Matthew Maisonneuve
Steven Phomsombath
Ranier Mendoza
David Subramaniaiyer
Kim-Khoi Pham
Jayson Phan
Summary of The Curious Incident.
The curious incident of the dog at night time begins with Christopher, the protagonist, finding a
dead dog named Wellington. Christopher likes dogs so he approaches him, intrigued by knowing who killed
him. The police quickly come and ask Christopher various questions, and ends up touching Christopher. He
doesn’t like people touching him so he punches the officer and then he is sent to jail. In a few moments, his
dad picks him up. Christopher’s mind is quickly filled with the thought of who killed Wellington, so he
decides to do some detective work to solve the mystery, and to record all of his findings in this book that he is
writing.
After doing many investigations, his dad gets mad at him and takes his book away. Out of the usual,
Christopher avoids breaking a promise made with his dad and goes in his dad’s room to find the book. Excited
to find his book, Christopher stumbles upon a box full with letters from this mysterious person, and all of the
letters are addressed to him. He later finds out that the letters were from his mom, which was presumed dead
2 years ago by a heart problem. His dad tries to consolidate him by saying he had no choice to lie about his
mother’s death and reveals that he, in fact, was the one that killed Wellington.
Christopher gets afraid that his dad is able to kill him at any time so he decides to run away to
London, where his mom lives. After a long and hard journey, fighting his autistic habits, he finally reaches his
mom at London, in which he stays. His dad comes to finds Christopher and threatens to sue his mom over
their son’s custody. In the end, his mom moves back in the same city as Christopher’s father, and his dad
makes it up by getting a dog for Christopher.
Detailed character sketch of
Christopher
Christopher’s narration is first person. He talks throughout the novel as
if he is explaining something to another person. This is evident by Christopher
giving his opinion on situations that are out of his comfort zone. He also goes
into details with conversations he had with another person. An example would
be when Christopher talked to the police officer.
A character trait for Christopher would be that he is intelligent. It is clear
that he is intelligent when he got a high mark on his high level math exam at
the end of the novel. He also uses math formulas to substitute objects to solve a
problem that is happening to him. This happens frequently throughout the
novel.
Christopher’s behaviour is cautious. He does not talk to strangers unless
he feels that he is obligated to. For example is when he needed to find a route
to his mother’s house, he talked to a stranger to get a general idea where he
needed to go. Another example would be when he went through the park with
his neighbour to find out why his father disliked Mr. Shears.
Secondary characters
 Mr. Boone: Ed Boone, his real name, is the father of Christopher Boone. He owns a
heating maintenance and boiler repair business. He takes care of Christopher and sees to
his every need. He is a caring and loving father towards him. “Christopher, I would never,
ever do anything to hurt you.”(p.219). But he can also be aggressive, due to the fact that he
has all that anger built up inside. Ed Boone is really important in this book, because
without him hiding those letters from Christopher, we would have never seen him grow
up and become independent.
 Siobhan: She is Christopher’s primary teacher at school. She is very humble and a very
intellectual being. Siobhan teaches and guides Christopher to expand his horizons
socially as well as academically. “Siobhan said that the book should begin with something
to grab people’s attention.”(p.5). She is a very important character due to the fact that she
teaches Christopher the right ways to live on and become a great individual.
 Mrs. Gascoyne: Mrs. Gascoyne, although not as known in the book as Wellington, Mrs.
Shears prized puddle, she still plays a very important role in Christopher’s live
academically. She is Christopher’s school principal, she is strict but isn’t that how most
principals are. Mrs. Gascoyne is also very generous; I mean at first she wasn’t too fond of
Christopher taking his A-level math exam but she did agree to it, because she wanted to
give him a chance to be somebody
Settings someone needs to do it.

The Setting is information on the time , place and atmosphere .

It takes place in a small town Swindon Wiltshire situated In England , In the suburbs , a quiet little
neighbourhood where nothing much happens and all the neighbours know each other. Some
neighbours have grudges with each other for personal reasons .

The Time is approximately the beginning of the 21st century and sometimes gives flashbacks to the
1990s. At this Time London was a growing community exploiting the tourism business , they created
the London Eye .

The atmosphere of this book switches often, at the beginning when feel kind of bad for him because
he is autistic , later on we see he is very intelligent and independent for an autistic child. The
Atmosphere at the beginning is calm and nothing is really happening near the end the pace of the
book elevates and we have a runaway drama story.
Topics and themes
 Why he likes Math: Christopher uses math as a solution in life. Basically he uses it to
describe anything, because he finds it very logical. But for most people, it is really
complex and very confusing. He enjoys learning anything in relation to mathematics, due
to the fact that he considers it like a dictionary or video games.
 Why he likes Sherlock Holmes: Christopher Boone likes Sherlock Holmes, because he
can really relate to him very much. For instance, he likes solving crimes, like the incident
when Wellington, Mrs. Shears prize position dog. He also stays concentrated and
extremely focused on one thing. For example, if he is solving a math problem and Chris is
really concentrated on it, he will blur out everything and every sound surrounding him.
Because he is so focused. Christopher can also relate to Sherlock, for the fact that they
both have sidekicks. Sherlock’s sidekick is Dr. Watson and Christopher’s is Toby; his pet
rat.
 His reactions to the letters: Christopher was extremely stupefied, because he finds out
something really shocking... That his mother is still healthy and alive and his dad has
been lying to him the whole time by telling him that she died from a heart attack. The
letters also led him to knowing more of the truth from his father. For instance,
Christopher found out that his own father killed the dog.
Symbols
 Their are many symbols in this book like the Math equations he uses in
life , the maps he makes up in his head and how he use his Swiss army
knife in situations.
 Math Equations: he uses them to solve his every day problems and
hobbys , when we would usually just use common sense.
 Maps: His makes up maps in his head of every new place he visits so
he feels comfortable.
 Swiss Army Knife : He always has a Swiss army knife on him to he feels
secure and when people approach him he threatens top take it out.
Genres
 The curious incident of the dog in the night-time”
is mainly composed by three genres:
 -Bildungsroman
 -Detective fiction/Murder mystery
 -Quest narrative
Quest Narrative
 Quest narrative is a type of novel where the author
describes anything he sees, experienced, discovered or
whatever he is thinking at the moment. Christopher is very
specific and precise when it comes to narrating. He likes to
use math terms and compare things to his favourite
mathematicians in his narration. ```The curious incident
of the dog in the night-time`` is a quest narrative, because
Christopher tells you everything he sees and feels.
Christopher describes how he wanted to be in level A math
and go to university to become a scientist. He also
describes how he wanted to find the person who killed
Wellington, how he feels when he is uncomfortable, his
trip to London and many more scenes.
Detective Fiction/ Murder Mystery.
 . Murder mystery and Detective fiction is types of novels
about detectives investigating crime scenes and solving
cases. One day, Christopher found Ms. Sheers dog dead
near her house. Christopher decided to find out who killed
Wellington. ``The curious incident of the dog in the
night-time`` is a detective fiction, because Christopher is
trying to figure out who killed Wellington and who was
writing him the letters. He asked people if they saw
anything to help him find the suspect. He looked for clues
and narrowed down who might be the killer. In the end, his
father admitted to him that he killed Wellington and that
his mother was the one who wrote him the letters.
Bildungsroman
 Bildungsroman is a type of novel about the psychological growth of the
protagonist of the story. Christopher has Asperger syndrome. That means he
has problems interacting with people and likes to be independent. He hates it
when people touch him. He does not like it when people make fun of him. He
is very cautious when it comes to the people that surround him. When he feels
uncomfortable, he starts yelling or he tries to avoid stuff that is making him
feel uncomfortable ``The curious incident of the dog in the night-time` `is a
Bildungsroman novel, because it shows you the psychological improvement of
Christopher becoming a more sane person and becoming a more tolerant child.
For example, Christopher used to cherish and love his father, until he found
out that his dad killed Wellington. Christopher decided to run away from
home, because he thinks that his father might kill him too. In the end,
Christopher`s father bought him a dog to show him that he loves him and begs
for his forgiveness. Christopher decided to forgive his dad`s sins even though
Christopher has problems understanding things and being really scared of his
father.