The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time

Imagine a family with a dad, a mom and an autistic teenager. Usually the parents would have a better bonding in order to help the teenager. But in this story the mom and dad are not like two peas in a pod but like an untrained dog and cat living under the same roof. In the novel The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, the author, Mark Haddon, shows how three very different characters can be a wonderful family.

Christopher’s mom plays an important role in Christopher’s life during two periods, baby to toddler and young adult and onward. When Christopher was going through his early stages of his life his mom was trying to help as much as possible. For example on pages 106 and 107 mom tells about the situation that happened when they went Christmas shopping. While she tried to full extinct to get Christopher out of there, it was Christopher who did not let her do it. Therefore, it has come to my consensus that it was Christopher who made mom go away, because that night was when the trouble erupted between mom and dad. Since all this happened, she went to London with Mr. Shears.

Even though Christopher’s Mom was not that close with Christopher, Christopher’s dad was almost as close to Christopher as peanut butter and jelly on bread. Christopher’s dad mostly affected Christopher during the period that his mom was in London. He always use to take care of him during the times that Christopher and his mom were not doing well together. For example on page 107 it says, “… your father was really nice about it at first and he made you supper and he put you to bed and he said these things happen and it would be OK.” He was like a person willing to answer anything about anything because he was just that patient with Christopher’s Mom. Therefore Christopher’s dad and mom were made for each other because one had no tolerance at all and the other was a person willing to listen to the world most mind-numbing lecture.

While Christopher’s dad and mom are blabbing away, Christopher is the one stuck in the middle of everything. Christopher, an autistic young adult, is trying to overcome his disability throughout the process. On pages 212 he is taking the test when he thinks this, “… I couldn’t think how to answer any o the questions and also I couldn’t breathe properly. And I wanted to hit somebody or stab them with my Swiss army knife, But there wasn’t anyone to hit or stab with my Swiss Army Knife except the Reverend Peters and he was very tall and if I hit him or stabbed him with my Swiss Army knife he wouldn’t be my invigilator for the rest of the exam. So I took deep breaths like Siobhan said I should do when I want to hit someone in school and I counted 50 breaths and did cubes of the cardinal numbers like this …” He is showing that even though he is having test problems because of his autism, he is not willing to pass on such a impressive opportunity for him to have a more enhanced schooling experience, which is really great thing to do for an autistic kid.

In conclusion, Mark Haddon shows how even three very different people can make a wonderful family in the book The Curious Incident of the dog in the Night-time. Through this book you can ascertain that even people with the strangest of disabilities can overcome anything.