Lie Theme in The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

For centuries, philosophers and theologians have characterized lying as unethical (Levine & Schweitzer, 2014). Similarly, those who study ethics have disputed that honesty is essential to moral character and an important facet of an ethical demeanor. Despite that, sometimes lies can be considered more ethical than an honest statement. These are called prosocial lies and are intended to benefit others with minimal consequences (Lupoli, Jampol & Oveis, 2017). This type of lie is seen in The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, when the protagonist Christopher Boone grapples with the unveiling of many secrets, some of which readers argue should have stayed hidden. The plot expands throughout the novel and discloses details never thought to be relevant to Christopher’s story to begin with. As the truth is brought to light, Christopher has to adapt as best as possible while staying true to himself. Mark Haddon's The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time highlights the complexities of truth and exposed secrets, as Christopher Boone is forced to confront the reality that sometimes, the truth can hurt more than a lie.

The complications surrounding truth and the feelings that come with it make ignorance seem like bliss. This is explored further during Chapter 149 of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time when Christopher stumbled upon letters from his mother. It is then he discovered that she had not died when he was a child, but moved to London with Mr. Shears, the man she had an affair with. This revelation sparked a fight between Christopher and his father, who hid this from him, but also made him question why his mother didn’t want to keep him in her life. As someone with Aspergers who struggled to understand his and other’s emotions, the news of his father’s betrayal stirred up too many emotions and greatly overwhelmed Christopher. He was too shocked about the revelation to be truly happy that his mother was alive, and ultimately caused him more harm than believing she was dead. In this case, he would have benefited from not knowing about his mother at all.

Christopher discovered once again how painful the truth could be when he uncovered who killed Wellington in Chapter 167. His father, who felt guilty from lying about his wife’s death, decided to explain to Christopher how and why he killed Wellington. Christopher had been slaving over who committed the crime for weeks. He went door to door, investigated the crime scene, and even conducted an interview with a friendly neighbour. Hearing that his father was behind Wellington’s death the whole time sparked feelings of anxiety and betrayal. He quickly became afraid of his father and made the decision to run away to find his mother; a task that was far more dangerous for Christopher than many others as he struggled to connect with and understand other people. Morally, Christopher’s father was right to tell the truth about how he killed Wellington, but betrayal and trust are often consequences of the truth, and in the end, Christopher couldn’t handle the emotions that came with it. 

The last “truth” told to Christopher perhaps harmed him the most. After he spent a few days at his mother’s house, she spoke to him about how he wouldn’t be able to make it back to school in time for his A-Level maths test. Christopher put his blood, sweat, and tears into studying for that exam and being told that he would not be able to take it filled him with extreme anger, regret and anxiety. This news did him and his family more harm than good as Christopher started to act out and provided his mother more stress than she needed, as she was responsible for calming him down. When he returned home, he did, in fact, end up writing the exam, proving how pointless it was to tell Christopher something that might have happened rather than what would happen. The truth of people’s opinions are often hard to hear, and although in this case, his mother’s opinion was not reality, the truth was too complex to explain the situation properly to Christopher at the time and should have been left alone.

Mark Haddon's The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time highlights the complexities of truth and exposed secrets, as Christopher Boone is forced to confront the reality that sometimes, the truth can hurt more than a lie. The secrets exposed throughout the novel often did him more harm than good, filling Christopher with feelings of regret, anxiety, betrayal, and confusion. Lying, if done the right way, can help build connections and trust (Shortsleeve, 2018). It can help someone paint a better picture than the truth, or dodge an uncomfortable question (Hogenboom, 2017). In the examples provided, Christopher was happy with his life before learning the truth. Others may have found a certain peace knowing what was happening behind closed doors, but Christopher was not emotionally prepared enough for all the exposed secrets and would have benefited from staying in the dark. In his case, ignorance truly was bliss.