The Portrayal of autism in The Curious
Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
Angas Smith – SACE
LSG 15 – Kay Gillet
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time is Mark Haddon’s debut novel, released in
2003 it quickly became an international best-seller, continuing to sell well it is widely taught in
schools and even has its own play adaption. The book was critically acclaimed and still receives
positive reviews to this day but maybe the novel is selling a false story. The novel is fictional after all
but many believe that mark Haddon’s portrayal of autism through the 15 year old main character,
Christopher is wildly inaccurate and may be misinforming the public instead of raising awareness to
the issue. The following essay aims to explore the literary techniques through which Mark Haddon
expressed his idea of autism in the international best-seller covering both the good and bad of his
novel. It is important to acknowledge that autism is a spectrum and everyone is individual in their
behavior and a lot is still unknown about what exactly autism is and how it works.
‘The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time’ is written as a journal written by the main
character, Christopher. He was told to make the journal by a teacher at his school named Siobhan, a
sort of mentor to him who realizes Christopher’s intellectual potential at a Special-Ed school where
he may not be receiving the kind of stimulation he requires and is a sort of catalyst for him to pursue
his interests. This book is written in a pseudo code-like sequence with striking specificity that
perfectly captures the mind of a young boy but there is an obvious difference in the way in which
Christopher thinks and it is obvious the affect this has on his everyday life.
There has been a lot of praise for the novel but reviewers may not know that some members of the
autistic community believe that the book perpetuates negative stereotypes and will not help you
understand autistics. The main feature of the book is the way in which Christopher writes, his
sentences are very literal and seem to clearly describe something without the use of creative
adjectives or analogies. This is the main part that is believed to be perpetuating false information.
Another issue brought up with the book is the fact that Christopher is so self-analytical and is very
aware of why he thinks in certain ways. An autistic person of that age would not have this ability and
the lack of self-reflection as well as social empathy is actually an issue that autistic youth have
trouble perceiving. Although, this technique is used to show Christopher’s struggle to become
independent which is a key theme in the book. Christopher would like to be able to complete his
advanced maths exams so that he can go on to do a university course but he is very aware of the
road blocks on his path. Another example would be that Christopher refuses to eat foods of certain
colours and he is very aware that this is an issue and how it affects the people around him and goes
on to make a number of analysis about the behavior.
An explanation given by a blogger on iautsitic.com stated that they believe that the book failed to
address the great confusion, frustration, anxiety and loneliness a person with autism may undergo
due to the fact that they have to constantly validate themselves because they feel isolated when
around people whose reasoning they do not understand. This is shown a bit in the book surrounding
the theme of disorder of life which the book explores by showing the distress that Christopher goes
through due to the disorder of his surroundings.
In conclusion, in Mark Haddon’s novel ‘The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time’ human
health issues are explored through a range of ideas values and beliefs and though the book may not
paint an accurate picture of an autistic person’s life it does give a sort of lense into another
perspective of the world that is significantly different than my personal perspective which offers
some educational value and it must also be taken into account that people have varying experiences
of autism due to the fact that is not something that can be defined as a something certain with a
clearly defined set of symptoms but is instead a spectrum covering a variety of intensity.
References
Iautistic.com, (2015). Autism Myths - The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark
Haddon. [online] Available at: http://iautistic.com/autism-myths-the-curious-incident-of-thedog-in-the-night-time.php [Accessed 18 May 2015].
Sparknotes.com, (2015). SparkNotes: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time: Themes,
Motifs, & Symbols. [online] Available at: http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/the-curious-incident-ofthe-dog-in-the-night-time/themes.html [Accessed 18 May 2015].
The Huffington Post, (2015). When Popular Novels Perpetuate Negative Stereotypes: Mark Haddon,
Asperger's and Irresponsible Fiction. [online] Available at:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/greg-olear/curious-incident-dog-night-time_b_1099692.html
[Accessed 18 May 2015].