The Curious Incident

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Mark Haddon's The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time was a novel based off of the adolescent life of Christopher Boone. I like how the book began with Christopher explaining how he was aware that he was different from other teenagers his age for example how he knew all the countries of the world and the capital cities, but he had a hard time understanding the different expressions that people used on their faces “I got Siobhan to draw lots of these faces and then write down next to them exactly what they meant. I kept the piece of paper in my pocket when I didn’t understand what someone was saying.” This was something new that I learned because I  never knew that people on the autism spectrum did not know how to sympathize with others. I could not relate to this story at all I think that was one reason why I was not too intrigued by it however it did become interesting at certain points like when he finds out his mother never really passed and ended up meeting with her face to face. I do agree with Haddon's portrayal of adolescence when it comes to Christopher's characteristics and his antisocial feelings however even though people do grow up in broken homes I did not like the story plot how Christopher had to witness so many terrible things. For example, the killing of the dog “I pulled the fork out of the dog and lifted him into my arms and hugged him. He was leaking blood from the fork holes” and the way Christopher's father Ed spoke to him roughly and how he lied about his mother’s death. I have not read another story similar to this, the only things that correlate this book with others that I have read are the different relationships Christopher had with his parents like Aristotle did in Aristotle and Dante discover the secrets of the Universe.

Comments

  1. Ally DunlapSeptember 26, 2019 at 8:02 AM

    I also like how Haddon includes that Christopher knows and understands things that are logical, but he cannot read people's faces. I think Haddon does a great job of showing the audience what someone with autism may think/feel. In the book when Christopher did something or was reacting a certain way, Haddon explained Christopher's way of thinking and why his reactions made sense to him.

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