Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night
Time
THINGS TO ADD: THE NOVEL COVER, Christophers voice, Christopher as a narrator, Language:
humour, sentences, imagery, christophers world view
Themes
The nature of trust
Christopher builds his truth of others on logic. He sees truth as absolute.
The need for control/stability to function in the world
The novel revolves around Christopher whose life is surrounded by chaos and terror. This is evident
through the murder of Mrs Shear’s dog, the apparent death of his mother (which is later revealed to
be false) and the discovery of his parent’s affair. Christopher’s need for control and stability is
extremely important due to him having Asperges Symptom. To stay happy Christopher must achieve
control and stability, by thinking about math problems and approaching things from a logical point of
view. Any sudden change will put Christopher into a state of fear and vulnerability. Additionally, he
thinks of days as either a good day, quite good day, super good day or a black day based on what he
sees. This is one of the ways Christopher aims to gain control and stability in his world. The lack of
control and stability causes physical and metal pain to Christopher. In many chapters, Christopher
tends to do things such as groan, make noises, laying down on the floor and even violence due to a
lack of control and stability.
The problem of communicating due to interpreting the world literally
The novel explores Christopher’s ability to only understand things in his world from a literal sense.
Although Christopher has very good verbal skills, he cannot notice other people’s emotions or
feelings. This has an impact on the people around him and how he cannot relate to others. It also
makes it difficult to trust others and makes it hard for him to understand deceit. Examples:
His explanation of emoticons on page 2. He interprets human emotions through the
emoticons but the problem is that he can only understand simple emotions. Christopher
struggles to understand more complex emotions.
Interpreting things literally impacts on Christopher’s ability to establish social relationships with
others. This is evident in the novel through his limited amount of friends. Other people in
Christopher’s world help him in acquiring knowledge about the social aspect of life. Siobhan is an
example, trying to teach Christopher what is right and what is wrong. As a result, Christopher lacks
any communication skills with others.
Language Techniques
Motifs
The novel frequently turns towards science and mathematics, for example:
His explanation of the universe.
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His dream of becoming an astronaut.
His A – level in math
His explanation of the population of animals.
These references to science and math represent Christopher’s logical way of thinking. Christopher
feels comfortable with these subjects. These subjects are Christopher’s way of coping in life. They
display Christopher’s talented intellectual side.
Christopher and his father share a connection highlighted by their special hand gesture. This is done
by spreading their hands wide apart making a fan then touching. This is used to highlight his father
gaining trust from Christopher who cannot understand truth.
These motifs represent Christopher’s need for order and control.
Symbols
Christopher’s pet rat Toby is symbolic of how Christopher can take care of himself. It
represents Christopher growing as a human being and the fact that he has the ability to be
responsible for things.
Ed Boone (Christopher’s father) gives Christopher a golden retriever as a gift. This is symbolic
of his father’s sorrow and love of him due to the lying and deceit about his mother. The
golden retriever represents forgiveness and trust and when Christopher decides to accept it,
he is accepting to forgive his father.
The timetable and maps are symbolic of the way Christopher interprets his world. They
convey Christopher’s need for everything in his life to be structured and have a certain
routine, indicative of his logical manner of thinking.
Emoticons are used in the novel to convey Christopher’s ability to identify clear and simple
emotions. Anything more complex will put Christopher in a state of fear and danger.
The colour red has been used to symbolise multiple things. Christopher likes red because he
believes it makes it a super super good day. This opposes the standard belief that red is
symbolic of death and loss. As a result it conveys Christopher being a unique narrator.
Prime number: ‘I think prime numbers is like life’ Prime number was discussed upon the
early chapters as life which provides a close insight of Christopher perspective on aspect of
life as impossible to figure out. Furthermore, Christopher said ‘prime numbers are what is
left when you take away all the patterns’ which refer to life as logical when the patterns such
as emotions are taken away. Additionally, the chapters in the novel are set with prime
numbers to reinforce that the novel contain journeys of his life which as well emphasis his
logical mind.
Quote
“And when I was asleep I had one of my favorite dreams… And in the dream nearly everyone
on the earth is dead…” (pg242), this quote underlines his strong desire to no longer feel like
an outside.
Theme: The problem of communicating due to interpreting the world literally
In his dream, he fantasy becoming alone in the world with people with the same condition
so he would not have any social interaction that makes him feels uncomfortable.
Theme: Struggle for independent
Christopher would no longer be under any authority if everyone on the earth were dead. As
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this quote occurs after he left his father to search for his mother displayed a growing desire
for independent.
I think I would make a very good astronaut. To be a good astronaut you have to be intelligent and I’m
intelligent’ on chapter 83,
Theme: the struggle for independent
After his father aggressively told Christopher to drop the investigation which emphasis his
want of independence as this dream of him being an astronaut becomes an escape from his
current situation living under his father’s authority. Additionally, the use of astronaut
directly amplify his need of independence from his father authority as becoming astronaut
he would be out in space furthest as possible from his father.
‘This will not be a funny book’ on page 10, this becomes irony and humorous due to his
characteristic as he takes everything literally which disable him to understand sarcasm. This
becomes ironic as his lack of emotion and reaction towards certain jokes and sarcasm lead
to humour. This becomes evident on page 229, as he describes the difficulties to understand
metaphor.
Structure
The novels structure is very unusual, reflective of the main character Christopher. The chapters are
structured in prime numbers to high
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