The Curious Incident of The Dog in Night-Time


SUMMARY

The story is about a boy, Christopher. He is fifteen years old and also a math genius. Christopher has a problem in his brains, the Asperger’s Syndrome. Another description is autistic. In the story he wants to avoid as many contacts as he can. He doesn’t like having a chat. In the story he describes his self as a boy who is fifteen years, three months and two days, that’s when the story begins. He knows all the countries in the world with their capitals. And he also knows all the prime numbers till 7507.

The book starts with a prime number: two. That will continue the whole story long until the number 233. That’s the last chapter.

Christopher found a dog, Wellington, he was dead. Christopher loves animals cause they don’t make silly jokes, be angry with him or other things that humans do. The dog was from the neighbor, Mrs Shears.

When Mrs Shears opened her curtains she saw that Wellington had died, she called the police. Christopher sat next to the dog.

Then the police arrived and a man was asking him questions about the scene. Suddenly the policemen touched Christopher, he didn’t like that and he hit him.

They drove him back to the station and asked him a few questions. ‘Why did you hit the men?’ Asked the chief. Then Ed (the father from Christopher) came in and paid the sum. He drove Christopher back and had a little chat.

Later on Christopher decides to write a book, a mystery novel about Wellington. But for this project he needs to talk to strangers, neighbors that he never talked to. And he didn’t like that. He rang the doorbell and a women came out and asked if he wanted to have a cup a thee. Christopher ran away, there was too much pressure on him. And he told father that he was working on his project (solving Wellington’s case), for some reason father didn’t liked that and said that he had to stop it. But he didn’t, a few days later, father said something terrible:“Mother had died”. Christopher didn’t cry which was unusually. He just continued writing the book and solving math problems. Some days later father discovers that Christopher is still working on his book and he gets real angry with him and hides the book. Christopher is disappointed and he decides to go looking for the book. He is careful because father could park his van any minute.

Then he finds the book in a shirt drawer. He also finds letters, the letters are addressed to him and are unpacked. He took one and went to his room. On the letter was a kind of strange handwriting. It could only be from his teacher, his mother (who died), or from Mrs Shears. He red it and he recognized mum’s handwriting. The next day he opened more letters and they were all from mother. Finally he saw the dates that were written in the right corner and it all made sense. Mother hadn’t died yet. He was feeling ill, and through up. Then father came in and he saw Christopher and put him in a bad. ‘Why did you said that mother died’ Father didn’t answer that. He had to explain, so he did. I had to, Mother has abandoned us. Christopher wanted to continue writing his book, and father said he had killed Wellington. He had to do that because otherwise Mrs Shears would move in with him and Christopher . “She was so kind to us and when I told her that mother died she was even kinder. So I had to disappoint her.”

Christopher was scared, scared for father. He decided to make a plan, he wanted to go live with mother. So he did. He had to go with the train and that wasn’t nice, there were so many people around there. But he did it. He rang the bell and mother came out. She lived in London with Mr Shears. They weren’t married. Christopher could stay there for a while, father also came in. He talked to Christopher, but Christopher didn’t say a word. Later on Mother returned to Swindon with Christopher and they bought an apartment. Father bought a dog for Christopher and it slowly started to get better. Christopher also got an A grade for Math.


Explanation

Title

The title is a bit long, THE CURIOUS INCIDENT OF THE DOG IN NIGHT-TIME. You could also say this part: THE CURIOUS INCIDENT is the title and this part: OF THE DOG IN NIGHT-TIME is the subtitle. It isn’t really about the incident, it’s more about Christopher’s life .


Genre

The genre is a murder mystery novel, fiction. The detective, and story-teller is Christopher. The chapters are a variation about the mind of Christopher and the real things that happening. It is kind of strange because people don’t know if the book that Mark Haddon wrote (this book) is the book that Christopher wrote in this story, think about it!

Main Characters

Of course Christopher is the Main Character, but father is also often present in the story. Mother appears many times the end. Siobhan, the teacher from Christopher. She is a figure that Christopher describes, she isn’t very often in the story but on the other hand she is.

Christopher is a boy who is fifteen years old, he is autistic, doesn’t want to be touched and doesn’t talk to strangers. He is very smart and wants to become a scientist. I think that the Train-Underground part the worst part was in the story. At least for Christopher, he is there with his rat Toby, and around with all kind of strangers. Father is an man who would never do anything bad to his sun, he killed a dog and said to people that his wife died but she didn’t. He is a normal man and Christopher sees him as a safe person. But in the middle of the story that turns and then he sees him as a serial-killer. Ed (father) is so angry with mother that he decides to forget about mother and he hides letters from Christopher, and tells people that mother died.

Mother lives in London together with Rodrhi, Mr Shears. The reason that she went away and left Christopher and Ed (father). She couldn’t stand Christopher any more, she was to fast angry with him because of this: Christopher was autistic and mother didn’t know about that. Christopher did all kinds of things when he was young, didn’t eat, didn’t put his clothes on, he screamed in public ect. And she lost her temperature too often. She had enormous fights with father.

And she already had created a band with Rodhri, he asked mother to join him. And they moved in together.



Time

The story is written in the Present, sometimes there are flashbacks.

Setting

The setting of the story is mostly in Swindon, a little place near London. Also when Christopher makes a plan to go to mother it is in London.





Personal Response



- Could the story have really happened? If so, how? If not, why not? Explain.Yes it could, it would be very unlikely, but sure it could happen. Well it is a Fiction book, so the changes are minimal. But there could be a boy who is fifteen years old has the Asperge’s Syndrome and lives in Swindon. Everything in the whole wide world can happen.


- Choose a passage of the book that you found impressive or touching. Make a copy and add it to your report. Give reasons for your choice.

My favorite passage:

“…And I didn’t open my eyes and I didn’t look at my watch. And it was like being in a dark room with the curtains closed so I couldn’t see anything, like when you wake up at night, and the only sounds you hear are the sounds inside your head. And that made it better because it was like the little station wasn’t there, outside my head, but I was in bed and I was safe. And then the silences between the trains coming and going got longer and longer. And I could hear that there were fewer people in the little station when the train wasn’t there so I opened my eyes and I looked at my watch and it said 8:07 p.m and I had been sitting on the bench for approximately 5 hours but it hadn’t seemed like approximately 5 hours, except that my bottom hurt and I was hungry and thirsty. And then I realized that Toby was missing because he was not I my pocket, and I didn’t want him be missing because we weren’t in Father’s house or Mother’s house and there wasn’t anyone to feed him in the little station and he would die and he would might get run over by a train. And then I looked up at a ceiling and I saw that there was a long black box which was a sign and it said, Harrow & Wealdstone 2 MIN,

Queens Park 7 MIN. And then the bottom line scrolled up and disappeared and a different line line scrolled up into its place and the sign said: Harrow & Wealdstone 1 MIN, Willesden Junction 4MIN. And then it changed again and it said: Harrow & Wealdstone ** STAND BACK TRAIN APPROACHING **.

And then I heard the sound like sword fighting and the roaring of a train coming into the station and I worked out that there was a big computer somewhere and it knew where all the trains were and it sent messages to the black boxes in the little stations to say when the trains were coming, and that made me feel better because everything had an order and a plan. And the train came into the little station and it stopped and 5 people got onto the train and another person ran into the little station and got on, and 7 people got off the train and then the doors closed automatically and the train went away. And when the next train came I wasn’t so scare anymore because the sign said TRAIN APPROACHING so I knew it was going to happen. And then I decided that I would look for Toby because there were only 3 people in the little station. So I stood up and I looked up and down the little station and in the doorways that went into tunnels but I couldn’t see him anywhere. And then I looked down into the black, lower-down bit where the rails were. And then I saw two mice and they were black because they were covered in dirt. And I liked that because I like mice and rats. But they weren’t Toby, so I carried on looking. And then I saw Toby, and he was also in the lower-down bit where the rails were, and I knew he was Toby because he was white and he had a brown egg shape on his back. So I climbed down off the concrete. And he was eating a bit of rubbish that was an old sweet paper. And someone shouted, ‘Jezus. What are you doing?’And I bend down to catch Toby but he ran off. And I walked after him and I bent down again and I said, ‘Toby… Toby… Toby’ and I held out my hand so that he could smell my hand and smeel that it was me. And someone said, ‘Get out of there, for fuck’s sake’, and I looked up and it was a man who was wearing a green raincoat and he had black shoes and his socks were showing and they were grey with little diamond patterns on them.”


This is my favorite one because Christopher was in a sort of trans for 5 hours, just sitting on a bench. After that he also tried to catch Toby who escaped out of his pocket and ran into the lower-down. Then Christopher tries to catch him and a man sees it and he thinks Christopher is nuts. Then there was a roaring sound and the train was approaching. So if Christopher stayed there for a little longer he probably would have died. That’s why, Christopher didn’t realize he almost was killed, but he just tried to safe his rat. This not realizing thing is about his problem.


- Find a poem or pop song that reminds you of one of the characters in the story. Explain your choice.


This poem I found on PoemHunter.com. Mubeen Sadhika wrote it:


Autistic Smile


Smile...smile...where to smile...

through ears...no...nose...

mouth is...for...sounds...

eyes can...hear...noise


Gliding in air...no body...

flapping hands...to feel...

screaming...not getting...ground...

belonging to space...in space less..


Touched...not...to be touched...

ate spice...feeling...the tongue...

cried...knowing...the agony

moved...rocked...sensed...senseless


normal...replacing...order...

abnormal...regularizing...peculiar...

populating common...in uncommon...

shutting off...connections..to.. connect

…

It reminds me of Christopher, he is autistic and this poem is also about autism. What I didn’t tell you before was that Christopher wanted to become an astronaut. He also doesn’t want to be touched that is all in the poem. That’s why.


- Give your opinion of the book and indicate when the book started to interest you.


Actually, from the beginning to the end I found the book real fun to read, it has a good story-line, only the parts in the mind from Christopher were a bit boring and hard to read. I think it is a really nice book. The first book I started to read was to hard so I started this one. It isn’t real hard. It also won the WHITBREAD BOOK OF THE YEAR PRICE.

-The review of Independent: ‘Outstanding…a stunningly good read’.

-The review of the Sunday Telegraph: ‘Exceptional by any standards…’

-The review of Guardian: ‘Superbly realized… a funny as well as a sad book… BRILJANT’

-The review of Time Out: ‘A REMAKABLE book… An impressive achievement and rewarding read’

- The review of Ian Mc Ewan: ‘Mark Haddon’s portrayal of an emotionally dissociated mind is a Superb Achievement… Wise and bleakly funny…’



- Has a film been made of the book? If so, compare them

No there isn’t a film about this book. Too bad.