The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time Literary Analysis Essay Example

In society many people find it hard to control and express their emotions, especially those who are neurodiverse. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (2003), written by author Mark Hadden is a mystery novel. The novel follows the story of a young man called Christopher Boone, who has Asperger’s syndrome and his father, Ed Boone. As Christopher finds a murdered dog near his street and embarks on a journey to find out who killed the dog named Wellington and attempts to write a novel himself about the mysterious murder. During Christopher’s investigation, he uncovers a mountain of secrets that will forever alter his perspective about his Father. Author Mark Haddon positions the audience to respond with shock, understanding, and empathy. To ideas that society isn’t made to deal with neurodivergent people, emotions can get the best of people and the truth always comes out. This is made clear through the use of characterisation, actions, character attitudes and dialogue.

Haddon constructs the text presented through the utilisation of attitudes, dialogue and actions to position the audience to respond in shock to the idea that society isn’t made to deal with neurodivergent people . Christopher is searching for the book that his father took in the after telling Christopher to stop looking into Wellington’s murder. As Christopher is looking, he comes across his father’s shirt box and finds the book, he then stumbles upon a handful of letters addressed to him. Opening the letters he finds out his mother isn’t dead she just left.  In letter two she writes, “I was not a very good mother, Christopher. Maybe if things had been different, maybe if you'd been different, I might have been better at it. But that's just the way things turned out.” This attitude from Judy is important as it shows how she feels about her son’s disability. She feels as though she is a failure of a mother, incapable of dealing with her own child’s differences. In addition, it shows that his mother most likely lacked the knowledge to deal with a neurodivergent child as they are not considered ‘common place’. Later, Ed discovers that Christopher had found the letters and now knows what happened with mother. Ed confesses, “I killed Wellington, Christopher,” scaring Christopher and prompting him to run away. Stuck and the train station, Christopher needs help. A policeman helps him until he gets told Christopher’s Father is looking for him, leading to a disagreement between the two and getting physical. The officer “…reached out to touch (him) again,” causing Christopher to scream. Frustrated, the police officer says, “Now listen, you little monkey. You can either do what I say, or I am going to have to make—” Through the actions and dialogue of the police officer, it’s clear he is forceful. When Christopher reacts by screaming, the officer is unable to comprehend his reasoning behind this. Instead of trying to work with Christopher, the officers first instinct is violence. It is in the, ignorance of the office that Haddon presents the idea that society isn’t made to deal with neurodivergent people. This positions the audience to feel shocked as there is still a stigma placed around being neurodiverse and the challenges that come with raising a neurodiverse child. 

Haddon constructs the text to position the audience to respond with a sense of understanding to the idea that emotions can get the best of people presented through the use of characterisation, actions, and dialogue. Christopher is still investigating the murder of Wellington and is now writing a book about it. Ed becomes furious with Christopher and confronts him, leading to a big argument between the two as it soon turns physical. Christopher expresses, “I don't like it when people grab me. And I don't like being surprised either. So, I hit him. But Father didn't let go, and he was shouting. And I hit him again.” In Ed’s actions. it is shown that emotions can sometimes get the best of people. As Ed had always been characterized as a loving and father who was never hot-tempered, and always had patience when it came to deal with his son. Ed’s emotions finally got the better of him, leading to him lashing out and grabbing Christopher. Ed was done with Christopher ignoring his rules so he snapped, acting with his emotions not logic. Later when Christopher finds the letters from his mother, talking about an argument, she had gotten in with Christopher over dinner he didn’t want.  In a moment of weakness Christopher, “…grabbed the chopping board, and you threw that,” Here the actions of the mother are similar to that her then husband. Unable to control her emotions she lashed out in anger. Even though, she knew it wasn’t right mother she expressed her frustration with Christopher by throwing the food. In the actions and dialogue Haddon presents the idea emotions can get the best of people. This positions the audience to respond with a sense of understanding as many know its very easy to lose their temper when it comes to children misbehaving.

Haddon constructs the audience to respond with empathy to the idea that the truth always comes out through the use of dialogue. Christopher finds a bunch of letters addressed to him hidden in his father’s shirt box while he is searching for his book. He then opens the letters and finds out that his mother didn’t die of a heart attack she had just moved away. This information makes Christopher sick, so when his father comes to check on him, he finds the letters on Christopher’s floor. Father then decided to confess to Christopher why he hid the letters “I did it for your good, Christopher. Honestly, I did. I never meant to lie. I just thought . . . I just thought it was better if you didn't know . . . that . . . that . . . I didn't mean to . . . I was going to show them to you when you were older.” The dialogue from Ed shows that he feels guilty and remorseful about hiding the letters from Christopher as he stumbles over his words. Ed thought that keeping the truth from Christopher was ok to protect him but never thought that this would be the way that Christopher would find out the truth. This leads to Ed talking to Christopher about why he hid the letters from him and decides to tell Christopher the truth from now on as he could see how much it affected Christopher to find out about his mother. This leads to the father confessing “I killed Wellington, Christopher.” Through the dialogue Ed, it is clear he is telling Christopher the truth about wellington so Christopher wouldn’t have to find out that truth on his own. Ed does this because he knows Christopher won’t see him the same if Christopher finds out another secret his father had hidden instead of his father just being honest with him. And that one of the big secrets he had kept from Christopher had been exposed Ed knew that it was only a matter of time before Christopher would find out about Wellington. In the dialogue from Ed the idea the truth comes out is presented. This positions the audience to respond with empathy as Ed was put in a hard position to the truth from Christopher to protect his son and to protect himself from the hurt of his wife leaving.

Author Mark Haddon uses dialogue and actions to present the idea’s that society isn’t made to deal with neurodivergent people, emotions can get the best of people and the truth always comes out. The use of dialogue and actions Mark Haddon encourages his audience to respond to these ideas presented and consider that it’s time for a change in the way the world sees neurodivergent people. To accept showing emotion is human and sometimes they can get the better of people. And the truth will always come out whether you want it or not and it’s best to tell the truth on your own terms. In this novel many important ideas are presented and can teach a valuable lesson about how society views those they see different such as neurodiverse people.