the curious incident essay

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Essays on The Curious Incident of The Dog in The Nighttime

Prompt examples for "the curious incident of the dog in the night-time" essays, character analysis: christopher boone.

Analyze the character of Christopher Boone, considering his unique perspective as a neurodivergent protagonist and his journey of self-discovery.

Family Dynamics and Relationships

Discuss the portrayal of family dynamics and relationships in the novel, particularly Christopher's relationship with his parents and their impact on his life.

The Mystery of the Dog's Death

Examine the central mystery of the novel, which revolves around the death of Wellington the dog, and how it drives the plot and Christopher's investigation.

Christopher's Perspective and Narrative Style

Discuss the narrative style of the novel, which is presented from Christopher's perspective, and how it offers readers insight into his unique thought processes.

Themes of Truth and Honesty

Explore the themes of truth and honesty in the novel, considering Christopher's commitment to honesty and how it shapes his interactions and decisions.

Mathematics and Logic as Coping Mechanisms

Analyze Christopher's affinity for mathematics and logical thinking, and how he uses these skills as coping mechanisms to navigate the world.

Sensory Overload and Sensory Experiences

Discuss the sensory experiences of the protagonist, including his sensitivity to stimuli and how these sensory elements are portrayed in the novel.

The Impact of Christopher's Condition on Others

Examine how Christopher's condition affects the people around him, including his family, teachers, and neighbors, and how they adapt to his needs.

Christopher's Journey of Independence

Explore Christopher's journey of independence and self-discovery as he embarks on a solo adventure to find his mother.

The Unconventional Hero's Journey

Discuss how Christopher's quest to solve the mystery of the dog's death and find his mother aligns with or diverges from traditional hero's journey narratives.

Characterization in The Curious Incident of The Dog in The Nighttime

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Representation of Asperger's Syndrome in The Curious Incident of The Dog in The Nighttime

Christopher's journey in the curious incident of the dog in the night-time, the reality of comprehension in curious incident of the dog in the nighttime, perspective of christopher's ability and disability, let us write you an essay from scratch.

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1. Kuppers, P. (2008). Dancing autism: The curious incident of the dog in the nighttime and Bedlam. Text and Performance Quarterly, 28(1-2), 192-205. (https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10462930701754465) 2. Rose, I. (2008). What can we do with The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time? Popular fiction and representations of disability. Popular Narrative Media, 1(1), 43-59. (https://go.gale.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CA243454189&sid=googleScholar&v=2.1&it=r&linkaccess=abs&issn=17543819&p=AONE&sw=w&userGroupName=anon%7E792addc3) 3. Fargher, C. (2015). The curious incident of the dog in the night-time. Australasian Drama Studies, (67), 195. (https://www.proquest.com/openview/486c0cfe66821a5867f03e5ac593b3f3/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=45345) 4. Hughes, T., & Harding, K. (2014). The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time. (https://pn.bmj.com/content/14/6/451.short) 5. Anderssen, S. S. (2021). The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon, a Canonical Representation with an Entry to In-Depth Learning in the Norwegian Classroom (Master's thesis, UiT Norges arktiske universitet). (https://munin.uit.no/handle/10037/22529) 6. Hladnik, M. (2011). School encounters with Mark Haddon's novel The Curious Incident of the Dog in the NightTime (2003). Journal for Foreign Languages, 3(1-2), 77-96. (https://journals.uni-lj.si/Vestnik/article/view/3436) 7. Savarese, R. J. (2014). I object: autism, empathy, and the trope of personification. In Rethinking empathy through literature (pp. 74-92). Routledge. (https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781315818603-8/object-ralph-james-savarese) 8. Clark, J. A. (2014). The Price of Growing Beyond Innocence: Examining the Literary Lineage of Mark Haddon’s The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time. (https://scholarworks.sfasu.edu/english_research_methods/2/)

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How to Analyse ‘The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time’ for HSC English

Are you studying The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time and in need of a thorough analysis? (Phew, that took a long time to type, we’re just going to call it The Curious Incident from now on, which you can do too in your essays after you have used the full name once!)

The Curious Incident is a fun read, but it can be really hard to analyse in depth. This article is going to give you everything you need to write a Band 6 essay on The Curious Incident!

You can also access a Band 6 sample paragraph and analysed examples by scrolling down.

Plus…before we get started, we should mention that our HSC English Tutors across the Hills District and wider Sydney know this text inside and out and can provide the personalised support you need! Closer to Western Sydney? We provide K-12 English support in Parramatta too! Get in touch!

Now, lets dive in!

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time Summary Characters in The Curious Incident Context of The Curious Incident Themes in The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time Connections to Module B Analysis of The Curious Incident

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time Summary

The Curious Incident begins as a murder mystery story about Christopher Boone, who finds his neighbour’s dog murdered. The story is told through Christopher’s unique voice which reveals to the audience that Christopher lives with autism spectrum disorder (ASD, although the term is never used in the book).

Christopher’s neurodiversity leads to various social misunderstandings which hinder his investigation, however, his sense of logic and deductive reasoning aid his discovery of truth.

Halfway through, when Christopher solves the murder, the novel transforms into a bildungsroman in which Christopher must learn to overcome his fears. The values that Christopher learns along the way show Christopher what he is capable of in the future.

Access ‘The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time’ Downloadable Sample Band 6 Paragraph and Analysed Examples!

Characters in the Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

Christopher John Francis Boone The protagonist and narrator of the novel, Christopher is a highly intelligent but socially awkward 15-year-old boy with ASD. He is passionate about mathematics and has a talent for solving complex problems, but struggles with everyday tasks and social interactions. Christopher’s obsessive nature and literal thinking make him a unique and fascinating character.

Ed Boone Christopher’s father, who works as a heating engineer. Ed is a caring and protective father, but he also struggles to understand Christopher’s unique needs and challenges. He is often frustrated by his son’s behaviour and struggles to connect with him emotionally.

Judy Boone Christopher’s mother, who left the family when Christopher was young. Christopher idolizes his mother and has many questions about why she left. Her absence has left a deep emotional impact on Christopher and his family.

Siobhan Christopher’s special needs teacher at school. Siobhan is patient and understanding, and helps Christopher navigate the complexities of social interactions and emotions.

Mrs. Shears Christopher’s neighbour and the owner of the dog that is killed at the beginning of the novel. Mrs. Shears is a kind woman who is initially suspicious of Christopher’s behaviour, but eventually becomes a friend and ally.

Roger Shears Mrs. Shears’ boyfriend, who Christopher suspects of killing the dog. Roger is a mysterious and unsettling figure, and his relationship with Mrs. Shears adds another layer of complexity to the story.

Toby Christopher’s pet rat, who he loves dearly and cares for meticulously. Toby is an important source of comfort and stability for Christopher throughout the novel.

Context of The Curious Incident

After completing university at Merton College, Oxford, Mark Haddon took a job as a caretaker working with patients who had multiple sclerosis and severe autism. This work helped him to understand autism and subsequently develop the character of Christopher.

In an interview with Powell’s Books , Haddon states, “autism wasn’t a term that was even used much at the time, and only in retrospect do I realize that some of the people I worked with had autism, although they had it much more seriously than Christopher does.”

When asked whether Christopher has autism, Mark Haddon famously said that he set out to write a novel about a boy who was a mathematician, not a boy who was autistic. Certainly, many of Christopher’s behaviours place him on the spectrum of autism disorders but because Haddon never explicitly labels him, we’re encouraged simply to accept Christopher as himself.

Haddon uses Christopher’s unique outlook in order to highlight key truths about the nature of the world. He states in the same interview:

For me, disability is a way of getting some extremity, some kind of very difficult situation, that throws an interesting light on people. But it’s also something that’s terribly, terribly ordinary. There are these extreme situations, but they’re happening somewhere in your street at this very moment. And that’s important to me, to find the extraordinary inside the ordinary.

Speaking of finding the extraordinary in the ordinary, it is significant that Haddon sets his novel in Swindon, a relatively modern town in Wiltshire. This town is famous for being boring, planned and soulless – equivalent to how some Australians see Canberra. You might like to also think about how Mark Haddon represents the extraordinary within this banal town.  

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time Themes

We’ve identified various themes below that can help spark some great ideas for your analysis of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time:

The extraordinary in the ordinary While The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, you would be aware that Christopher is not “ordinary”. Instead of stigmatising Christopher’s high-functioning autism, it is celebrated.

The importance of truth and trust Christopher is unable to lies, propelling the story to interesting plot points and realisations. His honest perspective makes him observe the world from the outside, making for funny incidents. Christopher writes “”sometimes people want to be stupid and they do not want to know the truth.”

Language Haddon critiques the form of the novel for being inaccessible, and essentially rewrites it in The Curious Incident ! This makes a humorous plot with funny dialogue, that is further abetted by Christopher’s deadpan and shameless character!

Difference, Tolerance and Love Humour aside, t he Curious Incident offers a brilliant critique to what we consider normal. We get to understand how illogical society’s orders and expectations, as well as the entire idea of “normal” is. As we read on, and begin to normalise Christopher’s point of view in our heads, we also embrace our quirks too.

Connections to Module B

Module B is all about making an interpretation of your text. This means that you should never just repeat the words of the question to create your thesis. It also means that your thesis should be unique and stand out.

It’s not enough to say, “Haddon’s novel is about difference.” Instead, you should choose a more interesting and specific thesis statement ! Consider focussing on a key idea such as truth or language, and make sure you’re always making an argument, rather than just talking about a theme!

Module B also asks you to understand how the characteristics of a text establish its distinctive qualities. Some distinctive qualities you might want to consider discussing include

• The murder mystery genre (and its subversion)
• The bildungsroman genre
• Christopher’s unique voice
• Structure, formatting, diagrams and images

How to Analyse The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time in 3 Steps

Analysis is the core building block of any essay. If you don’t know how to analyse well, it doesn’t matter how good your argument is, you won’t be able to achieve the top marks! In this section we will walk you through step-by-step doing incredible analysis!

In the analysis below, we are going to be discussing how Christopher’s voice reveals the absurdity of human communication.

Step 1: Choose your example

There are a few things to look for when you are choosing an example to analyse. Below are some questions you can ask yourself:

• Does the example include a technique?
• Does the technique show a relevant theme?
• Is there another example with a stronger technique?

Check out our list of quotes from The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time!

The paradoxical thing about choosing examples that the best example is not the example which states your idea the most clearly, but instead the example with a strong technique.

For example, if your paragraph is about the importance of love, and you find a quote which says “love is important”, that might seem like a good example, but you’re going to be left with nothing to actually analyse. You are better off choosing a quote which contains the same idea, but uses a metaphor or symbolism to express that idea.

That’s why we’ve chosen the quote below, referring to the diagram of facial expressions that Siobhan gives Christopher.

“I took it out when I didn’t understand what someone was saying.”

Step 2: Identify techniques

When trying to find a technique within your example, it’s not about finding the fanciest technique or just any old technique for that matter!

It’s about identifying a technique which will enable you to say something about your idea that’s interesting and can contribute to your argument and analysis.

That’s why we’ve chosen humour as a technique. The humour of the situation actually highlights to us as the audience the absurdity of human communication.

Step 3: Carry out your analysis 

There are two things to ask yourself when you are writing analysis

• Have I shown the effect of my technique and linked it to the idea?
• Have I progressed my argument in some way?

Good analysis involves using a technique to say something in addition to what the quote says.

Bad analysis is using a technique to restate what happened in the quote.

Bad analysis sounds something like this: “Therefore [technique] shows [your idea]”, without going into any real depth.

For the example above we have given the following analysis:

Haddon uses humour when Christopher says that he kept a piece of paper with the diagrams of faces in his pocket and “took it out when [he] didn’t understand what someone was saying.” We find this moment funny because a diagram could never accurately represent the intricacies of facial expression. The humour is therefore able to illuminate to us the deep complexities of how we communicate, revealing how difficult this communication would be to understand for those to whom it does not come naturally.

You should organise all of your analysis you do for each idea or argument into a TEE table, like the one below:

Need some help analysing other texts?

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The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time

By mark haddon, the curious incident of the dog in the night-time study guide.

Published in 2003, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time has won more than 17 literary awards, including the Whitbread Book of the Year Award, sold more than 10 million copies and grossed £14 million in 2004 alone.

Haddon admits that he began the novel wanting to find a 'gripping and vivid' image that would stick in the reader's head. It was only once he had thought of the image of the dog with a fork sticking out of it that the voice of the narrator came to him. Haddon explains that 'only after a few pages did I really start to ask, Who does the voice belong to? So Christopher came along, in fact, after the book had already got underway.' He describes how he cracked the puzzle of the novel by explaining that 'if Christopher were real he would find it very hard, if not impossible, to write a book. The one thing he cannot do is put himself in someone else's shoes, and the one thing you have to do if you write a book is put yourself in someone else's shoes. The reader's shoes...The answer I came up with is having him be a fan of Sherlock Holmes stories. That way, he doesn't have to put himself in the mind of a reader. He just has to say, I enjoy Sherlock Holmes stories and I'll try to do something similar to that.'

Haddon believes the book he had most in mind when he was writing The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time was Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice . In a note about the novel, Haddon explains that Jane Austen was writing about boring people with limited lives and that were she alive today, she would be writing about chartered accountants in Welwyn Garden city. In Pride and Prejudice she writes about their lives with such empathy that they seem interesting, in the kind of book that her characters would read - the romantic novel. In The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time that is what Haddon says he was trying to do: 'to take a life that seemed horribly constrained, to write about it in the kind of book that the hero would read - a murder mystery - and hopefully show that if you viewed this life with sufficient imagination it would seem infinite.'

Haddon explains that writing about disability thows light on things that might otherwise seem ordinary: 'It isn't entirely comfortable' he explains, but it show us 'how little separates us from those we turn away from in the street. It's about how badly we communicate with one another.'

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time Questions and Answers

The Question and Answer section for The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel.

why do you think Christopher‘s dad is having this kind of reaction? Why would he care so much? If Christopher was poking around and other businesses?

Reaction to what in particular? Where in the story are you referring to?

List the problems caused by Christopher's condition.

Christopher fixates on specific topics. Numbers would be an example.

Christopher is unable to empathize.

Social Skills

The ability to discern the feelings of others.

Did you find story funny? Why?

This is asking for your opinion rather than mine. I think there is humor in this but it is dark and ironic humor.

Study Guide for The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time study guide contains a biography of Mark Haddon, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

• About The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time
• The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time Summary
• Character List

Essays for The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time is the story of an autistic boy who tries to solve a murder mystery. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time essays are academic essays for citation. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon.

• Coming of Age in The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time
• The Mark of Isolation in Adolescence
• The Importance of the Father in The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time
• Realistic Infinitism in The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
• The Curious Relationship Between Facts and Truth in Mark Haddon's Novel

Lesson Plan for The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time

• About the Author
• Study Objectives
• Common Core Standards
• Introduction to The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time
• Relationship to Other Books
• Bringing in Technology
• Notes to the Teacher
• Related Links
• The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time Bibliography

Wikipedia Entries for The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time

• Introduction

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time Essay

• To find inspiration for your paper and overcome writer’s block
• As a source of information (ensure proper referencing)
• As a template for you assignment

Introduction

Haddon’s techniques, works cited.

In literature, many authors have well used writing techniques that capture the reader and create a desire within to read their work. With this, novel authors have used variety of writing skills varying from dramatic openings to use of fictional techniques to convey their ideas. Others have also used distinctively interesting characters at the center of their literature. However, mark Haddon, in his novel “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night- time”, uses distinctive techniques to make his work interesting and outstanding.

On top of the normal and expected techniques by most readers, he uses extraordinary ones capturing many readers in a distinctive way. This essay seeks to find out and explain the distinctive techniques used in the Haddon’s novel, which draw many readers into its world. It will also see the ways in which these techniques remain outstanding.

Mark Haddon can be termed as a well-gifted narrative author, with highly creative ways to capture readers into his work. He captures the reader from the beginning, makes him feel like he is playing part in the narrative, and finally leaves him delighted and encouraged to reread the narrative.

Haddon uses narrative in the first person is by itself a distinct technique that woos many readers (Mark). He puts the reader into the shoes of the narrator through the language he uses. On top of this, he uses a very distinct narrator who is a young boy of 15 years age who is autistic (Haddon 4).

Inasmuch as a novel is meant to entertain, Haddon opens the mind of the reader, insights and inform him about autistic children. He not only speaks about them but shows the reader how their brains work. He also uses the autistic person to portray this, which is very interesting and an outstanding technique. Information on autism is not familiar with many. The technique to mix entertainment with insights and information captures the reader to hold to the novel all through.

In the general view, he uses a child as the narrator of the story. He speaks through the mouth of this young boy, making the focus of the narrative change from Haddon to Christopher an autistic child. The voice of the child pulls the attention of the reader since it’s rare and appeals for more concern.

Inasmuch as many novels seek to portray the overcoming of a disability, Haddon uses an opposite technique (Mark). He uses a character with a disability and one who co-exists with it to the end. In other words, he uses a technique that makes the reader feel in a totally different world.

It separates the reader from the normal to the abnormal and unexpected. Everything that Christopher says has a lot of sense considering his condition. This reader’s effect receives an opposition from the people who surround Christopher who tend to ignore whatever he says (Haddon 110). This thus leads to drawing the reader to develop a curiosity that is maintained throughout the narrative.

He uses Asperger’s syndrome to support the point of using disability. This syndrome is basically a disorder representing disability. Haddon shows Christopher as one who has lost basic and important felling. He can only laugh and cry. This as a result interferes with the smooth relationship they had with his dad.

In addition he remains without a friend through the narrative. This therefore makes one feel emotional detachment of Christopher and tends to support his side, which always seems to lose throughout the narrative. On the other hand, Christopher’s condition touches on family relationships, which create an automatic attachment with the reader. Haddon therefore manages to carry the reader into the world of the novel and holds the reader to the end of the novel.

The title of the book (The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night- time) is enough to make the reader develop some curiosity. One would basically be carried by the fact it is a curious incident of a dog in the night time. Haddon does not use day time. The use of night time completely makes one have multiple guesses of what the incident would be.

In addition the use of dog and not a cow makes the reader have in mind million of incidents that a dog can be involved in at night. This lays a foundation from which many questions will be answered by reading the novel, thus capturing the reader’s curiosity into the world of the novel.

According to the pace of flow of events set at the beginning of the book, one would expect the murder mystery to be solved in the final pages. Haddon surprises the reader when such mystery is solved at an unexpected point. This gives time for the narrative to pick a higher pitch with raise in emotions and expands the restrictions of Christopher’s difficulty.

It is after the disclosure of mystery when more unexpected characters appear, offering more opposition to Christopher (Haddon 50). The reader hopes things get better for Christopher; they at this point get worse increasing the reader’s attention to the narrative.

Haddon also uses ‘detection’ theme to keep the reader parallel to the narrator thus holding the reader. The whole idea of the narrative is to detect the murder mystery. On the other hand the reader authentically tends to detect what Christopher will do, by reading his mind. Christopher all through believes something is wrong with the people surrounding him.

Haddon’s techniques remain outstanding to date since hardly are there authors using similar techniques. His techniques remain distinct. However, it is important to note that Haddon’s novel has not come to being through much research but through his experiences in life. It is more distinct when you write your own experience and no other people’s experience.

Mark Haddon story is distinct, moving and very entertaining and interesting. The techniques he uses in his work are rare and hardly found in other stories and narratives. No other author has shown such techniques as Haddon. The all work together to capture the reedier into the world the novel.

Moreover, even if not all, at least one of these techniques will make a reader desire to read the work. After beginning to read one gets tied into the narrative emotionally, thus feeling to hold throughout the narrative. Haddon avoids fulfilling the reader’s expectation through Christopher.

He makes sure that the reader plays part in the narrative. All these techniques empower each other thus drawing the reader into the novels world. More authors should endeavor to use such techniques since they not only capture many people, even those who are not avid readers, but also educate.

Haddon, Mark. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. London: Jonathan Cape, 2003. Print.

“Mark Haddon Interview.” DNA learning center . Cold Spring Habor Laboratory, n.d. Web.

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IvyPanda. (2018, June 21). The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-curious-incident-of-the-dog-in-the-night-time/

"The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time." IvyPanda , 21 June 2018, ivypanda.com/essays/the-curious-incident-of-the-dog-in-the-night-time/.

IvyPanda . (2018) 'The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time'. 21 June.

IvyPanda . 2018. "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time." June 21, 2018. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-curious-incident-of-the-dog-in-the-night-time/.

1. IvyPanda . "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time." June 21, 2018. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-curious-incident-of-the-dog-in-the-night-time/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time." June 21, 2018. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-curious-incident-of-the-dog-in-the-night-time/.

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The curious incident of the dog in the night-time by Mark Haddon:Text and analysis

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• NSW Board of studies : Mark Haddon This site includes past HSC exam papers, the subject syllabus and notes from the marking centre.

• Bloom's literature : Mark Haddon The biographic entry for Mark Haddon from the Encyclopedia of contemporary writers and their work. more... less... TAFE NSW username and password required
• Bloom's literature : The curious incident of the dog in the night-time An authoritative summary of the text from the Encyclopedia of contemporary writers and their work. more... less... TAFE NSW username and password required
• Spark notes : The curious incident of the dog in the night-time This site provides a usefully concise guide for the text with sections on characters, ideas, quotes, and a chapter by chapter summary.
• Wikipedia : The curious incident of the dog in the night-time A short summary of the text with sections on plot and the theme of social disability.
• The Guardian : Autistic differences (book review) A review of Mark Haddon's novel, The curious incident of the dog in the night-time with a focus on its examination of Asperger's Syndrome.
• Book review : The curious incident of the dog in the night-time : Review by Mark Sarvas The reviewer discussess Mark Haddon's text and notes the "unique difficulties centering his story around a character whose illness prevents him from any meaningful, emotional growth".
• Cambridge : HSC Standard English Sample response Annotated sample essays on The curious incident of the dog in the night-time.

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The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

Mark haddon.

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The novel opens with the young narrator, Christopher John Francis Boone , discovering his neighbor’s dog dead in her yard, murdered with a pitchfork. Mrs. Shears , the neighbor who owns the dog, calls the police. When they arrive, they overwhelm Christopher with their questions, and when a policeman touches him roughly, Christopher responds by hitting him. The policeman arrests him and brings him to the station. Christopher makes it clear to his reader that he experiences the world differently than other people, and doesn’t understand human interaction very well.

At the police station, Christopher is put in a cell. The police call his father, Ed , who arrives angry at the police, but not at Christopher. An inspector questions Christopher and gives him a caution, which means that he’ll receive a punishment if he gets into trouble again. On the drive home, Christopher decides that he’s going to figure out who killed the dog, Wellington . Ed gets angry and tells him not to pursue Wellington’s death. Later that night, Christopher finds his father crying in the kitchen.

The next day, Christopher’s teacher, Siobhan , has him write a story, so he begins to write the story that becomes the novel. Although his father has told him to stay out of other people’s business, Christopher decides to disobey because Ed’s instructions are too vague. That evening, he goes to Mrs. Shears’s house and asks if she knows who killed Wellington, but she shuts the door in his face. He snoops in her garden shed and sees a pitchfork that looks like the one that killed Wellington.

The following day, Christopher decides to interrogate the other neighbors on his street, even though he doesn’t like talking to strangers. The first few people he talks to don’t have any information for him and advise him to discontinue his investigation. Finally, he approaches Mrs. Alexander , an older woman with a dog. She engages him in conversation and offers him refreshments, but when she goes inside to get them, Christopher decides she might actually be calling the police, so he leaves. He then reasons that Mr. Shears should be his prime suspect in the murder, because he left his wife, so he probably hated Mrs. Shears and killed Wellington in revenge. When Christopher returns home, Ed is very angry with him for continuing to investigate Wellington’s death, and he makes Christopher promise to stop.

In chapters alternating with those that cover the central action, the reader learns more about Christopher. He struggles to understand other people, but he loves math and science and is very good at them, so he plans to take the Maths A level exam to qualify for university. Furthermore, he always tells the truth, and he has a photographic memory. He hates brown and yellow, but he enjoys Sherlock Holmes stories, and models his own detective work on that of Holmes. His parents used to argue a lot, often about him. His mother, Judy , died two years earlier of an unexpected heart attack. After her death, Mrs. Shears helped his father out a lot around the house.

A few days later, Christopher runs into Mrs. Alexander at the corner store. She engages him in conversation, and he begins to ask questions about Mr. Shears. Eventually, Mrs. Alexander realizes that Christopher has illusions about his mother, and tells him gently that his mother was having an affair with Mr. Shears.

Christopher writes everything down in his book. A few days later, he accidentally leaves the book lying around, and his father reads it. He gets terribly angry with Christopher for continuing to snoop around, and when he grabs Christopher’s arm, the two get into a physical fight. Ed ends by throwing the book into the trash. The next day, Ed takes Christopher to the zoo in apology.

After school on the following day, Christopher searches the yard and the house for the book, in case Ed decided to take it out of the trash. He finally finds it in his father’s room, where he also discovers a number of envelopes addressed to him. He takes an envelope just as Ed gets home from work. When he reads it in private, he discovers that the letter is from his mother, but it was postmarked eighteen months after his mother supposedly died. Christopher sees this as another mystery to solve.

A few days later, Christopher returns to Ed’s bedroom and finds forty-three more letters addressed to him. He begins to read them. They’re full of his mother reminiscing about Christopher’s childhood and giving him updates about her life in London. In one, she explains that she left because she felt like she couldn’t be a good mother to Christopher, and she was in love with Mr. Shears. After a while, Christopher gets sick and blacks out. When he wakes up, his father comes in and realizes what has happened. Ed cries and apologizes for lying to Christopher, saying that he didn’t know how to deal with Judy leaving. He gives Christopher a bath, but Christopher won’t speak or eat.

Ed has learned that lying only causes more pain in the long run, so he decides to be brutally honest. He admits that he was the one who killed Wellington, because he was angry with Mrs. Shears for not wanting a relationship with him. Christopher becomes terrified of his father, thinking that if he killed Wellington, he might attack Christopher, too. Christopher waits until late at night, then sneaks outside and hides behind the garden shed. The next morning, Ed looks for him but doesn’t find him.

That morning, Christopher seeks help from Mrs. Shears and Mrs. Alexander, but eventually decides that he has to go to London to live with his mother, because he’s no longer safe with Ed. He takes Ed’s bank card and his own pet rat, Toby , and walks to school to ask Siobhan how to get to the train station. When he sees his father’s van in the school parking lot, he instead gets directions from a stranger on the street. He gets lost on the way to the station, but eventually finds it by walking the streets in a spiral.

The train station is very overwhelming for Christopher, but he makes it to a table at a café, where he sits and does mental math to stay calm. A couple hours later, he looks up to find a policeman asking what he’s doing there. The policeman helps him get money with Ed’s bank card, and directs him to the ticket office. Christopher purchases a ticket and finds his way to the train.

Just before the train leaves, the policeman shows up on board, this time with orders to bring Christopher back to his father. Before he can do so, however, the train begins to move. The policeman arranges for a car to pick them up at the next station. Christopher has to go to the bathroom, and then he hides on a luggage rack, because small spaces make him feel safe from the crowds on the train. The policeman can’t find him and leaves the train.

The train stops in London, and Christopher gets off. He’s overwhelmed by the number of signs in the station, but he finds his way to the information desk and asks how to get to his mother’s address. He’s directed to the London Underground, or the tube. In the tube station, he observes other people to figure out how everything works. He makes it to the platform of the train he needs to take, but when the train actually comes, he’s terrified by the noise. He sits on a bench for hours in a panic as the trains continue to roar in and out of the tunnel.

When Christopher’s fear lessens, he discovers that Toby has escaped. He sees him by the rails, and climbs down. A train comes just as he catches the rat, and a man on the platform has to pull Christopher to safety.

Finally, Christopher boards a train and gets off at his mother’s stop. He buys a street atlas from a shop in the station to find his way to his mother’s flat. When he gets there, Judy and Mr. Shears are shocked to see him. Christopher reveals that Ed told him Judy was dead, and that he never received her letters, which greatly distresses her. That night, Ed shows up in pursuit of Christopher. Christopher refuses to talk to him, and Mr. Shears calls a policeman to escort Ed out of the flat.

Life in London is not ideal for Christopher. His mother tries to take him shopping for clothes, but he can’t deal with the crowds. There’s no yard, and he can’t see the stars . When he remembers that he’s supposed to take his Maths A level the next week, Judy tells him he’ll have to wait until the next year. Furthermore, it’s clear that Mr. Shears doesn’t want him around.

When tensions with Mr. Shears heighten, Judy takes his car and drives Christopher back to Ed’s house. Ed is angry with Judy, but allows them to stay in the house temporarily while he lives with a friend. Christopher doesn’t eat or sleep, because he’s upset about not being able to take his A level. At school the next day, Siobhan and the school principal ( Mrs. Gascoyne ) decide he should still be able to take the exam, so he takes the first portion that very afternoon. He struggles because he hasn’t slept and can’t think properly. Over the next two days, he takes the rest of the exam, and feels better about it.

Meanwhile, Ed tries to get Christopher to forgive him, but Christopher is still scared of him. Judy finds a house of her own. Christopher lives with her, but he doesn’t like the house. He goes to Ed’s house for short periods of time, but still refuses to speak to him. Finally, he allows Ed to talk to him for just five minutes. Ed tells him that they need to make it a joint project to repair their relationship, and as a gesture of goodwill, he gives Christopher a golden retriever puppy. The dog, Sandy , lives at Ed’s house, where Christopher takes care of it and begins to interact with his father again.

Christopher receives an A on his exam, and he begins to study for the next A level. He plans to bring Sandy to university and become a scientist. He feels confident about his future because of all the challenges he has overcome in going to London and solving Wellington’s murder.

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“Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time” Essay

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Resource Description

An engaging text will skillfully blend ideas, language features and form to generate a considered response. To what extent is this true of your prescribed text? Intro: Haddon exploits language features and form to the fullest in his unusual novel CI to explore the experience of difference and how the relationships which are affected by difference. Haddon invites his readers to consider how Christopher’s difference has on his relationships with his parents, Judy and Ed, and with the world around him. Christopher is on the autism spectrum (ASD), and as a result is unable to fully be understood by the adults in his life or by society, resulting in complex and challenging relationships. While the audience is sometimes surprised by the form of the novel and Haddon’s language choices, the novel remains powerful and successful in revealing the challenges of both Christopher and those who surround him.

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