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

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

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time” is a novel written by Mark Haddon. The novel talks about a 15-year old year boy known as Christopher Boone, living in Modern England. Christopher’s parents had separated, and his father was raising him, and they lived in a middle-class neighborhood in Swindon. The audience is not sure of what is making Christopher not normal. However, the narrative surrounding Christopher’s disability is being shaped by Asperger’s Syndrome, which is a high functioning form of autism. Christopher discovered the dead body of a neighbor’s dog, Wellington. The dog died after being speared by a garden fork. Mrs. Shears, who was the dog’s owner, called the police, and Christopher became the primary suspect. The boy was arrested for hitting a police officer when the polices touched. He was arrested but released with a police caution.

When Christopher was released, he decided to investigate the dog’s death even though he had been warned to stay out of other people’s business by his father. Christopher recorded all his experiences in a book that he refers to as a “murder mystery novel.”  During the investigation, the boy met many people whom he had never encountered before, including the aged Mrs. Alexander, who tells Christopher that his mother was in an illegal relationship with Mr. Shears (Haddon, 2007). At the end of the novel, Christopher discovered that his mother was still alive as he believed that his mother was dead, he found that his father has killed the dog because of anger resulting from an argument with Mrs. Shears. Christopher completed his mathematics A-level with high grades, and the book ends with Christopher being hopeful about his future because he passed his A-level mathematics exams, he traveled to London alone and found his mother, he wrote a book about his adventures. He solved the mystery surrounding the death of a dog.

The author delivered his message that disability is a social construction through opinions and utilizing form to critique the central novel form: the novel was written based on Christopher’s perspective instead of the book being about Christopher. The story starts with Christopher writing an account, which is the novel itself, about finding the body of a neighbor’s dead dog. The dog had been speared using a garden folk. Christopher writes the book (he Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time) as classwork for his education teacher, Siobhan. Christopher being in a particular education class is the most persuasive evidence that he had a disability. However, disability studies’ perspective indicates that this evidence of Christopher’s disability is a reflection of how society views Christopher, and it is not the ontological truth (Ue, 2014). The boy’s disability is not specified in the novel, and even those who are supposed to understand his condition, such as Christopher’s teacher Siobhan does not know how to treat him. By never specifying Christopher’s disability, the author proposes a disability studies perspective, which is different from the outset: The medical definition of limitation does not influence Christopher’s experience of the world.

Haddon achieves this analysis of the medical model of disability by writing the novel through Christopher’s perspective, which focuses on the value of personal experience, as opposed to expert authority, in enabling us to know the truth. The analysis of the novel form further indicates the benefits of perspective for a disability studies evaluation. Writing about Christopher from a different point of view would have weakened the novel’s critique of a central ableist society. Normal is not an absolute, and it is a social belief that provides more information about an organization than an individual’s physical or mental qualities. Such a message opposes conservative wisdom, which maintains that there is one unbiassed way of understanding the world (Stephens, 2018). Therefore, some individuals perceive the world better than others. According to this perspective, persons with disabilities are disabled, indeed, because they do have access to this knowledge and truth. This group of people is measured against a full scale of aptitude, abilities, and potential. Therefore, they are being rendered abnormal. Individuals with disabilities are always being viewed as having less potential, capability, and intelligence. Even the definition of disability indicates that disabled people are a group of individuals who need unique accommodation to enable them to perform routine functions.

The theme of God, order, and stability are also addressed in the novel because Christopher tells us that individuals believe in God because the world is very complicated. They contemplate that anything unlikely such as a flying squirrel, could happen by chance. However, people should start thinking logically because and by thinking logically, human beings can only ask this question because they are already existing. Christopher’s sense of order and stability originates from understanding logic and science. He does not find comfort in believing that there is a higher power controlling our actions and the consequences of the activities. The boy’s sense of order is built by himself and not commanded by him. For example, if he notices many red cars in a row, he believes that it is going to be a good day. In chapter 47, Christopher explains that Mr. Jeavons, who is a psychologist at school, asked him why four red cars in a row indicate a good day. Three red cards in a row suggest quite a good day, and five red cars in a row suggest a super good day, and why four yellow cards in a row suggest a black day. A black day is a day in which Christopher always stays alone reading books, and he does not eat lunch or speak to anybody. The boy answered the psychologist by stating that he liked things to be in order. He also noted that some people feel happy when they came out of their houses in the morning and see the sun shining, and if the rain starts falling, they feel so sad yet in an office the whether does not influence the nature of the day. Christopher understands that there is a need for order in his life and recognizes that the order we select is comforting but not logical.

The theme of love and relationships is also addressed in the novel because Christopher cannot express his feelings of love and closeness in a particular way can feel isolating. Readers who do not understand Christopher well cannot believe that he was able to develop feelings of love in a way that many readers would understand. The boy taught the readers on the importance of reevaluating their definitions. Although Christopher did not like being hugged by his father, and he did not express any signs that he was missing his mother, the author created a world in which Christopher’s honesty about his feelings would touch the readers. He remembers that his mother smelt nice, which a specific memory that invokes the whole image of Christopher being so close to his mother, and he was always comforted by his mother’s familiar smell. Christopher’s father made a mistake of trying to protect his son from the truth by lying to him. May be felt that Christopher would feel neglected, and he decided to hide a piece of essential information from Christopher. When Christopher found his mother, he was not angry at his mother for leaving him (Fargher, 2015). This response shows that Christopher had better ways of expressing his love more individuals who always express their love in usual ways. Christopher makes readers reevaluate how they view relationships. Being that the traditional marital status was not successful, it indicates that many people do not deal with love and relationships in the right way.

Some of the styles used in the novel include the first-person point of view. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time is written from Christopher’s point of view. Christopher writes about his personal story, which involves the killing of the Wellington dog, and he soon becomes occupied by the mystery of his mother’s death. Christopher’s first-person point of view is trustworthy and detailed. May his autistic condition make many readers believe him as he claims that he cannot tell a lie. However, the large amount of straight-forward, relevant details that Christopher provides persuades the readers to believe his stories.

Prime numbers form the most apparent structural element of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time because the boy likes prime numbers, and he uses them to number the chapters instead of using fundamental numbers. The prime numbers in the novel also help readers to reflect on the mystery stories in the book. According to Christopher’s view, he recognizes prime numbers if the same as solving a mystery because they are what remains when all patterns are taken away. The two secrets that shape the story are the murder of Wellington and the secrete surrounding his mother’s “death.” As Christopher reorganizes the world so that he can move comfortably through it, he must focus on the events of every mystery so that he can solve them (Campbell, 2015). The novel follows Christopher’s steps systematically until the truth is revealed at the end of the book. In chapters that bring the disclosure of the fact, Christopher deviates by filling the subsequent sections with personal opinions on life, stars, God, and white lies.

Throughout the book, drawings, plans, maps, and other visuals in the novel demonstrate Christopher’s need to mentally and physically record the world and his actions within the world. The boys like timetables because they indicate when something is going to happen or should happen. Pictures and lists enable Christopher to recall how to forecast and address some situations and things. Christopher depends on numbers as a logical way of making sense in the world (Mussetta, 2014). When people, settings, and situations anger or confuse him, he tries to solve mathematical equations so that he can calm himself. Mathematics is the future of Christopher as he aims at passing his A-levels and joins a university where he will study either physics or mathematics and start depending on himself. Numbers help Christopher to monitor his behavioral problems, daily activities, and things that he likes or dislikes.

References

Campbell, D. (2015). The Curious Incident of the Dog that Did Bark in the Night-Time: What     Mischief Does Hedley Byrne v Heller Correct? The Law of Misstatements, 50.

Fargher, C. (2015). The curious incident of the dog in the night-time. Australasian Drama             Studies, (67), 195.

Haddon, M. (2007). The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time. National Geographic       Books.

Mussetta, M. (2014). Semiotic resources in the curious incident of the dog in the night-time:         The narrative power of the visual in multimodal fiction.

Stephens, S. (2018). The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time.

Ue, T. (2014). Adapting the Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time: A conversation with Simon Stephens. Journal of Adaptation in Film & Performance, 7(1), 113-120.