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The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime Essay Example

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The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime Essay Example
In the Novel, The Curious Incident of The Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon, we are shown that the truth is not always accurate and that lies are sometimes necessary. Christopher Boone is a 15 year old who has Asperger’s Syndrome, which lies in the Autism Spectrum. Due to this condition Christopher does not understand emotion, metaphors – which he considers a lie – and knows all the prime numbers up to 7,507 as well as all the countries and cities of the world. Christopher’s life revolves around the truth and throughout the novel he is seen to grow and learn to cope with different things when dealing with lies. Most events in this novel are situated around a lie that has been told; nearly every character tells one and has to face the consequences.

‘I do not tell lies. Mother used to say this was because I was a good person.’ Christopher’s life is based on the facts and truths of life. He believes that he does not tell lies although we do witness him stretching the truth and telling white lies. ‘A white lie is not a lie at all. It is where you tell the truth but you do not tell all of the truth.’ Maths and Science (especially Space) are favourite things of Christopher’s mostly because they have answers either yes or no, and they are not untruths. As readers, the chapter numbers are a prime example of Christopher’s love for Maths. As mentioned, Christopher knows all the prime numbers up to 7,507 and the chapter numbers are number 2, 5, 7, 11, 13 up to 233. He also takes the A level Maths, and receives an A grade. This exam is usually taken by 18 year olds and is very rare to get an A. Christopher is a very bright young man, and aspires to become an Astronaut one day. ‘Lots of things are mysteries… It’s just that scientists haven’t found the answer yet.’ Christopher finds it hard to explain and understand metaphors and he needs to have a logical reason for everything, just as Scientists discover things to explain others, for example, electricity which

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