The curious incident of the dog in the night time by Mark Haddon is about a 15 year old boy with aspergers syndrome called Christopher Boone and his hunt to find the killer a dog but discovers more than just the killer’s identity. The book uses several themes and techniques to show his struggles with his condition and his limited view of the world around him. Christopher lives with his father because his mother died two years ago.
He discovers the dead body of Wellington the neighbor's dog speared by a garden fork. Mrs. Shears calls the police and Christopher comes under suspicion.When a policeman touches him he hits the policeman and is arrested then released with a caution.
He decides to investigate the dog's death despite his father's orders to stay out of other people's business. But he is limited by his fears and difficulties of understanding the world. Christopher records his experiences in the book like a diary. During his investigation Christopher meets the elderly Mrs. Alexander who tells Christopher that his mother had an affair with Mr. Shears.
Ed, his father, discovers the book and confiscates it from Christopher, after a fight between them.While searching for the book, Christopher uncovers a many letters which his mother wrote to him, dated after her death, which his father has hidden. He is shocked by his father lying about his mother's death that he vomits and groans for several hours until his father returns home. Ed realizes that Christopher has read the letters and cleans him up. He then confesses that he had lied about Judy's death and also that he who killed Wellington Christopher, having lost all trust in his father runs away. by his mother's address from the letters, he embarks on an adventurous trip to London, where his mother lives with Mr.
Shears.After a long and event-filled journey, evading policemen, and feeling ill from the overwhelmingly large amount of information from the trains and signs around him, he finally finds his way to his mother and Mr. Shears' home, and waits outside until they arrive. His mother, Judy, is delighted that Christopher has come to her; she cannot believe that Ed would tell Christopher that she was dead. Mr. Shears doesn't want Christopher living with them and never did.
Moreover, very soon after arriving, Christopher wants to return to Swindon in order to take his mathematics A-level.His mother leaves Mr. Shears, their relationship having broken down because of the conflict over Christopher. She then moves into a rented room in Swindon, and after an argument with Ed, agrees to let Ed meet Christopher for daily brief visits. However, at this stage, Christopher remains terrified of his father and makes repeated attempts to prevent him from talking. He hopes Ed will be imprisoned for killing Wellington.
The story ends with Ed getting Christopher a pet dog, which he names Sandy after her colour, because Toby, Christopher's pet rat, had died, and promising that he will rebuild trust with Christopher slowly, "no matter how long it takes".Christopher decides that he will take further A-level exams and attend university. Christopher is an interesting character as he is the narrator of the story so you can see how he understands the world so you also understand things more than he does he also has a photographic memory so every detail about his adventure is written down including his exact age (15 years 3 months and 5 days ) but even with his condition he is very intelligent but he doesn’t think he is because of his memory and the fact that he can remember all of the formulae ect as he is very good at math and physics and wants to become an astronaut.Mrs. Alexander is an elderly woman who knows about Christopher’s mother’s affair with Mr.
Shears and accidently tells him about it. She is a kind and trusting woman as after meeting Christopher for the 1st time she invites him in and offers him cake.One of the themes in the story is Christopher’s behavioral problems this makes the story much more interesting as there are not many books like this some of his behavioral problems are; not talking for a long time, not eating or drinking anything for a long time, not liking being touched, screaming when he is angry or confused, not liking being in small places with others, smashing things when he is angry or confused, groaning not liking yellow or brown things and refusing to touch them, refusing to use his tooth brush if anyone else has touched it not eating food if different types of food are touching each other, not noticing that other people are angry with him, not smiling, saying things that others consider rude, doing stupid things, hitting others, hating France and getting cross when someone has moved the furniture.These things made his parents really mad and they said things that he didn’t understand because he cannot understand metaphors like his mother said “you are going to drive me to an early grave. ” I think this must have hurt Christopher as he may have thought his mother’s death was partly his fault he never sais this but judging by the way he thinks I would believe it did.
Another theme is the family’s strained relationship because of Christopher as his condition may have resulted in his parents’ divorce and also his mother and Mr. Shears break up they are also strained because after his mothers affair his father began to blame Mrs. Shears and Christopher’s mother when she came back to swindon and kept Christopher with her and Christopher’s fear of Ed .The layout of the book itself even shows a view into Christopher’s mind as it has diagrams pictures and a appendix at the back of the book. I found this book an interesting and unusual book and would rate it as one of my favorite books due to its differences to most books it is very hard to explain why it is so addictive to read this book as its really is the most original book I have ever read. There will be a movie adaption which should also be interesting.
