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Chelsea Stone
Vanessa Ruccolo
ENGL 2604
25 October 2011
His Father’s Effort
How far would a parent go to ensure the comfort of their child? What if the child had a
mental disability? Children with autism can be difficult to deal with and it can be easy to
misconstrue a parent’s intentions toward their disabled child. According to Petra Kuppers’s
essay “Dancing Autism: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime and Bedlam,” an
autistic child has a, “distanced view of the rules that make up love, relationships, need, and
care,” and therefore can be more challenging to raise (Kuppers 193). Christopher is one such
example of an autistic child. In Mark Haddon’s The Curious Incident of the Dog in the NightTime, Christopher’s father is portrayed in a negative light, but actually proves himself to be an
outstanding father.
A clear example of why Christopher’s father is truly a respectable father, as opposed to
the way readers may observe him in the novel, is that he repeatedly goes out of his way to
make sure that his son stays happy. Because Christopher lives only with his father, it is his
father that makes Christopher’s meals. He does not like to have his food touching, and his
father accommodates this quirk of Christopher’s, along with many others. This accommodating
nature is seen when Christopher describes a dinner that his father has made for him. He says,
“The supper was baked beans and broccoli and two slices of ham and they were laid out on the
plate so that they were not touching” (Haddon, 47). There are very few parents in the world
who would go to such seemingly useless lengths to get their children to eat, but Christopher’s
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dad sees this peculiarity of his son’s as entirely normal, and does his best to cope with the
situation in the way that he sees as best.
Dinners are not the only example of how Christopher’s father goes out of his way to
accommodate Christopher’s eccentric needs in regards to his eating habits. Christopher has a
special food box in the kitchen that is reserved for his own food, and nobody is allowed to use
or touch that special box except Christopher. This box is full of things that Christopher likes to
eat, or that he uses to make undesirable foods more appealing. For example, when Christopher
gets home one night, his father offers to put some Indian food in the oven for him for dinner.
Christopher says, “This is because I like Indian food because it has a strong taste. But Gobi Aloo
Sag is yellow, so I put red food coloring into it before I eat it. And I keep a little plastic bottle of
this in my special food box” (67). Not only does this show Christopher’s father taking care of
him again, but it also shows another way that he deals with Christopher’s disease. He always
makes sure that Christopher has what he needs to stay content.
Because of his disease, Christopher does not like to be touched, and therefore does
not appreciate normal affection that parents would shower upon their children. Where normal
children would receive kisses and hugs from their mothers and fathers, Christopher “does
groaning” when he is touched, much to the chagrin of his parents (46). Christopher and his
folks have a different way of showing affection. When his father comes to the police station to
pick him up in the early morning hours, he shows affection to make sure that his son is calm in
the face of the difficult situation. Christopher says,
“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 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” (16).
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To anyone who does not understand Christopher’s condition or that Christopher has a
disability, this act would seem odd and out of place. But to Christopher, this is the only form of
love or warmth he can tolerate. His father deals well with his social abnormalities, though, and
has come to be very competent at keeping Christopher calm.
Another way that Christopher’s father proves himself is that he stays and takes care
of Christopher when the mother, his wife, leaves the family. Of course Christopher cannot be
left alone, but his father certainly has the option of putting him in some sort of home or special
school for children with disabilities. Instead, he chooses to take care of his son on his own,
without the help of his former wife. However, in his efforts to be a good father to a somewhat
difficult child, he felt the need to lie to keep Christopher safe. Christopher does not like lies at
all, and they, “make [him] feel shaky and scared” (20). Therefore, having his father lie to him
was the ultimate act of betrayal.
The only reason that Christopher’s father lied to him, though, was for Christopher’s
own benefit, and the father, in no way, had any malicious intent. When Christopher finds the
box of letters from his mother, whom he had thought dead for many years, he expectedly goes
into a state of shock and panic. He leaves his own mind for a very long time, and his father
finds him curled up on the bed, surrounded by the letters and his own vomit. Instead of being
angry that Christopher went rummaging through his own personal belongings, he immediately
goes into father-mode, and takes care of his obviously ill son. He tells Christopher, “we have to
get you cleaned up, OK?” and then he, “go[es] to the bathroom and turn[s] the taps on” (115).
He takes care of the vomit and gets Christopher clean, despite being angry over his invasion of
personal privacy. His actions during this trying situation show how level-headed and calm he is
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in the face of trouble. Though there are times when the father loses his temper, the examples
of collectedness outweigh the examples of hot-headedness. This calm in the face of adversity is
an exceptional quality for a father to have, especially a father who is raising an autistic child.
When Christopher finds the letters from his mother, who had been writing him at
least one letter a week since she had left the family, his father not only gives Christopher a
heartfelt apology, but also tries to explain his reasoning for his actions. Christopher says, “Then
he said, ‘I did it for your good, Christopher. Honestly I did. I never meant to lie. I just thought .
. . I just thought it was better if you didn’t know . . . that . . . that . . . I didn’t mean to . . . I was
going to show them to you when you were older” (114). The father’s dialogue here clearly
shows how upset he is about the situation. He apologizes to Christopher, and tries his best to
give a reason for his actions. He even tries to remedy the situation a bit by telling Christopher
that he planned on showing him the letters from his mother when he got older, when he could
better understand what went on at the time. A divorce is not easy on any child, much less one
with a mental disorder.
To further his descent in Christopher’s view, the father goes on to tell the truth about
what really happened to Wellington, which is the mystery that Christopher has been trying to
solve all along. His dad tells the truth in an effort to let Christopher know that he can be
trusted, that he has no need to be afraid of his father. He starts out shaky, saying, “maybe I
shouldn’t say this, but . . . I want you to know that you can trust me,” and finally lets it out,
saying, “I killed Wellington, Christopher” (120). Of course, this confession of guilt does not have
the desired effect upon his son, and only serves to frighten Christopher all the more, but the
point is that his father was trying to be a sound one. He admitted something he was not proud
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of, and only did so in an effort to try to let Christopher know that from that point forward, he
was going to do his best to be entirely truthful about everything. His confession was not only
necessary, but also respectable.
Yet another example of Christopher’s father doing his best to be a sound person and
father is after he realizes what Christopher has done, and knows that he has gone to his
mother’s flat in London. He goes all the way to London to try to bring Christopher home,
despite knowing that it will be an awkward situation with his former wife’s new significant
other also being in the flat. Regardless of two people telling him he should not be there,
however, he goes in to try to talk to Christopher. He finds his son and says, “Christopher, I’m
really, really sorry. About everything. About Wellington. About the letters. About making you
run away. I never meant . . . I promise I will never do anything like that again” (197). In this
moment, Christopher’s father is facing everything that he has been running away from since his
wife left him. This courage shows how much he really is sorry about things that happened.
Christopher even says that, “there were tears dripping off his face” (197). His father is clearly
upset, but it is not because of where he is at. He is upset because he knows that he has
permanently damaged his relationship with his son, and this would be painful to any parent.
Even after Christopher decides to continue living with his mother, his father does not
stop trying to mend the broken relationship with his son. Christopher does not have any desire
to talk to his father, so he tries to make a deal with his son. To get Christopher to talk to him,
he sets a timer, and tells his son that he has to stay where he’s at for five minutes, but then he
can go. Then he says,
“Things can’t go on like this . . . you have to learn to trust me . . . And I don’t care how
long it takes . . . If it’s a minute one day and two minutes the next and three minutes the
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next and it takes years I don’t care. Because this is important. This is more important
than anything else” (218).
The above quote shows that his father is not only willing to do anything to repair his
relationship with his son, but it also shows that he will be incredibly hurt if things do not work
out the way he would like them to. He feels a strong need to make sure Christopher is happy,
and would do anything to make sure that the two of them have an ongoing relationship.
As a final act of showing Christopher that he really can be trusted, his dad brings out
an attempted replacement for the dog he killed. After he gives the new dog to Christopher, he
says, “Christopher, I would never, ever do anything to hurt you” (219). The new dog is his effort
at a peace offering, and he hopes that by making up for what he did wrong, he can earn his
son’s trust back again. The new dog is a great start to convincing Christopher that his dad is not
really as bad as he once seemed.
Though Christopher’s father does many things in the novel that are either
questionable or outright wrong, he is a fantastic father overall. Though he is portrayed in a
discouraging light, he probably should not be seen as a bad person. He tries endlessly to be a
decent father for Christopher, and repeatedly shows himself to be not only a great person, but
a wonderful father as well. Christopher could not ask for a more tolerant, loving person for a
dad.
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Works Cited
Haddon, Mark. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. New York, NY: Vintage Books,
2003. Print.
Kuppers, Petra. "Dancing Autism: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time and
Bedlam." 28.1-2 (2008): 193-195. Print.