The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon

Writing the storey from the point of view of an autistic 15-year-old, Mark Haddon takes the reader into the world of a young boy unable to understand the emotions of other people around him. As well as this he gives away very early in the story that he doesn’t react well to physical contact with other people,
“The policeman took hold of my arm and lifted me onto my feet. I didn’t like him touching me like this. And this is when I hit him.” This shows us that he is unable to understand that the policeman was not lifting him to threaten him, only to make it easier to talk.
Fifteen year old Christopher has been attending a special school in Swindon for most of his life, living at home with his father, a heating contractor who works long hours. Extremely able at maths, he squares the number 2 to calm himself and can list the prime numbers up to 7,507.
To the reader Christopher seems unable to understand sarcasm and cannot read the facial features of anyone apart from happy and sad. The way that Haddon describes the sudden death of Christopher’s mother from the boy’s point of view helps the reader to sympathise, as well as empathise with Christopher. The reader also sympathises through the father, due to the fact that Christopher describing his view of the world helps us to recognise how hard it is for a single parent to control a child as demanding as Christopher, such as when Christopher refuses to hug his father and instead they have this routine, “I held up my left hand and spread my fingers out in a fan and we made our fingers and thumbs touch each other. We do this because sometimes father wants to give me a hug, but I do not like hugging people, so we do this instead, and it means that he loves me.”

JK Year 9