English:
Close Study of Text
Essay - ‘The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time’
How does the author create an effective and engaging novel for the reader?
Mark Haddon’s novel ‘The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time’ explores the ideas of trust and
acceptance in relationships, being different due to a disability can cause isolation and the importance of
order and stability in our lives. Through Haddon’s use of textual features such as characterisation, language
devices and structure, he demonstrates these themes and creates an effective and engaging novel for the
reader.
Through characterisation, the reader realises that Christopher is an inquisitive 15 year old boy who has
Asperger Syndrome. His condition has left him with limited social skills and difficulties in interpreting other’s
emotions and actions. Through characterisation, the reader sees how Christopher’s character develops in
unfamiliar situations.
Trust and acceptance plays a very important role in relationships Christopher is involved with. Initially,
Christopher and his father share a close, trusting relationship. In chapter 31, their connection is shown
through the symbolism of hands; “He held up his right hand and spread his fingers out in a fan. I held up my
left hand and spread my fingers out into a fan and we made our fingers and thumbs touch each other.” The
motif of this action shows how Christopher expresses his feelings of trust and acceptance for those he loves.
This emphasises the complexity of Christopher’s character. However, the reader feels sympathetic for the
father as he cannot demonstrate his love to his son through a hug or a kiss because Christopher will react
violently to it. The sympathy the reader feels throughout the novel for the characters is part of what makes it
an engaging novel.
Further on in the novel, the relationship between Christopher and his father takes a turn once he finds the
letters. Haddon’s use of language devices expresses the difficulties that Christopher has to overcome to cope
in this situation. For instance, Christopher’s feelings of shock, trauma and fear are shown through the use of
short sentences “Mother had not died” and “My stomach hurt”. The simile “It was like the room was
swinging from side to side, as if it was at the top of a really tall building and the building was swinging
backwards and forwards in a strong wind” explains how Christopher was feeling after he found out this
revelation. Christopher’s feelings of shock are also resembled in the reader’s reaction, which adds to creating
an effective and engaging novel.
The repetition of the disjunction “And I didn’t scream. And I didn’t fight. And I didn’t hit him” ultimately
shows Christopher’s immense trauma because he would usually react if someone touched him. This
demonstrates Christopher’s complexity that the reader is confounded by. For the reader, this situation is
confronting and we understand the pain that both Christopher and his father are dealing with, effectively
engaging the reader into the novel.
The incident where Christopher is at the train station on his way to London demonstrates the severity of
discomfort he feels in unfamiliar places and when surrounded by crowds of people. The orthography of the
mass media and advertisements in the train station such as “London’s Transport Museum” and “JAMAICA”
shows how Christopher is overwhelmed by the unfamiliar place and cannot cope with all the details he tries
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to remember. The reader understands the pain Christopher must be going through and worries for his
further journey to London.
Being different due to a disability can cause isolation, and for onlookers to Christopher, they are commonly
confounded by his actions. The compound sentence “and the back of someone’s jacket touched my knee and
I felt sick and I started groaning really loudly and the lady on the bench stood up and no one else sat down”
shows how other people react to Christopher. Their feelings of discomfort around him can be seen by the
reader, but for Christopher, this is a natural reaction for him and he doesn’t realise what others might see
and think about him. The reader feels sympathetic for Christopher and they understand the disability he is
suffering with and see his character develop through confronting situations.
Order and stability is an important factor of our lives and for Christopher, it is what he runs his life by. In
order for him to feel secure, Christopher needs to be surrounded by stability. The structure of the novel plays
an important role in creating order and stability for Christopher’s world. Up until chapter 149 - the letters the novel follows a structure in which alternating chapters switch between the main storyline about
investigating Wellington’s death and Christopher’s complex digressions. These digressions help Christopher
to cope with situations and regain order. Also, the digressions show the reader a development of character
and an insight into Christopher’s mindscape, adding to the novel’s engaging qualities.
One of the many digressions Christopher includes is about prime numbers. The novel’s chapters are
structured with prime numbers rather than the normal number pattern. Christopher enjoys the idea of prime
numbers because of his fascination with mathematics, and he compares them to life; “They are very logical
but you could never work out the rules even if you spent all your time thinking about them.” This analogy
demonstrates Christopher’s feelings of stability with prime numbers and thus he structures the chapters in
prime numbers. These uncommon qualities add to the novel being engaging for the reader.
When Christopher arrives at his mother’s apartment in London, he is overwhelmed by the unfamiliar place
and feels uncomfortable there. Attempting to overcome his fears, Christopher pictures a map of the
apartment by memory and this calms him down and makes him feel safer because he knows there is order
and structure. Throughout the novel there are many graphics including maps which help Christopher
understand the situation and help him cope with the fears and difficulties he faces.
Christopher’s life is so reliant on order that he goes by each day following a specific schedule. In the novel,
Christopher includes a timetable for a Monday which includes specific tasks at specific times. For instance,
“8.32am: catch bus to school” and “4.18pm: put Toby into his cage”. As a reader, we are worried for
Christopher because he cannot cope with change and is over reliant on structure and order in his life.
Haddon creates the complex character and narrator of Christopher to connect with the reader’s emotions,
adding to the novel’s engaging qualities.
Through the various textual features and themes in the novel ‘The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime’ that Haddon uses, creates an effective and engaging novel for the reader. The unusual structure,
language devices and characterisation makes this novel distinctive so that it effectively engages the reader.
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