'In what ways does the author engage and sustain the interest of the reader in “the curious incident of the dog in the night time” '.
Mark Haddon’s hybrid genre novel, ‘the curious incident of the dog in the night time’. This novel starts of as a murder mystery novel written by a boy with Asperger’s, it then goes further into the core ideas and themes by developing a more thorough insight of the understanding his ‘disability’ the main character, a young teenage boy Christopher Boone, who is narrating the story. Throughout the novel Haddon positions the readers to experience Christopher’s life, where he cannot catch on to human norms and the social norms he is unaware of. By Haddon using this he can use Christopher’s disorder to describe the idea in a nuanced world he has created and the contemporary society.
Haddon starts the off as a typical ‘who did it’ murder mystery novel, and he uses short and sharp sentences designed to create tension. These short sharp sentences are also followed throughout the novel showing Christopher’s disinterest in certain things. Haddon then uses emoticons to communicate his story. This engages the readers to realise it is not conventional.
Haddon uses skilful characterisation of Christopher’s parents and provides a strong commentary on the human condition and puts use somewhere as responders. Thus, showing that we should evaluate the notions we carry towards disabilities and the judgements of the behaviour of others. The author uses the