The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon

What does having a disability means to the individual as well as to the family. Do we have any "disabilities" which other people need to accommodate when they are with us?

We watched an Autism video clip

I have an excerpt below on literary techniques, but first, our thoughts! Christopher seems to have figured out the REAL rules of human relationships – you DON’T really tell the truth. We talked about how parents (and spouses) really have to support someone on the spectrum. Someone needs to love and guide them. Kids can internalize strategies and rules (be trained), but it takes a very understanding person to find the underlying ways autistic kids think. And, some parents, change their behaviors so automatically, that they may not know they are doing it. For example, they may cue polite respectful behavior more constantly or they may prepare food in particular ways. Christopher remembers his teacher’s words.

We talked about our own experiences with children who exhibit autistic/Asberger behaviors and whether schools have good supports (professional development, aides, people who know what they are doing). We also talked about dealing with the parents of those children, as well as being friends with people whose children exhibit symptoms. Some researchers predict 5 kids per class by 2010 will have spectrum behaviors, and if we’re lucky, we’ll have learned a lot more about how to help them. Ten years ago, we didn’t know as much as we know now, and keeping jobs and relationships was incredibly difficult for people with these symptoms, but now teachers know much more about the necessary “scripts.”

We wondered what the level of emotional connection with other people is for an autistic child. One example which was shared was about how a girl imagined index cards in her brains with facial expressions to help understand people’s reactions and figure out what is going on. She has a lot more now and we guessed she probably added and updated some by herself and some from other people telling her.

THE CURIOUS INCIDENT OF THE DOG IN THE NIGHT TIME
This novel won the 2003 Whitbread Book of the Year and the 2004 Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best First Book. Its title is a quotation of a remark made by the fictional detective Sherlock Holmes in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's 1893 short story, "Silver Blaze".

The story is written in the first-person narrative of Christopher Boone, a 15-year-old boy living in Swindon, Wiltshire in 1998, who has Asperger syndrome. Christopher John Francis Boone knows all the countries of the world and their capitals and every prime number up to 7,057. He relates well to animals but has no understanding of human emotions. He cannot stand to be touched. And he detests the color yellow This improbable story of Christopher's quest to investigate the suspicious death of a neighborhood dog makes for one of the most captivating, unusual, and widely heralded novels in recent years.

Christopher Boone goes to a school for students with special needs because he has a form of autism. Although it is never definitively stated within the story which autistic spectrum condition Christopher has, the summary on the book's inside cover states it to be Asperger syndrome. Christopher is a mathematical savant, has a photographic memory, and is extremely observant. However, he has difficulty understanding human behaviour, gestures and relationships. He dreams of being an astronaut and takes a deep interest in mathematics. He owns a pet rat named Toby, which he feeds with food pellets.

Christopher has many traits that set him apart from others because of his perception of life. He is unable to recognise and comprehend facial expressions besides 'happy' and 'sad' and also has difficulty in understanding metaphors. He likes lists and facts, has a fear of strangers and new places, and his favourite dream is one in which everyone except people similar to him dies. In addition, he is over-sensitive to information and stimuli. For this reason, he screams and reacts violently to people who touch him. However, he doesn't mind pressing his fingers against those of his parents' as a gesture of love. He curls up and groans to protect himself against overwhelming noise or information.

Christopher hates the colours yellow and brown, but loves red. This extends to adding red food dye to brown- or yellow-coloured food (and being unable to eat two different kinds of food that are touching), and also his belief that seeing three, four or five red cars in a row means it's a "quite good", "good", or "super good" day respectively, while four yellow cars signify a "black" day. Finally, he dislikes eating food from new places and the furniture being moved.

CHARACTERS
* Ed Boone: Christopher's father, who is a boiler maker. He lied to Christopher that Christopher's mother died of a heart attack. He is usually patient with Christopher.

* Judy Boone: Christopher's mother, who left Ed and Christopher for Mr Shears. She is short-tempered and this was a factor in her leaving the family.

* Siobhan: a staff member at Christopher's school, who understands Christopher well and encourages him to write his account.

* Roger Shears (Mr Shears): he lives near the Boones and has an affair with Judy, and the two run away together to live in London.

* Eileen Shears (Mrs Shears): a woman whose dog, Wellington, is killed by Ed. For a time after Judy leaves the family, Ed tries to assimilate her into the family.

* Mrs Alexander: one of Christopher's neighbours, who tells him about the affair between his mother and Mr Shears.

* Rhodri: one of Ed's colleagues

* Mrs Gascoyne: headteacher at Christopher's school who (reluctantly) allows Christopher to take A-level mathematics

* Reverend Peters: the invigilator for the A-level maths exam. He becomes involved in a discussion with Christopher regarding the existence of God.

* Mrs Peters: Christopher's art teacher


PLOT
Christopher discovers the dead body of Wellington, his neighbour's poodle, speared by a garden fork. Having been blamed for it (and later acquitted of the crime), he decides to investigate to clear his name. However, he is severely limited by his own fears and difficulties when interpreting the world around him. Throughout his adventures, Christopher records his experiences in the form of a book, entitled The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time.

During his investigation into Wellington's demise, Christopher meets people whom he has never before encountered (even though they live on the same street). He eventually discovers that Mr Shears, who used to inhabit the house opposite from his, had an affair with his mother, Judy. Christopher chronicles this and other discoveries in his book.

Ed, his father, discovers the book and confiscates it from Christopher, after a brief fight between them. In his search for the hidden book, Christopher uncovers a trove of letters to himself from his mother, dated after she allegedly died — which his father had also concealed. Christopher had been told by Ed that she died of a heart attack. Christopher concludes that she is still alive and that his father has lied to him. He is so thoroughly shocked by this fact that he is unable to move, curls up on the bed, vomits, and groans for several hours till his father returns home.

Ed realises that Christopher has read the letters and cleans Christopher up. He then confesses that he had indeed lied about Judy's death and also that it was he who killed Wellington, stating that it was a mistake due to his anger after a heated argument with Mrs Shears.

Christopher, having lost all trust in his father and fearing that he may also try to kill him, decides to escape from home and live with his mother. Guided by his mother's address from the letters, he embarks on an adventurous trip to London, where his mother lives with Mr Shears.

After a long and confusing journey, evading policemen who have been dispatched to find him (due to Ed, who called the police about his disappearance), and feeling ill due to the overwhelming information from the crowds and the signs in the trains, he finally finds his way to his mother and Mr Shears' home.

His mother is happy at his appearance and tries to keep him with her, despite the objections of both Mr Shears and Ed, the latter having tracked Christopher down with the aid of the police. His mother eventually leaves Mr Shears, their relationship apparently broken down because of the conflict over Christopher.

She then moves into a rented room in Swindon and, after an argument with Ed, agrees to let Ed meet with Christopher daily for a little while. However, at this stage, Christopher remains terrified of his father; he hopes Ed will be imprisoned for killing Wellington. The story ends with Ed promising that he will rebuild trust with Christopher slowly, "no matter how long it takes" in his daily brief sessions, and Christopher asserting that he will take further A-level exams and attend university. He had completed his first mathematics A-level with top grades, and just maybe he will eventually become an astronaut.

LITERARY TECHNIQUES
The book's autistic narrator, Christopher, is gifted at and focused on mathematics: this is reflected by his inclusion of several famous puzzles of maths and logic. The book's appendix is a reproduction of a question from Christopher's A-level examination, with annotated answers. The book also includes the unlikely incident of seeing four yellow cars in a row which is bad, an event which holds significance to the narrator, who has an aversion to the colour yellow.

Christopher's mathematical interests are reflected in his numbering his chapters strictly with prime numbers, ignoring composite numbers such as 4 and 6. So the first is Chapter 2, followed by 3, then 5, 7, 11, and so on. In addition, the contents in consecutive chapters alternate: Chapter 2 is about the unfolding story; Chapter 3 explores some aspects of the narrator's inner life not necessarily directly relevant to the immediate action; Chapter 5 returns to the narrative. This alternation continues throughout the book with the story often digressing into seeming unconnected subjects such as Christopher's atheism and the Cottingley Fairies.

Another technique used to emphasise the different perceptions of the world experienced by people with autism, is the switching of fonts and use of long, run-on sentences when describing the surroundings. Thus the book's overall structure as well as its content supports the literary device that what we are reading is a novel penned by the autistic narrator, Christopher, rather than the author. This general technique of fictional autobiography was exploited by Daniel Defoe in what is regarded as the first novel in English, Robinson Crusoe. But it really follows the Sherlock Holmes structure.

Christopher's narration is very precise and reliable with regard to objective facts but his view of the events of the story is often very different from what might be expected. For example, in one scene, Christopher is nearly killed by an oncoming train as he retrieves his pet rat, who has scampered onto the tracks of the London Underground. Through his narration, we see the scene unfold completely, but he himself remains unaware of the danger he is in, and of the closeness of his brush with death. This is also an example of dramatic irony, in which the reader understands more about a situation than the character does. Christopher also represents (what would not necessarily be obvious to all readers prior to reading the book) the fact that not every child will think in the same way — another thing that the book has been praised for. Nevertheless, some readers on the autistic spectrum have criticised it for giving an inaccurate portrayal of their identity.[1]

Discussion Questions from a website:

1. On pages 45–48, Christopher describes his "Behavioral Problems" and the effect they had on his parents and their marriage. What is the effect of the dispassionate style in which he relates this information?

2. Given Christopher's aversion to being touched, can he experience his parents' love for him, or can he only understand it as a fact, because they tell him they love him? Is there any evidence in the novel that he experiences a sense of attachment to other people?

3. One of the unusual aspects of the novel is its inclusion of many maps and diagrams. How effective are these in helping the reader see the world through Christopher's eyes?

4. What challenges does The Curious Incident present to the ways we usually think and talk about characters in novels? How does it force us to reexamine our normal ideas about love and desire, which are often the driving forces in fiction? Since Mark Haddon has chosen to make us see the world through Christopher's eyes, what does he help us discover about ourselves?

5. Christopher likes the idea of a world with no people in it [p. 2]; he contemplates the end of the world when the universe collapses [pp. 10–11]; he dreams of being an astronaut, alone in space [pp. 50–51], and that a virus has carried off everyone and the only people left are "special people like me" [pp. 198–200]. What do these passages say about his relationship to other human beings? What is striking about the way he describes these scenarios?

6. On pages 67–69, Christopher goes into the garden and contemplates the importance of description in the book he is writing. His teacher Siobhan told him "the idea of a book was to describe things using words so that people could read them and make a picture in their own head" [p. 67]. What is the effect of reading Christopher's extended description, which begins, "I decided to do a description of the garden" and ends "Then I went inside and fed Toby"? How does this passage relate to a quote Christopher likes from The Hound of the Baskervilles: "The world is full of obvious things which nobody by chance ever observes" [p. 73]?

7. According to neurologist Oliver Sacks, Hans Asperger, the doctor whose name is associated with the kind of autism that Christopher seems to have, notes that some autistic people have "a sort of intelligence scarcely touched by tradition and culture --- unconventional, unorthodox, strangely pure and original, akin to the intelligence of true creativity" [An Anthropologist on Mars by Oliver Sacks, NY: Vintage Books, 1995, pp. 252–53]. Does the novel's intensive look at Christopher's fascinating and often profound mental life suggest that in certain ways, the pity that well-meaning, "normal" people might feel for him is misdirected? Given his gifts, does his future look promising?

8. Christopher experiences the world quantitatively and logically. His teacher Mr. Jeavons tells him that he likes math because it's safe. But Christopher's explanation of the Monty Hall problem gives the reader more insight into why he likes math. Does Mr. Jeavons underestimate the complexity of Christopher's mind and his responses to intellectual stimulation? Does Siobhan understand Christopher better than Mr. Jeavons?

9. Think about what Christopher says about metaphors and lies and their relationship to novels [pp. 14–20]. Why is lying such an alien concept to him? In his antipathy to lies, Christopher decides not to write a novel, but a book in which "everything I have written . . . is true" [p. 20]. Why do "normal" human beings in the novel, like Christopher's parents, find lies so indispensable? Why is the idea of truth so central to Christopher's narration?

10. Which scenes are comical in this novel, and why are they funny? Are these same situations also sad, or exasperating?

11. Christopher's conversations with Siobhan, his teacher at school, are possibly his most meaningful communications with another person. What are these conversations like, and how do they compare with his conversations with his father and his mother?

12. One of the primary disadvantages of the autistic is that they can't project or intuit what other people might be feeling or thinking --- as illustrated in the scene where Christopher has to guess what his mother might think would be in the Smarties tube [pp. 115–16]. When does this deficit become most clear in the novel? Does Christopher seem to suffer from his mental and emotional isolation, or does he seem to enjoy it?

13. Christopher's parents, with their affairs, their arguments, and their passionate rages, are clearly in the grip of emotions they themselves can't fully understand or control. How, in juxtaposition to Christopher's incomprehension of the passions that drive other people, is his family situation particularly ironic?

14. On pages 83–84, Christopher explains why he doesn't like yellow and brown, and admits that such decisions are, in part, a way to simplify the world and make choices easier. Why does he need to make the world simpler? Which aspects of life does he find unbearably complicated or stressful?

15. What is the effect of reading the letters Christopher's mother wrote to him? Was his mother justified in leaving? Does Christopher comprehend her apology and her attempt to explain herself [pp. 106–10]? Does he have strong feelings about the loss of his mother? Which of his parents is better suited to taking care of him?

16. Christopher's father confesses to killing Wellington in a moment of rage at Mrs. Shears [pp. 121–22], and swears to Christopher that he won't lie to him ever again. Christopher thinks, "I had to get out of the house. Father had murdered Wellington. That meant he could murder me, because I couldn't trust him, even though he had said 'Trust me,' because he had told a lie about a big thing" [p. 122]. Why is Christopher's world shattered by this realization? Is it likely that he will ever learn to trust his father again?

17. How much empathy does the reader come to feel for Christopher? How much understanding does he have of his own emotions? What is the effect, for instance, of the scenes in which Christopher's mother doesn't act to make sure he can take his A-levels? Do these scenes show how little his mother understands Christopher's deepest needs?

18. Mark Haddon has said of The Curious Incident, "It's not just a book about disability. Obviously, on some level it is, but on another level . . . it's a book about books, about what you can do with words and what it means to communicate with someone in a book. Here's a character whom if you met him in real life you'd never, ever get inside his head. Yet something magical happens when you write a novel about him. You slip inside his head, and it seems like the most natural thing in the world" [http://www.powells.com/authors/haddon.html ]. Is a large part of the achievement of this novel precisely this --- that Haddon has created a door into a kind of mind his readers would not have access to in real life?

19. Christopher's journey to London underscores the difficulties he has being on his own, and the real disadvantages of his condition in terms of being in the world. What is most frightening, disturbing, or moving about this extended section of the novel [pp. 169–98]?

20. In his review of The Curious Incident, Jay McInerney suggests that at the novel's end "the gulf between Christopher and his parents, between Christopher and the rest of us, remains immense and mysterious. And that gulf is ultimately the source of this novel's haunting impact. Christopher Boone is an unsolved mystery" [The New York Times Book Review, 6/15/03, p. 5)]. Is this an accurate assessment? If so, why?