The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Nighttime Analysis

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Recommended: Outline and Literary Analysis of the curious incident of the dog in the night-time

In Mark Haddon's The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime, Christopher Boone narrates his search for the person who killed his neighbor’s dog and how a complex web of lies concealed the truth about his mother’s supposed death. The entire story is told through Christopher’s point of view, as the story is written as own book. Christopher starts the novel in the front yard of his neighbor, Mrs. Shears, where the dead body of the dog, Wellington, lies. Mrs. Shears finds Christopher with the dog and calls the police, and after Christopher hits one of the police officers he spends a few hours in a jail cell. His father comes to pick him up and warns him to stop investigating the death of the dog. Christopher analyzes his father’s words and stacks them so that he is able to continue his investigation, and does so by asking questions to the people around his neighborhood about the background of Mrs. Shears, but not disobeying his father's exact words. Christopher talks to Mrs. Alexander, another one of his neighbors, and discovers that his mother had an affair with the ex-husband of Mrs. Shears. Christopher’s father finds the book in which Christopher has been writing his detective story and becomes angry and hides the book so that Christopher can no longer investigate. While searching for his book a few days later, Christopher discovers a series of letters sent by his mother after her supposed death. Christopher realizes that his mother is alive, and that the death had been fabricated by his father to keep Christopher away from his mother. Christopher’s father sees the letters and apologizes to Christopher. He also reveals that it was he who killed Wellington because Mrs. Shears did not feel the same way towards him as he did to ...

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... situation. In terms of the romantic relationship between Christopher's parents, Judy's supposed heart attack shows how she no longer loves her husband. Christopher's father may have used the excuse to show that their love “died” on a simpler basis for Christopher's sake. In the words of Foster, heart disease can also illustrate lack of determination; Judy felt overwhelmed by Christopher's condition and lost her determination to care for and live with him. The heart attack opens Judy's heart to love from another figure, and Mr. Shears becomes just this; this forgoes Judy’s love for Christopher, which is why she abandons Christopher and his father. Haddon uses this situation to show that Judy may have been an unfit mother for Christopher before she left, but by the time she is reunited with Christopher, her heart has “healed” and she is able to love Christopher again.

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