What Is The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Nighttime Essay

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Have you ever felt misunderstood? Have you ever felt isolated from the people around you? Have you ever wanted everyone to just leave you alone? In The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime, written by Mark Haddon, Christopher, the novel’s main protagonist, struggles with trying to relate to other people, has a hard time understanding why people question the way he acts, constantly feels isolated from the people around him, and dreams of being the only human being left on the planet. Christopher has a condition, an unstated form of autism that makes him think and speak differently then all the other characters in the book. What starts as a mystery novel quickly turns into a heart-wrenching story about Christopher’s desire to be understood and to have people that he can trust in his life, who also love him unconditionally. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime shows the reader that even though sometimes our minds work in ways that others cannot relate to, we all want to be understood, even by those who question us when we say what we say and think what we think.

When the story begins, Christopher finds his neighbor’s dog, Wellington, lying dead in …show more content…

Mark Haddon uses the dream to symbolize Christopher’s feelings of isolation and frustration.

Christopher explains that in his dream he “can go anywhere in the world and I know that no one is going to talk to me or touch me or ask me a question. But if I don’t want to go anywhere, I don’t have to, and I can stay at home and eat broccoli and oranges and licorice laces all the time, or I can play computer games for a whole week, or I can just sit in the corner of the room and rub a coin back and forward over the ripple shapes on the surface of the radiator. And I wouldn’t have to go to France.” (Chapter

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