Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night Analysis

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time

By: Mark Haddon In the book The curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time Christopher expresses his signs of autism in many ways, and this shows through how he interacts with people. He often has difficulty communicating with his father; he has trouble understanding police men and finds it hard to get along with his mother. Christopher Boone often has trouble relating to authority figures due to his unique way of thinking. In the beginning Christopher problem with people touching him get him into trouble. At first due to Christopher’s not liking to be touched he reacts in a way that got him in trouble with the police. “The police man took hold of my arm, I didn’t like him touching me and this is when I hit him”
(8). Because of the way Christopher thinks he hits the police man. Following this further the way Christopher thinks prevent his father from expressing himself. “He held up his right hand, I held up my left and spread my fingers out in a fan and we made our fingers and thumbs touch” (16). Christopher and his father have a special way of dealing with his symptom of people not touching him. Moreover Christopher’s problem with people touching him almost costs him his life. “I saw Toby in the lower bits where the rails were, then the man grabbed hold of my arm and pulled me and I screamed” (182-183). In this situation Christopher doesn’t understand that the man is trying to save him so he screams when being touched. As a result of this symptom Christopher faces some trouble with the law and his father due to his disability. Christopher also has difficulty understanding basic communication which makes it hard for him to relate to authority figures. When Christopher’s dad tells him that he killed wellington he gets confused. “I had to get out the house. Father had murdered wellington. That meant he could murder me” (122). Christopher jumps to extreme conclusions when his dad tells him about the dog he just knows wellington is dead and his dad did it. Furthermore Christopher doesn’t understand the police officer at the train station because he has trouble following & understanding him. “Let’s get ourselves a seat. Park yourself and no funny business” (160). Although the officer tells him he needs to stay in his seat but Christopher is worried the officer will try to take him home so he hides. In addition Christopher lacks the basic skills which makes it hard for him to understand his dad. “I don’t know what father means when he says stay out of other people’s business I do a lot of things with other people at school and in the shop” (29). Christopher doesn’t understand when people say certain things he needs them to say exactly what they mean. Therefore Christopher difficulty with basic communication causes him some trouble and misunderstanding with his father and the police man. Christopher also has trouble understanding emotion and facial expressions which makes it uneasy for him to fully understand.
Siobhan drew face expressions for Christopher so he could understand them better but it didn’t exactly help. “ I kept the piece of paper in my pocket and took it out when I didn’t understand what someone was saying, and then she laughed so I tore up the piece of paper and threw it away and Siobhan apologized” (3). Christopher didn’t understand why she was laughing at him so he got upset and tore the paper. Another example is Christopher doesn’t understand his mothers tone and keeps on nagging her about the exam. “I have to go to Swindon to take my A level math, Christopher not now I’m getting phone calls from your dad threatening to take me to court. I’m getting it in the getting it in the neck from roger. It’s not a good time” (205). When Christopher tells his mom that he needs to take his A level maths he doesn’t notice by the tone in her voice she’s getting very annoyed by him. In other words Christopher’s lack of understanding of emotion and facial expression makes it hard for him to communicate with others and others to communicate with
him. In all conclusions due to Christopher’s autism he cannot communicate with people as easy as everyone else which affect a lot of people in his life and anyone who interacts with him. Even though he has trouble relating to authority figures things start to work out for Christopher and after all his encounters during his journey by the end of the book Christopher has become more brave and slowly trusts his dad again.