Fiona Su
May 20, 2014
2-1
In the <<The Curious Incident of the Dog In the Night-time>> written by Mark Haddon. Christopher Boone, the main character, has a mild form of autism. He can't be in large crowds, and he keeps a journal everyday so he can express himself. Christopher has two significant goals he wants to achieve. The first is to find out who killed Wellington, the neighbor's dog, whom Christopher cared for. The second one is to find his mother, whom he had always thought was dead. In order to find who murdered the dog and his mother, Christopher must do many things that terrify him. Therefore, he becomes a heroic character because he faces his fears to achieve his goals.
Christopher like dogs, Wellington, his neighbor Mrs. Shears' dog, has been killed. Christopher is sad, and because of his poor communication skills he causes the police and Mrs. Shears' to misunderstand that he is the murderer. This then makes him want to find more clues so he can know the real murderer. But the police and Mrs. Shears continue to terrify him: "If you don't go… I will call the police again." (P.31) Mrs. Shears says. Christopher tries to ask one of his other neighbors, Mrs. Alexander about the dog's death. Mrs. Alexander takes him to the park, but Christopher is afraid of parks because his autism makes him afraid of crowds. He is also afraid of people he doesn't know. Mrs. Alexander is a strange to him. Christopher expresses his thoughts:" I was nervous… but she was a stranger." (P.59). It's hard for Christopher to chat with others especially to strangers. He thinks it will bring danger. However, Christopher talks anyway. He tries to do things he is afraid to do and he goes to the place he is afraid to go to. He does all these things to get information about the dog's death. This shows us how brave and heroic he is. In the end, to his surprise, he learns the murderer is his father. From there, everything starts to change Christopher distrusts his