the poem, starting with feeling of wonder and ending with a sense of identity. It is evident that Mark Haddon is able to reach his audience in a meaningful way by creating themes that they can relate to.

Character Development is a key element to have to create a more enjoyable book. The Curious Incident of the Dog in The Nighttime shows the development of the main character, Christopher Boone. As Christopher suffers from his autism it limits his ability to imagine what other people are feeling or thinking when they’re talking to him and he can’t tell a when someone speaks to him sarcastically. He knows that he is different from others and focuses on his strengths which is his talent for math and his great memory skills. Christopher gains confidence over time and learns how not listen to others like for example he began to disobey his father in order to be his own man. He plans on going through college and even living on his own which Is surprising because if you looked at him in the beginning of the story and seen what he was made of it’d shock you to think that he could do all this but it goes to show how much Christopher has developed overtime into someone new. At the end of the novel, Christopher reflects on everything he’s been through and believes that all the obstacles he faced has prepared him to move forward in life on his own.

Conflict and resolution are what makes a story great and Mark Haddon has that in his novel and poems in a way. There were many conflicts throughout the Curious Incident of The Dog in The Nighttime such as Ed Boone losing his sons trust, the neighbor’s dog dying, Christopher being too shy to socialize and many other problems but most of them were resolved. In his poem Trees, the conflict in the poem was not having a self-identity which may cause confusion with yourself and what you want in life. Going back to the resolution part of Mark Haddon’s novel, Christopher’s weakness of communicating with people he doesn’t know eventually became a strength of his. The neighbor’s dog dying was a big mystery in the beginning and Christopher was the one being accused of the murder but the one person he least expected to be the victim was his father, and that was the face his father Ed Boone was the murderer of the dog and Christopher began to lose some trust in his dad but wasn’t fully convinced his dad was untrustworthy until a key moment in the novel. Ed Boone had lied to his son about the mother of Christopher being dead and his son lost all his dads trust but eventually gave his dad a second chance at the end of the novel. Every conflict usually has a resolution which makes the reader feel better about the story but in some cases the resolution may be up to the reader to decide and that doesn’t sit well with lots of people but Haddon does a great job of adding those details in his works.

Many people may disagree with the fact that Mark Haddon added in the fact that Christopher Boone suffers from Autism. When dealing with a topic that people can be sensitive towards it’s important to incorporate it in the writing the right way or else people will heavily criticize the writing. Christopher Boones experiences in the story can be something a real person with autism can go through. Sarah Jaquette Ray is an author that has criticized Haddon’s novel in a good way. Sarah mentions in her article ‘Normalcy, Knowledge, and Nature in Mark Haddon’s The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time’ ,that Haddon’s choice of making the story be told from Christopher’s point of view helps the audience understand what he goes through on a regular basis. People may be confused about a disability meaning someone isn’t normal and according to Sarah that isn’t the case, “They are only different in degree, not kind. Disability is therefore an arbitrary social category and would perhaps be better understood in terms of a spectrum of abilities that are relative to environmental conditions.”, disability can’t make someone normal; because there is no definition of normal. Clair Allfree, a journalist has had good things to say on Haddon,” Haddon is someone who likes to constantly change tack; he is also an accomplished artist.” proving the fact that Mark Haddon is great with character development and changes throughout the course of a story. Mark Haddon does have people that are interested in his work and most have nothing but good things to say about him.

In conclusion Mark Haddon’s work speaks for itself, his most famous novel has gotten him some awards and his other works have sent messages to his readers. Mark Haddon knows how to target the right audience because most of his books can be read by younger and older people because of the way he structures his writings. Themes like honesty and trust are very common for anyone in todays society because at a certain point in everyones life honesty can make or break relationships and same goes for trust. Character development, structure, conflict and resolution are all key elements that Mark Haddon puts in his writings greatly. Novelist and Journalist have reviewed Haddon’s book ‘The Curious Incident of The Dog In The Nighttime” and they’ve mention Haddon’s use of character development and structure.