Christopher Boone Ed Boone Judy Boone Mrs Alexander Roger ... · Mrs Alexander Roger Shears Eileen Shears Wellington Special Needs Responses to Disability ... Mrs Alexander is the

The School For Excellence 2017 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time Page 1

Christopher Boone

Ed Boone

Judy Boone

Siobhan

Mrs Alexander

Roger Shears

Eileen Shears

Wellington

Special Needs

Responses to Disability

Intuition vs. Intellect

Family fracture

Truth


Mark Haddon is an English graduate of Oxford University who has worked as an illustrator, a cartoonist, a writer of children’s fiction and a carer for people with physical disabilities and behavioural problems. It is not hard to see how he has drawn on all these experiences to create this novel. Haddon has imagined himself into the mind of a fifteen year old boy who is unconnected, in an emotional sense, from anyone else. Although the novel was first published as a children’s book, it has many rewards for the adult reader. It deals with interesting but difficult questions of difference, of the need for truth and of the pitfalls of communication. We witness at close hand a dysfunctional family and the suffering of all its members. The novel also tells the story of a great journey towards independence.

The plot of the novel is very simple. Christopher discovers his neighbour’s dog, Wellington, killed or ‘murdered’ with a garden fork and sets out to discover the killer, and to write a book about his investigation at the same time. In trying to uncover the truth, he finds out that his father, Ed, has lied to him about his mother. She is not dead as Christopher was told, but is living in London and has been sending him letters every week, which his father has kept from him. Ed has also killed Wellington. In great fear of his father, Christopher runs away, making a difficult journey to meet his mother again. The novel ends with his father’s attempts to win back Christopher’s trust. Haddon has structured the novel simply. He begins with a chapter in which Christopher finds Wellington dead and every second chapter after that continues the story. The alternate chapters are digressions by Christopher as he explains his ideas about numbers, his love of maps, thoughts about physics, language, special needs and all the other notions that crowd his brain. The result is that we end up feeling that we know a great deal about how Christopher’.

Christopher should be an excellent narrator as he never lies, not because he is a good person as his mother insists, but because he cannot tell lies. He is also very intelligent and observant, notices details and has excellent recall of past events. However, Christopher is an unreliable narrator, a device used by many modern writers. We cannot trust his judgement of people or events. In Christopher’s case, this is because of emotional detachment; he is unable to guess at the feelings of other people and how these might affect their actions. He can tell us what people say and do but is not able to interpret these things. Because he avoids looking at faces he often gives us details of people’s clothes and movements instead. From the very beginning we need to be aware that the facts Christopher gives us in his novel need to be reinterpreted by the reader.


It can be useful to see the novel as divided into several sections. The numbering of the chapters is confusing until Christopher tells us that he is going to use prime numbers for the chapters, ‘because I like prime numbers.’

Chapters 2 to 53 introduce us to Christopher, his father, Siobhan and his school and the unusual behaviour that leads to misunderstanding and trouble with other people. We begin to see the limitations of his emotional understanding.

In chapters 59 to 167 despite his father’s objection, Christopher investigates Wellington’s death. He likes to solve puzzles and believes that the killer should be brought to justice. He also believes that logic will eventually solve every mystery in the universe. Christopher’s ‘detecting’ allows us to meet his neighbours, who respond to him in different ways. At the end of this section he finds out that his mother is still alive, through the 43 letters he finds hidden in his father’s room, and is distressed to be told that his father ‘murdered’ Wellington.

In chapters 179 to 227 Christopher embarks on a journey from Swindon to London to find refuge with his mother. Haddon conveys the boy’s terrors and difficulties with great effectiveness: He is extremely sensitive to visual and auditory stimulus and he can only communicate with people in very literal language. Christopher develops many inventive stratagems to overcome his fears, such as pretending that he is in a computer game called Train to London.

Christopher ends the novel on a very euphoric note, ‘I can do anything.’ Full of confidence at the success of his Maths exam, his detective work and his undoubted courage he faces the future optimistically. The reader, however, is aware of problems Christopher cannot foresee and feels, as Christopher cannot, for Ed who is trying to rebuild a relationship of trust with his son.


(Asperger’s Syndrome Support Network VIC - http://home.vicnet.net.au/~asperger/whatis.htm)

Some common features of Asperger’s syndrome children:

• Excellent rote memory.

• Absorb facts easily.

• Generally perform well at math and science.

• Generally anxious and unable to cope with any form of criticism or imperfection.

• Can be the victims of teasing in a school environment, which may cause them to withdraw into isolated activities.

• Often appear clumsy and may have an unusual gait or stance.

• Often seen as a bit odd and/or eccentric.

• Often have the appearance of good language but may have limited language content and poor social understanding.

• Generally attend ordinary primary and secondary school.

• While children with Asperger's Syndrome have many of the features of the syndrome in

common, they may vary enormously in other ways.


Difficulties are observed in the following areas: Communication The child usually speaks at the age expected. A full command of grammar is usually acquired. Content of speech may be abnormal, tending to be pedantic and often centering on one or two favourite topics. Sometimes a word or phrase is repeated over and over in a stereotyped fashion. Usually there is a comprehension deficit, despite apparent superior verbal skills. Non-verbal communication, both expressive and receptive, is often impaired.

Social Interaction There tends to be impairment in two-way social interaction, due in the most part to an inability to understand social behaviour. A lack of empathy with others, and little or no eye contact may be evident. The child appears to be stuck at the egocentric stage of social and emotional development, and therefore these people perceive the world almost exclusively from their own point of view.

Social Behaviour Social Behaviour is often naive and peculiar. They tend to become intensely attached to particular possessions. They engage in repetitive activities and are resistant to change, coping best when life is predictable. They are rigid and prefer structure and may concentrate exclusively on matters in which they are interested. They may appear non-compliant as they have difficulty taking direction and coping with negative feedback.


The typical person with Asperger's Syndrome is a 'loner' who never quite fits in because of eccentric behaviour, peculiar ways of speaking and a lack of social skills. He or she may be interested in social relationships, but lacks the ability to understand and use the rules governing social behaviour. He or she may try to make contact inappropriately, eg. ignoring contextual cues or expressing inadequacy aggressively. People with Asperger's Syndrome may graduate from regular schools and hold down jobs, but they are often disadvantaged by their odd behaviour and resistance to change. They have difficulty establishing relationships, and children often refuse to return to their homes to play with them. Older children may over time withdraw from the uncomfortable interactions which characterised their early years, and retreat into the safety of their family or even isolate themselves from their family. They may feel rejected, but do not understand how their behavioural responses contributed to their isolation.

Getting to know Christopher is the key to understanding this novel. Just as Christopher finds other people difficult to comprehend, with their liking for jokes and talking, it is very hard for the reader to get a real understanding of Christopher. Does he have feelings or any sort of emotional life?

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Is he happy?

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Is he cold and selfish?

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Does he really prefer dogs to people?

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Is he capable of change?

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“Father put his head in his hands and said, ‘Jesus wept.’”

Christopher’s father bears all the burden of caring for a boy with behavioural problems. As a single father, he takes great care to deal with Christopher’s strange dietary needs and the day to day care of a dependent fifteen-year-old who has never been further from home alone than the local shop. His love for Christopher is unswerving and he is sensitive to his son’s special needs. Ed’s loneliness:

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Ed’s patience:

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Ed’s weakness:

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Ed as hero:

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“Mother was a small person who smelt nice.”

“…sometimes I look up into the sky and I think that there are molecules of Mother up there.” Christopher’s mother introduces herself to us halfway through the novel in her letters. She is impulsive and impatient, given to emotional outbursts and unable to sustain the calmness needed to deal with Christopher’s behavioural problems. However, she loves Christopher dearly, tries her best and is saddened by her inability to cope with him.

“And father was sitting down and she stood next to him and held his head against her bosoms and said, ‘Come on, Ed. We’re going to get you through this.’”

“Mother ran out of the house…and she threw the box of muesli and it hit the boot of his car as he drove away.”

The Boone’s neighbours are minor characters but they are important to the story and their marriage is as dysfunctional as Ed and Judy’s. Haddon shows us that loneliness and sadness are destructive of many relationships. Ed’s affair with Mrs Shears and Judy’s relationship with Mr Shears both end because of the stress that looking after Christopher brings. He is blithely unaware of this.

“Mrs Alexander was doing what is called chatting where people say things to each other which…aren’t connected.”

Mrs Alexander is the first person Christopher makes up his own mind to trust. She is a friendly elderly woman who treats Christopher warmly and tries to help him. She is one of a number of people who show kindness to Christopher.

“Siobhan has long blonde hair and wears glasses which are made of green plastic.” Siobhan, Christopher’s teacher, helps him to function in the world more than anyone. She encourages him to write and gives him much good advice about the book. She is helpful and sensitive throughout. Being professionally trained, Siobhan is able to understand Christopher and help him to develop ways of coping with a society that is incomprehensible to him.


Christopher believes that ‘everyone has special needs.’ Haddon examines the idea of difference in the novel and it becomes clear very early that Christopher is extremely gifted mathematically although he lacks emotional connection to other people. The needs of Christopher’s parents, for companionship and love, can also be clearly seen. “I make this noise when there is too much information going into my head from the outside world.” “Didn’t understand about other people having minds.” “Feelings are just having a picture on the screen in your head of what is going to happen tomorrow or next year, or what might have happened in stead of what did happen, and if it is a happy picture they smile and if it is a sad picture they cry.” “I see everything…like when a computer is doing too many things at the same time and the central processor unit is blocked up and there isn’t any space left to think about other things.” “And it was exactly like having flu that time because I wanted it to sop, like you can just pull the plug of a computer out of the wall if it crashes, because I wanted to go to sleep so that I wouldn’t have to think because the only thing I could think was how much it hurt because there was no room for anything else in my head, but I couldn’t go to sleep and I just had to sit there and there was nothing to do except to wait and to hurt.” “I don’t like people holding my hand.” “I like timetables because I like to know when everything is going to happen.” “I was just noticing how things were and that wasn’t clever. That was just being observant. Being clever was when you looked at how things were and used the evidence to work out something new.” “It all depends on how much air comes out of your nose and how fast and what shape your mouth is when you do it and how you are sitting and what you just said before and hundreds of other things which are too complicated to work out in a few seconds.” “And I know I can do this because I went to London on my own…and I found my mother and I was brave and I wrote a book and that means I can do anything.” “Sometimes people want to be stupid and they do not want to know the truth.” “Like pressing CTRL + ALT + DEL and shutting down programs and turning the computer off and rebooting.”


Although Christopher is unresponsive to other people, many of the characters in the novel respond with interest to him. He is apprehensive about strangers as he knows that he cannot interpret their motives and he dislikes being laughed at. “I…made the noise that Father calls groaning. I make this noise when there is too much information coming into my head from the outside world.” “I could tell he was angry because he was shouting.” “I am not a spazzer…all the other children at my school are stupid.” “The power of detaching his mind at will.” “My memory is like a film.” “’What is this?’ but he said it very quietly and I didn’t realise that he was angry because he wasn’t shouting.” “You knew exactly what you were bloody doing.” “It was like someone had switched me off and then switched me on again.” “You think you’re so fucking clever, don’t you? Don’t you ever, ever think about other people for one second, eh?”


Christopher is convinced that logic will be enough to solve any problem. He is highly critical of the use of emotion and intuition. However, the reader sees that his inability to use intuition keeps him from understanding how people are likely to behave, and, for example, that Ed has been having an affair with Eileen Shears. “Super good day.” “Dogs are faithful and they do not tell lies because they cannot talk.” “Happy, sad, cross and concentrating.” (dogs) “…Because I decided that it was a kind of puzzle, and if something is a puzzle there is always a way of solving it.” “I think prime numbers are like life. They are very logical but you could never work out the rules, even if you spent all your time thinking about them.” “If you are going to do detective work you have to be brave, so I had no choice.” “Chain of reasoning.” “Intuition can sometimes get things wrong…But logic can help you to work out the right answer.” “The world is full of obvious things which nobody by any chance observes.” “Just because the is the way the numbers work.” “And I know I can do this because I went to London on my own, and because I solved the mystery of Who Killed Wellington? And I found my mother and I was brave and I wrote a book and that means I can do anything.” “Putting things in a nice order.” “I would be feeling sad about something that isn’t real and doesn’t exist. And that would be stupid.” “People think they’re not computers because they have feelings and computers don’t have feelings. But feelings are just having a picture on the screen in your head…if it is a happy picture they smile and if it is a sad picture they cry.” “Logic can help you work out the right answer.”


Christopher’s world is shattered when he finds out that his father has lied to him about his mother’s ‘death.’ Christopher has claimed that he can’t tell lies, that he doesn’t read fiction because it is lies, that metaphors are lies. Because he has such a literal cast of mind, Christopher depends on Ed, the most significant person in his life, to be completely truthful. Their relationship depended on trust. “Because they’re lies about things which didn’t happen and they make me feel shaky and scared.’ (in reference to novels) A metaphor is “when you describe something by using a word for something that it isn’t”. Policeman…”they have uniforms and numbers and you know what they are meant to be doing.” “I always tell the truth.” “I do not tell lies. Mother used to say that this was because I was a good person. But it is not because I am a good person. It is because I can’t tell lies.” “Everything I have written here is true.” “Sometimes people want to be stupid and they do not want to know the truth.” “Mother had been alive all the time. And Father had lied about this…brain wasn’t working properly.” “And then I knew that it wasn’t a joke and I was really frightened.” “And that is the truth.” “A white lie is not a lie at all.” “Father had murdered Wellington. That meant he could murder me, because I couldn’t trust him, even though he had said, ‘Trust me,’ because he had told a lie about a big thing.” “It’s bloody hard telling the truth all the time. Sometimes it’s impossible.”


Haddon explores various relationships. Christopher’s relationships with his father and mother are central to the novel but Ed and Judy’s relationships with each other and with the Shears are also important. Christopher’s relationship with his teacher, Siobhan, is seen as vital to his growth. “When the red mist comes down…Christ, you know how it is. I mean we’re not that different, me and you…it was like everything I’d been bottling up for two years just…” (Ed To Christopher). “I find people confusing.” “People do a lot of talking without using any words.” “I do not want my; name to mean a story about being kind and helpful. I want my name to mean me.” Gesture of touching their outspread fingers together…”Means that he loves me”. “Nice, having Father speak to me but not look at me.” “I’m not a spazzer.” “Do chatting…my age is 15 years and 3 months and 3 days.” His father “always tells me the truth, which means he loves me”. “You haven’t written to me yet, so I know that you are probably still angry with me. I’m sorry Christopher. But I still love you.” “Like you didn’t really need me at all.” “I thought that what I was doing was the best for all of us.” “I did it for your good, Christopher. Honestly I did. I never meant to lie. I just thought…that it was better if you didn’t know” … “I didn’t scream. And I didn’t fight. And I didn’t hit him.” “There was nothing I could do which felt safe.” “I’m very proud of you, Christopher.”


The Boone family breaks down because of the stresses involved in looking after a disabled child. The love that Christopher’s parents feel for him is not reciprocated and both his parents find this heartbreaking. “Because when I am sad I want to be alone.” “I used to think that Mother and Father might get divorced…because of the stress of looking after someone who has Behavioural Problems like I have.” “- there were more bad things than good things.” “Hurts too much…more important than anything else…a project we have to do together. You have to spend more time with me. And I..I have to show you that you can trust me.” “I was not a very good mother, Christopher. Maybe if things had been different, maybe if you’d been different, I might have been better at it.” “I thought that what I was doing was the best for al of us.” “The doctor gave her pills to take every morning to stop her feeling sad.” “And Mother shouted, “What in God’s name did you think you were playing at, saying those things to him?” “And Father shouted, ‘What was I playing at? You were the one that bloody left.” “I realised you and your father were probably better off if I wasn’t living in the house.” “…we’re not exactly low maintenance are we…? “I was not a very good mother…your father is a much more pacient (sic) person.” “Christopher, you do understand that I love you?…I said, ‘Yes’ because loving someone is helping them when they get into trouble, and looking after them, and telling them the truth, and Father looks after me when I get into trouble…and he always tells me the truth, which means that he love me.”



Christopher knows one joke, about a brown cow in Scotland. Although he has had the basis of puns and double meanings explained to him he is unable to see humour in wordplay. However, his deadpan reporting of the emotional turmoil of those around him and the situational ironies that he describes without really understanding them are often really funny. Haddon breaks down much of the sadness of the story with light moments of humour.

Christopher’s language is very simple and sequential, like setting out a maths problem. His words are unemotional. This contrasts with the often profane, irreverent, emotional outbursts of his father, the angry slanging matches between his parents and the often very funny use of slang and swearing of the people he encounters.


“I find people confusing.” “I held up my left hand and spread my fingers out in a fan and we made our fingers and thumbs touch each other…it means that he loves me.” “Christopher is getting a crap enough deal already, don’t you think.” “Other people have pictures in their heads, too. But they are different because the pictures in my head are all pictures of things which really happened.” “Lots of things are mysteries. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t an answer to them.” “And it made me so sad because it was like you didn’t really need me at all.” “People think they’re not computers because they have feelings and computers don’t have feelings. But feelings are just having a picture on the screen in your head of what is going to happen tomorrow or next year.” “OK, maybe I don’t tell the truth all the time. God knows, I try, Christopher.” “That made me feel better because there was something in my head that had an order and a pattern and I just had to follow the instructions one after the other.” “When I am in a new place and there are lots of people there it is like a computer crashing and I have to close my eyes and put my hands over my ears and groan.” “I like timetables because they make sure you don’t get lost in time.” “Christopher, let me hold your hand. Just for once. Just for me. Will you?” “And I go into other people’s houses and play at being a detective and I can break the windows to get in because the people are dead and it doesn’t matter.” “Then he came a bit closer to me and he crouched down like you do with dogs to show that you are not an Aggressor.” “I was brave and I wrote a book and that means I can do anything.”


‘Christopher’s father is the one person who really understands him.’ Do you agree? ‘Because the story is narrated from Christopher’s point of view, we learn little about the other characters.’ Do you agree? Does ‘The Curious Incident…have a happy ending? Although Christopher is incapable of feeling empathy and compassion, he inspires it in his readers.’ Discuss. “Christopher Boone seems utterly unsuited to narrating a novel but turns out to be a rather wonderful narrator.’ Discuss. ‘Christopher Boone has all the qualities of a good detective except one: He has no insight into other people’s emotions. For this reason, he gets almost everything wrong.’ Discuss. The Curious Incident…is not a genuine novel of growth and development because the protagonist proves to be incapable of change.’ Discuss. ‘While Christopher wishes to give his story a tidy ending, this only reveals his blindness to the messy emotional loves of the people around him.’ Discuss. ‘One of the ironies of the novel is that we come to sympathise with Christopher’s parents in ways perhaps not intended by Christopher himself.’ Discuss. ‘Although he tells Christopher a cruel lie, Christopher’s father is the person who emerges as the hero of the novel.’ Discuss. ‘With all their experience, Christopher’s parents make more mistakes than he does.’ Discuss. Personal change is often difficult. To what extent have Ed, Judy, Eileen and Roger changed by the end of this story? ‘Although Christopher detests lies, the truth proves to be more than he can bear.’ Discuss. ‘Christopher and other disadvantaged people find it more difficult to function in the world than others do.’ Discuss. ‘Although traumatic, Christopher’s challenges help him break out of his mental prison.’ Discuss. ‘Haddon’s greatest achievement is to make the inner world of a mentally disabled individual real to us, and to invite our deepest sympathy.’ How does he achieve this? ‘We may abhor, even despise, Christopher’s parents, but we are certainly able to understand their difficulties in dealing with his “Behavioural problems”.’ Discuss.

‘This text demonstrates the importance of trust and the problems that occur when trust is broken.’ Discuss.


‘The text demonstrates that telling the truth is not always the right thing to do.’ Discuss.

‘‘The Curious Incident…shows that all of us have special needs.’ Discuss.

‘‘The Curious Incident…shows that reason and emotion are both necessary for people to function fully in the world. Discuss.

“But that’s not the way I am and there’s nothing I can do to change that.” ‘The Curious Incident…shows that all people are capable of change if they have a goal they really care about.’ Discuss.

‘The Curious Incident…shows that neither logical reasoning nor emotional impulse can alone serve as a basis for our actions.’ Discuss.

‘The fact that we relate to Christopher as a character shows that the similarities between people are much greater than the differences.’ Discuss.

‘The Curious Incident…isn’t a novel about disability. It shows that everyone has ‘behavioural problems’ and ‘special needs’’ Discuss.

“All unhappy families resemble one another but each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way” (Leo Tolstoy) Is this true of the family portrayed in ‘The Curious Incident…?’

‘ The way Christopher tells his story causes us to question our own commonsense perceptions and the erratic emotionalism of our lives.’ Discuss.

‘It is not easy to express love, or to receive it.’ Does the novel support this view?

To what extent does the novel demonstrated the importance of trust? ‘But logic can help you work out the right answer.’ Does the novel support this view? The Curious Incident…is sad and sometimes shocking yet it contains much to amuse us.’ Do you agree? ‘The novel presents a view of the world in which the ordinary contains the extraordinary.’ Discuss. ‘The Curious Incident…is a dramatic plea for understanding those with mental disabilities.’ Discuss. The Curious Incident…seems to be a portrait of despair, but it finally ends up a novel with a message of hope.’ Do you agree? ‘The Curious Incident…demonstrates how challenging life is, not just for the disabled, but for everyone.’ Discuss.

Documents

Christopher Boone Ed Boone Judy Boone Mrs Alexander Roger ... · Mrs Alexander Roger Shears Eileen Shears Wellington Special Needs Responses to Disability ... Mrs Alexander is the