The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night Essay
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night- Time as a Postmodern Novel
The promising and celebrated British Writer, Mark Haddon’s mystery narrative, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night- Time explores the story of a 15 year old boy who manages to scrutinize the murder of his neighbour’s dog. What is special and particular about the book is that it features the first-person standpoint of the hero who has a social disability. The hero, Christopher appears as an autistic individual who lacks central coherence and executive function that impairs the individual’s ability to develop a structured narrative. Autism is defined as “markedly abnormal or impaired development in social interaction and communication and a markedly restricted repertoire of activity and interests” (American Psychiatric Association 70). The novel definitely establishes the influence of postmodernism through …show more content…
The power of mathematics and reasoning is evident in the text. Christopher displays astonishing abilities in mathematics and memory skills. He shows significant intelligence beyond his age and incredible memory in processing information. Christopher can clearly say all the countries of the world with their capital cities and also knows prime numbers up to 7,057. But his vulnerability makes him uncommunicative, rigid, and logical. He is a convoluted fellow who takes the literal meaning of things and he frustrates people most of the times with his bizarre behaviour. Haddon carefully designs him to be an attractive narrator. The keenness persuades Christopher to discover the mystery behind the dog’s death. He is a keen observer of things just like his hero, Sherlock Holmes. There is a tendency to give more significance to trivial things in postmodern fiction. The petty things thus receive diverse hues. His detailed analysis of the dead Wellington clearly points out this. Suellen Alfred and Linda Null
The promising and celebrated British Writer, Mark Haddon’s mystery narrative, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night- Time explores the story of a 15 year old boy who manages to scrutinize the murder of his neighbour’s dog. What is special and particular about the book is that it features the first-person standpoint of the hero who has a social disability. The hero, Christopher appears as an autistic individual who lacks central coherence and executive function that impairs the individual’s ability to develop a structured narrative. Autism is defined as “markedly abnormal or impaired development in social interaction and communication and a markedly restricted repertoire of activity and interests” (American Psychiatric Association 70). The novel definitely establishes the influence of postmodernism through …show more content…
The power of mathematics and reasoning is evident in the text. Christopher displays astonishing abilities in mathematics and memory skills. He shows significant intelligence beyond his age and incredible memory in processing information. Christopher can clearly say all the countries of the world with their capital cities and also knows prime numbers up to 7,057. But his vulnerability makes him uncommunicative, rigid, and logical. He is a convoluted fellow who takes the literal meaning of things and he frustrates people most of the times with his bizarre behaviour. Haddon carefully designs him to be an attractive narrator. The keenness persuades Christopher to discover the mystery behind the dog’s death. He is a keen observer of things just like his hero, Sherlock Holmes. There is a tendency to give more significance to trivial things in postmodern fiction. The petty things thus receive diverse hues. His detailed analysis of the dead Wellington clearly points out this. Suellen Alfred and Linda Null