Preview

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time: Christopher's Achievements

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
622 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time: Christopher's Achievements
Christopher’s Achievements In the novel The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, the main character Christopher wrote a book containing details of how he solved a murder. To Christopher, he calls this a type of achievement. This is a type of achievement to Christopher because he was able to solve a complex problem by himself without anyone else. This shows Christopher that, despite his condition, he is actually smart. This is proven when Christopher says, “I was brave and wrote a book and that means I can do anything” (Haddon 221). This is only one achievement among many that Christopher has throughout the course of the story.
As the story begins, an event happens which forces Christopher to do something he’s never done before. Christopher finds his neighbor’s dog Wellington on his neighbor’s lawn with a fork in its head. Christopher feels sad for the dead animal, so he starts to investigate. But as time goes by, Christopher’s dad began to tell him to stop investigating the murder and to forget about it. As if compelled by an unknown force, Christopher decides to investigate further, and finds out his dad killed the dog. Through Christopher’s point of view, he must have thought of this as an internal and external achievement. Christopher soon began to develop a feeling of distrust towards his father because his father was the murderer and the one who lied about Christopher’s mother.
Christopher’s family life leads to him having an internal achievement later in the story. Christopher’s mother is an important person in this novel because she reveals what his dad has been trying to cover up this whole time. Christopher’s mother apparently dies one day at the hospital a couple years before the story takes place. Christopher remembers certain things about his mom and believes his dad when he says that she is dead. One day, Christopher discovers the truth about his mom while looking into the murder of his neighbor’s dog

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time is a murder mystery novel written by Mark Haddon. The main character and also the narrator is young Christopher Boone who is fifteen. The book is told from Christopher’s viewpoint with Christopher as the author of the book, which he writes with the help of his teacher Siobhan. The title of this book is actually a quote from Arthur Conan Doyle’s short story “Silver Blaze”. The reason this book is named relating to Sherlock Holmes is because Christopher Boone loves the fictional detective very much.…

    • 609 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In The Curious Incident of the Dog in The Night-Time, the protagonist Christopher Boone copes with the loss of his mothers supposed death through the relationship he continues with his father. Christopher moves on with life very easily after his mother’s death by saying that “when mother died she didn’t go to heaven because heaven doesn’t exist”. Christopher’s approach to the allusion of Heaven is too realistic which causes him to view the situation in a much too logical way and thus enables him to accept the loss because it is presented in a way in which he understands. Furthermore the loss of his mother causes Christopher to become more dependent on his father and by doing this it creates a stronger relationship with his father that is built on trust. This relationship is maintained in the first half of the novel with Ed respecting Christopher in ways in which his mother didn’t such as being patient with him. Christopher’s character allows his order of thinking to help him cope under situations of loss and move on with ease.…

    • 892 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon, we are introduced to Christopher Boone, a 15 year old boy who has a disability comparatively to Asperger's Syndrome. Christopher only lives with his dad, Ed Boone, because he is told that his mother died a couple of year ago from a heart attack. In the book, we learn Christoper has countless love-hate relationships with irregular objects. He loves math, red objects, and being honest; however he hates, yellow objects, metaphors, and lying. Christopher's main reason to write a mystery book, was to tell readers his process of finding the killer of Wellington, Mrs. Shears’s (his neighbor’s) dog. However, during the process of solving the mystery and writing his book, he comes across…

    • 907 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the novel “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time” by Mark Haddon the main character Christopher changes greatly during his adventure.…

    • 936 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time was written by Mark Haddon, to tell the story of Christopher Boone, a fifteen year old boy living in Swindon Wiltshire. Christopher was trying to discover who killed Mrs. Shears dog. Throughout the investigation, the author, Mark Haddon, wrote about Christopher’s Asperger’s Syndrome. Christopher Boone is accurately portrayed as someone with Asperger’s Syndrome. It shows the difficulties and the behavior as someone with Asperger’s Syndrome and gives the readers the chance to look inside the mind of kid with a autism spectrum disorder.…

    • 901 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    As Christopher wrote the book,"Who Killed Wellington?", he learned secrets not only about someone else, but within him as well. He encouraged himself to do what is right for him. When Christopher learned about the letters that came from his mother, he knew he had to get away. He knew he had to gain the courage to become independent from fear, and from his father. When Christopher left, he embarked on a new journey. And this journey changed him for the…

    • 736 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    When we think about heroes, Superman, Batman and other stereotypical heroes usually come to mind, but perhaps it’s the people that the public eye might consider “flawed” that bring this concept of bravery and courage into perspective. In Mark Haddon’s The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, Christopher is a most unexpected example of a hero. Although he may seem like an ordinary, 15-year-old boy, somewhat limited by autism, Christopher, in his own unique way, brings a new meaning to the word “hero”. Christopher shows the characteristics of a hero through his determination, and his ability to overcome his dependence on routines and certainties. This ability to conquer over his “disability” puts him above the common stereotypical hero.…

    • 987 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    If the story had any other narrator the reader would not be able to appreciate Christopher’s struggle. Say the book were written with Siobhan’s perspective, it would have had a lot of assumptions. For example, she would assume that he screamed because he was frightened, or she would assume that he didn’t like yellow because it was related to something bad that happened and yellow was the only color he realized of the scene. But, because this book is written in Christopher’s point of view, you really have more sympathy and patience for him. Also, it is written in a 15 year old’s eyes. If it had been written in an adult’s point of view, like his dad, the reader may know the complete story of how and why the dog died and why it affected Christopher in such a meaningful way. But because it is written in a limited point of view, it doesn’t seem to support a…

    • 559 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The author writes that Chris McCandless first became introverted and cold during his sophomore year in college. The relationship between Chris and his parents deteriorated significantly that summer. Somehow, as Chris was taking resident in his childhood home, he found out the information of his father’s divorce. He discovered how his father betrayed his family with an affair with his ex wife.…

    • 455 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Lastly, Issues of trust outline significantly all over the novel, predominantly with regard to the fathers affiliation with his son. The author states "I always believe you.... Yes I do. I have to" (Mccarthy 156). In this value the boy’s only hope in his dad is artificial out of obligation. The father is the only accompanying person along with influential figure, and he has the common sense of how life was before the unnamed tragedy.…

    • 438 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Dog In The Night-Time

    • 757 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Christopher is a brilliant kid. He knows his prime numbers, explains how Marilyn vos Savant was correct when it came to the Monty Hall Problem, and passed his A-level exams with an A grade. But when it comes to his social skills and common sense, he is pretty clueless. He doesn’t understand facial expressions all too well, to the point where he needed a sheet with the faces labelled to show what they meant. Christopher doesn’t understand certain sayings, like when the police officer came up to him in the train station, he asked, “Anyone at home?” (p.148) and he didn’t understand what the officer meant. Another example of Christopher not understanding social situations is when he finds the letters from his mother. Chances are the readers understood what was…

    • 757 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Regret is a feeling of sadness, repentance or disappointment over something that has happened or been done. Regret is a part of life that everyone has to struggle with at some point. In the book, The Curious Incident of the Dog and the Nighttime, Mark Haddon displays the topic of regret in the emotions of anger, sadness, and a wish for forgiveness; in reality regret is shown through apologies.…

    • 493 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Nighttime Sacrifice

    • 1227 Words
    • 5 Pages

    From knowing every like and dislike of Christopher to taking care of all his needs, Christopher‘s father did a lot for him. When Christopher‘s mother went away to London with Mr. Shears, Christopher‘s father did not tell him about it, instead he told Christopher that his mother had passed away. Although, this seems like a horrible lie from a reader‘s perspective, Christopher‘s father made this decision by keeping Chistopher‘s best interest in mind. He said “I said she‘s in the hospital because…because I didn‘t know how to explain…”(114). It hurt Christopher‘s dad a lot by not being able to share his grief with his only child, but even Christopher admits “I didn‘t understand about other people having minds” (116). If his father confessed to Christopher that his mother had left them, it would…

    • 1227 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The novel, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime by Mark Haddon, has many antagonists that negatively impact Christopher’s quality of life. Ed Boone is the main antagonist in the novel. Ed Boone negatively impacts Christopher's quality of life by killing Wellington, lying to Christopher, and not handling Christopher's disorder properly.…

    • 1256 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    I’m writing to you because I am not happy with the way you treated my 15 year old son last week, when he was taken into custody. I want to complain about the way you took him to the police station under false accusations and without contacting me, his father. It is against the law to take underaged children to the police station without contacting their parents or guardian. My son suffers from Aspergers syndrome and has many ‘pet peeves’. For one for thing he strongly dislikes it, when people touch him. This is why he reacted the way he did, when your officer went to grab his arm. This is because he is very sensitive and any sort of touch hurts and severely stresses him out. When he it touched, he completely looses it and often curls up into a ball groaning. He can however lash out, as he did. He is easily overwhelmed, as he doesn’t really understand emotions and his social skills are quite poor. He was overwhelmed when your officer bombarded him with questions; therefore he curled up into a small ball and started groaning. For him this is a relief. The police force is looked upon with respect and most people feel safe because they know there are people looking out for them. But if your police force can’t guarantee that our children, no matter their condition, how they look like and habits aren’t shown the same respect as adults, I can’t see that you, the police department, deserve this respect and idolisation. Also I do not agree with the f act that you have put my son on caution. He cannot be held responsible for his actions, because as I said before he suffers from Aspergers syndrome. As a father it’s my duty to ensure the best for my child. If I do not receive an apology directed to my son and if he isn’t cleared of all charges, I will go to court. Heck, I’ll go to the press too, and the mayor for that matter. I find it upsetting how you treat those poor children! Imagine yourself…

    • 481 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays

Related Topics