The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

"The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night–Time" is a 2003 mystery novel written by a British writer by the name of Mark Haddon. With this novel Haddon was able to win three awards; one of which was the Whitbread Book Award for Best Novel and Book of the Year. Haddon writes the book in a first–person perspective, through the eyes of the protagonist Christopher John Francis Boone, a 15–year–old boy with behavioural difficulties. Throughout thenovel Haddon uses numerous techniques to present this special world of Christopher's to the reader enabling us to understand and see what he thinks and sees. To express this special world of Christopher's, Haddon uses techniques such as language and symbolism as well as graphics to provide the...show more content...

Characterisation is also used in the language of the novel, fitting the theme of Christopher transcribing his stories. One simple thing done to show this is how each chapter is represented as prime numbers, due to the fact Christopher is diverse and enjoys prime numbers. Another characteristic is how after every chapter resulting in the continuing of the story, another chapter follows containing memories, ideas, dreams and calculations. These 'extra' chapters may seem pointless to some but this represents the way Christopher thinks, it shows how his mind links experiences together. Haddon portrays symbolism in different forms throughout the novel. One form of this symbolism starts at the beginning of the novel and has effect near the whole way through; this takes form of a system which Christopher uses to determine what his day will be like. This system depends on the colour of the cars which he passes on his way to school. The way he decides is explained by Christopher in the lines, "... 4 red cares in a row made it a Good Day, and 3 red cars in a row made it a Quite Good Day, and 5 red cars in a row made it a Super Good Day, and why 4 yellow cars in a row made it a Black Day, which is a day I don't speak to anyone and sit on my own..." (p.37) . This system symbolises the order and structure which the character, Christopher needs in his daily life. However this system gets disrupted

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Ed Boone Loves Christopher Despite His Temper In the story "The curious incident of the dog in the night–time" Christopher and his father have a rocky relationship. However, despite his temper Mr.Boone still loves Christopher. This is proven in the story because, Mr.Boone always cater's to Christopher's needs, puts up with his mistakes, and always worries about him. Mr.Boone takes good care of Christopher and always cater's to his preferences. Christopher says "So he made me some sandwiches with white bread and tomatoes and lettuce and ham and strawberry jam for me to eat because I don't like eating food from places I don't know" (Haddon 85.) When Christopher and Mr.Boone went to the Zoo, Mr.Boone specifically packed food for Christopher...show more content...

You can also tell that Mr.Boone loves Christopher because, he puts up with him no matter what. When Christopher gets arrested for hitting the police officer Mr.Boone rushed to the station to get him and he demanded to see Christopher. "It was 1:12 a.m. when Father arrived at the police station. I did not see him until 1:28 a.m. but I knew he was there because I could hear him. He was shouting, "I want to see my son," and "Why the hell is he locked up?" and "Of course I'm bloody angry." Then I heard a policeman telling him to calm down." (16.) Even though Christopher is under arrest his father is still demanding to see him and is determined to prove that his son is innocent. Mr.Boone also told Christopher "just try and keep your nose out of other peoples business" (20), and Christopher did not obey him. Christopher still went out and continued to try and find out who killed Wellington. Mr.Boone found out that Christopher was not obeying him and got a little angry. He quickly calmed down and made Christopher promise that he would stop searching for who killed Wellington. Most parents have harsher consequences when their children disobey them. Lastly Mr.Boone puts up with Christopher because even when Christopher ran away he still tried to get him back and bought him a puppy. Mr. Boone did not get angry at Christopher for leaving, on the contrary he got him a present and tried to gain back his trust. Mr.Boone always puts up with Christopher no mater

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Christopher's Mindset Several individuals go through life either having a fixed mindset or growth mindset. A fixed mindset is when a person thinks they only have a certain amount of intelligent and cannot further themselves in their academics. Although, a growth mindset is when a person is motivated to increase their ability and is open minded to anything that is being taught, absorbing in the information. Carol Dweck's article, "Brainology: Transforming Students' Motivation to Learn" explains how intelligent the brain is and how a person can use it to their advantage. "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night–Time", written by Christopher John Francis Boone applies these

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Throughout the novel, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night–time by Mark Haddon, emotions are the most challenging problems of all for Christopher. However, beyond the drama of Christopher's crises involving feeling, or interaction with other people, we glimpse a more general idea – that dealing with people and feelings is difficult. Discuss in relation to the themes and characters of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night–time.

In Mark Haddon's contemporary novel, "The curious incident of the dog in the Night–Time", the protagonist, Christopher Boone, does seem completely unsuited to narrating a novel, as he takes on his authorial voice, thus demonstrating symptoms of his disability, 'Asperger's Syndrome.' This is a...show more content...

Through his lengthy account, the reader learns to empathize with him, as he knows no better as his syndrome prevents him from overcoming such minor phobias that 'normal' children overcome through puberty or socialization. However, what makes him a fascinating narrator is how he has learnt to deal with some of his phobias – as he also cannot bear loud noises, physical contact, strange people or unfamiliar places, he uses coping strategies such as 'groaning', 'screaming', 'hitting' fasting or even 'crawling' into small spaces. We see his distress at being grabbed by the policeman at the scene of Wellington the dog's death, which results in initiating one of his coping strategies, 'hitting'. Later we learn, Christopher attacks his father after his novel has been discovered. Overall, Christopher does convey to readers that his biggest underlying fear is of physical assault/illness, thus why he carries his 'Swiss Army Knife' and gets out the 'saw blade' when feeling scared. Christopher's phobias may suggest that he is unsuited to narrating a novel; however by including such accounts of how he deals with them single–handedly adds twists to the plot, as such sideline traits make the book readable apart from when he goes into excessive detail about mathematics and complex scientific explanations.

Christopher

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Literary analysis of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night–time

The novel, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night–Time, is a mystery novel for children written by the British author Mark Haddon in 2003. Despite the novel originally was written for adults, it also was popular among children too. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night–Time got positive reviews from critics worldwide after it got published in London and in New York. Thenovel also received several awards as Boeke Prize 2004, Whitebread Book of the Year 2003 and the Book TrustFiction Award.

The plot is mostly set in modern times Swindon where Christopher lives with his father, Ed Boone. Christopher is a special boy who hates meeting new people, he does not...show more content...

During the novel the protagonist is encouraged by his teacher to write down everything he experiences during the investigation and those writings is the novel itself. The protagonist, or the narrator, has mild autism which is known "as a complex developmental disability" where a person cannot empathize or has difficulty with non–verbal communication. Because the protagonist has autism, it makes the novel differ from others. The protagonist in this novel is Christopher John Francis Boone, who is a 15 year old boy with mild autism. Christopher is a dynamic character who develops during the novel. For example, he gets more self–confidence and he also gets more independent later in the novel. Christopher cannot empathise with other people, he does not understand irony, sarcasm or facial expressions, and he does not like psychical contact – which is clearly expressed in the following quote from the novel: He held up his right hand and spread his fingers out in a fan. I held up my left hand and spread my fingers out in a fan and we made our fingers and thumbs touch each other. We do this because sometimes Father wants to give me a hug, but I do not like hugging people, so we do this instead, and it means that he loves me. (Haddon, p.

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The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime is a novel written by Mark Haddon, an award winning English novelist. He was born on 26 September 1962, and majored English in his years of college. He is most well–known for writing the Curious Incident, which won three awards. Most of Haddon's work has been focused on Children's novels, in which he wrote and illustrated them.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime is a story through the perspective of a fifteen year old boy that suffers with the disorder, autism. The story begins with Christopher (the main character) discovering that his neighbor's dog was lying dead in their front lawn, presumably murdered by someone with a garden fork, which sparks a curiosity in him to try to find out who could have done it. Christopher faces many difficulties living in a world that has scarce amounts...show more content...

When Mark Haddon wrote the story, he wrote it in a peculiar way; a series of the plot and the main character's specific thoughts. This gives you a very unique view of how the main character is reacting to specific things in the story, and how his thoughts differ from someone that doesn't have a disorder. It also seems very self–evident that the author had extensive knowledge of the disorder due to the diversity of the thoughts that Christopher has. Mark Haddon has done an excellent job at creating a novel that exhibits powerful emotions on its readers that many other stories are unable to do, and generates a sense of empathy for those who are disordered. The story expressed how difficult it is for someone with such a hindrance to live up to what they wanted to be in life, yet are held back from doing so and it is inevitable. It also shows how inconsiderate people are when it comes to treating people with respect when you have no prior knowledge of the issues they are facing in

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night–Time is a mystery work of fiction by a British writer Mark Haddon, who was born on the 26th of September in Northampton, England in 1962, where he was brought up by an architect. Mark Haddon was educated at Uppingham School he then went on to his English Literature major at Oxford, Merton College. After completing his studies, he went to Scotland where he spent his time working with MENCAP which was an organisation that helped disabled people, this experience of looking after individuals who were diagnosed with autism and various sclerosis soon influenced him with his fictional writing. Having an interest in mental and physical health issues it encouraged Mark Haddon to start seeing the commonalities...show more content...

Some of the characteristics of those who have autism consist of repetitive thinking and compulsive attention in things like symbols, languages and numbers. The cause of autism is not yet known as of now, however, many people consider it a genetic disorder which takes place at birth.

Christopher Boone has one specific form of autism known as Asperger's syndrome, his disorder is reflected through his fascination with mathematics, detail, astronomy and colours; his thoughts on routine and violent hatred to interaction, even though it is not specified in the book. In 1943 Leo Kanner a psychiatrist published a paper surrounded around the research of 11 young patients that fit into a fine variety of diagnostic principles that he measured out to be autistic. During Kanner's career he has seen fewer than 150 cases that go with the description he came up with of the syndrome, he theorised that autism was very unsupported and rare. Autism turned out to be a foundation of embarrassment and several of those who were diagnosed were certified; in the 1970s everything started to change (Kennedy Krieger Institute and the Simons Foundation, n.d.). Hans Aspergerand Leo Kanner both used the word autism, in the 1940s when they were doing

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The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time written by Mark Haddon revolves around fifteen year old protagonist, Christopher Boone who has autism and tends to know more math skills than social skills, but still has a vast amount of neighbours supporting him. For instance, his mother passing away while Christopher was still young, left him alone with only his father Ed, meaning the family could use as all the support they could acquire. Although this tragedy does contributes to his father becoming close with Mrs. Shears, nearby resident living across from the Boone family who had just divorced her husband Roger Shears, and felt lonely as well. On the other hand, this teaches Christopher that he has both close neighbours and distant neighbours

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The curious incident of the dog in the night–time by Mark Haddon is about a very mysterious, logical and innocent autistic boy who stumbles upon his neighbors murdered dog, Wellington. As expected, his mind is intrigued about solving this current mystery, while writing a murder novel filled with all his clues and thoughts as well. Throughout his investigation Christopher not only has trouble with finding clues, but experiences the struggles with human emotions, family life, and the stigma revolved around his disorder. There are many themes provided in this brilliant novel, centered on the struggle of becoming independent, coping with loss, family redemption, the disorder of life, and most importantly subjectivity.

In this particular...show more content...

It's dark, cold and very mysterious. Christopher Boone is walking in his neighborhood and finds his neighbor's dog Wellington, dead in a front yard with a giant pitchfork sticking out of its body. Christopher with his playful mind wonders what possibly could have happened and realizes that this could be his chance to write his very own murder mystery.

Christopher then walks into Mrs. Shear's lawn to go and lay with Wellington because he has such a love for animals. Mrs. Shears walks out of her house in shock and screams at the sight she sees. This causes Mrs. Shears to call the police on him, forcing him to spend a couple of hours in jail. After the wait in the cell, his father comes to pick him up and strictly tells him to stop investigating the murder and tells him to stay out of peoples business. Christopher doesn't want to stop investigating so he instantly begins to think about all the ways he can manipulate his father's words and continue his detective work.

The next day, Christopher starts to ask around his neighborhood to see if anyone had witnessed the murder or had any clues that may help his investigation. He decides to pick his number one suspect as Mr. Shear's. His theory states, since Mr. Shears recently left Mrs. Shears, he may have the capability of murdering her dog to make her upset. However his detective work comes slowly to an end once again, when his father finds out he didn't listen to his words from the police station.

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Imagine being afraid to talk to anyone that you don't personally know, or needing a perfectly laid out schedule to feel structure in life. Those are some things that people with Asperger's can deal with daily. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night–Time was written by author Mark Haddon. The story is told by the perspective of the main character Christopher. Christopher is fifteen years old and lives with Asperger's, he struggles to make social connections and can't stand people touching him. When Christopher finds his neighbor's dog Wellington laying dead on the grass he wonders who killed the dog. Christopher learns that his father has lied to him and not being truthful like he promises Christopher. The father killed Wellington because he felt like the neighbor Mrs. Shears did not care about the two boys, only about the dog. Father also lied by telling Christopher that his mother was dead, when in reality she had an affair with Mr. Shears then moved to London. Christopher becomes afraid of his father and runs away to London to find his mother. It takes a long time for Christopher to begin to trust his father again but they slowly rebuild. Through all of this Christopher became a much more developed person and had a better understanding of the people around him. Christopher...show more content...

But if you are going to do detective work you have to be brave, so I had no choice."(35) Christopher wanted to find out who killed Wellington but in order to do that he would have to talk to other people. Since Christopher is not social with his neighbors they are strangers to him. He knew he had to find out who killed the dog and knew he had to overcome this boundary if he wanted to find answers. This relates back to Christopher wanting to figure stuff out on his own and being independent but being afraid at first. Even though he does talk to some neighbors the exchange between whoever he questions comes off as awkward and