Paper-of-Many-Parts: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon
by Alisha Cecil

Explanatory Paragraph

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time is a novel about Christopher Boone, an autistic child. The story starts when Christopher sets out to discover the truth behind the murder of a dog he felt quite close to. However, the story takes a sharp turn from the expected when he discovers a secret that turns his solid facts, such as his mother’s death, into lies. With everything familiar to him gone, he sets out to untangle the web of lies surrounding his mother and father. Along the way he shows courage and determination when faced with making it on his own in a world without his usual supervision and aid.

Character Descriptions

Christopher – logical, sheltered, unsociable, habitual

Father – enduring, calm, steadfast, caring

Mother – hot-tempered, lonely, fickle, distraught

Discussion/Essay Questions

1)       Do you think it would have been better for Christopher if he had never discovered that his mom was still alive? Why or why not?

2)       Christopher has a deep distrust of humans. How does this affect his relationships with people and some of the situations he was in?

3)       Christopher believes that everything can be solved with logic no matter what the situation. How could this influence how he handles everyday situations?

Key passage- p.198; Christopher explains his dream

“And when I was asleep I had one of my favorite dreams. Sometimes I have it during the day, but then it’s a day dream. But I often have it at night as well. And in the dream nearly everyone on the earth is dead, because they have caught a virus. But it’s not like a normal virus. It’s like a computer virus. And people catch it because of the meaning of something an infected person says and the meaning of what they do with their faces when they say it, which means that people can also get it from watching an infected person on television, which means that it spreads around the world really quickly.”

Explanation

Christopher does not like people because he can not understand emotions and can not tell what people are feeling through their facial expressions. This causes him to never look at people’s faces when he talks to them. In his dream where everyone dies by looking at an infected person’s face, it shows how much he detests human interaction. He just wants to be alone and this is how it was throughout the entire book. His parents even had to come up with a different way to show they loved him because he would not allow them to hug him. This defined him because he was an untouchable person who only used logic to solve his problems. This trait was a side effect of autism and the entire book is about him having autism and how he handles things because of it.

Recommendation

I would recommend The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time to other readers my age because it offered an insight into the autistic world that is not often explored in books. It made you look at and think about things in an altogether different perspective because Christopher could not decipher emotions by people’s faces like we do automatically. It was an interesting book and I think other people would enjoy reading this book also.