The Curious Incident
JOINT ESSAY CONSTRUCTION
INTRODUCTION: Mark Haddon’s novel, ‘The curious incident of the dog in the night-time’ (‘TCIDN’) contains many distinctive ideas that engage a reader. This unusual novel details the story of an autistic English boy who is isolated because he is socially challenged due to his condition. The author, although not autistic, masterfully capture what life is like from the point of view of an autistic sufferer who decides to write a mystery novel around the death of a dog. Ironically, in the end, the audience perceives the real mystery that surrounds Christopher’s life.
One of the most distinctive elements of this novel is that it is written from the perspective of an autistic person. This unique feature, allows the reader to gain an in-depth understanding of what it’s like to live with autism. Christopher John Francis Boone is a savant, meaning he has enhanced mental abilities such as photographic memory and can figure out “every prime number up to 7507.” Although he is talented in one area, he suffers a lot because he cannot interpret human emotions. His teacher Siobhan must explicitly tell him what different faces mean. The use of graphics of different faces on pp.2-3 indicates that Chris needs concrete example to recognise non-verbal communication. Things as simple as eating, going to school, catching a train are challenging for Christopher; he uses listing to show the 18 behavioural problems he has, ranging from “not liking being touched” to “hating France.” He has fixations about certain colours which he describes in an extremely structured way for example “6. Sweetcorn (because it come out in your poo...).” All these elements are just some of the challenges he experiences as an autistic person. It is clear that this unique insight is due to the distinctive narration of this novel.
Paragraph 2 - Another one of the distinctive elements of this novel is that the narrator’s purpose is to discover who killed a dog. Whilst most murder
INTRODUCTION: Mark Haddon’s novel, ‘The curious incident of the dog in the night-time’ (‘TCIDN’) contains many distinctive ideas that engage a reader. This unusual novel details the story of an autistic English boy who is isolated because he is socially challenged due to his condition. The author, although not autistic, masterfully capture what life is like from the point of view of an autistic sufferer who decides to write a mystery novel around the death of a dog. Ironically, in the end, the audience perceives the real mystery that surrounds Christopher’s life.
One of the most distinctive elements of this novel is that it is written from the perspective of an autistic person. This unique feature, allows the reader to gain an in-depth understanding of what it’s like to live with autism. Christopher John Francis Boone is a savant, meaning he has enhanced mental abilities such as photographic memory and can figure out “every prime number up to 7507.” Although he is talented in one area, he suffers a lot because he cannot interpret human emotions. His teacher Siobhan must explicitly tell him what different faces mean. The use of graphics of different faces on pp.2-3 indicates that Chris needs concrete example to recognise non-verbal communication. Things as simple as eating, going to school, catching a train are challenging for Christopher; he uses listing to show the 18 behavioural problems he has, ranging from “not liking being touched” to “hating France.” He has fixations about certain colours which he describes in an extremely structured way for example “6. Sweetcorn (because it come out in your poo...).” All these elements are just some of the challenges he experiences as an autistic person. It is clear that this unique insight is due to the distinctive narration of this novel.
Paragraph 2 - Another one of the distinctive elements of this novel is that the narrator’s purpose is to discover who killed a dog. Whilst most murder