The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time by Mark Haddon

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It has become paramount that composers utilise various techniques in order to influence an individual’s perception of the world. As seen through the eyes of an Aspergers sufferer, Christopher Boone, Mark Haddon’s inventive novel entitle ‘The Curious incident of the Dog in the Night Time’, skilfully portrays how the decisions of significant characters and their relationships shape the overall message about the difficulties of living with a limiting social condition. This is challenged from the unique perspective of Christopher and explicitly seen through the relationship between the protagonist and both his parents. Haddon employs a myriad of techniques through the concepts of the conflicting nature of love, the desperation for a world of order and stability, and the value of truth. Along with the reoccurring allusions to mathematics and science in order to display the complexity of human interaction, as he skilfully depicts how both relationships attempt to deal with the issue in their day to day lives.

Narration has a profound, formative influence in conveying the complex nature of human communication. This in turn, effects the ways in which the reader responds to the text. In ‘The curious incident of the dog in the night time’ Christopher’s father Ed understands his sons inability to interpret human emotion and reasoning and thus, has developed alternate ways in which he can communicate with his son which are accepted by Christopher. This is evident in chapter 31 where Christopher describes “ He held up his right hand.. we made our fingers and thumbs touch each other. i do not like hugging people so we do this instead. It means he loves me”. Through the simple sentences used in the first person narration, the intricate nature o...

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...er 237 where Christopher recounts “Christopher, let me hold your hand. just for once. Just for me. Will you? And i said ‘i dont like people holding my hand.’. Through the implementation of truncated sentences, Judy’s yearning and longing for Christopher’s affection is exemplified. This enables the responder to acknowledge the highly emotional state in which she is in. The setting of Christopher and his mother being alone in the bathroom also aids to the emotional, intimate and highly sensitive nature of their conversation. Despite how affected Christopher may be in realising his mother is alive he is unable to recognise the plea in his mothers voice and fails to reciprocate the smallest morsel of physical affection towards her due to his desperation to keep things orderly and un-changing, therefore exposing the complicated nature of communication between the two.

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