The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Nighttime Autism

Aida Hedstrom

Mr.Weimkin

English 11

April 13th, 2023

Autism and Family in

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time

“The world is full of obvious things which nobody by any chance ever observes.” pg 43. Mark Haddon wrote the novel The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime to show the positive and negative sides of being a neurodivergent individual. This novel demonstrates how concrete of a mindset Christopher has as a result of his autism, the effects Aspergers and other forms of autism have on relationships, and how the surrounding environment heavily impacts the actions of an autistic person. Mark Haddon demonstrates Christopher’s concrete mindset and how it relates to Christopher’s diagnosis of autism. Christopher

He is very intelligent and is aware of his preferences. On page 84 Christopher says, “Here are the reasons I hate yellow and brown. Yellow: Custard, Bananas (also may be brown), Double yellow lines, Yellow fever, etc.“. His mind assures him he won't encounter anything negative if he stays away from undesirable colors. When Christopher is driving to school, he knows that if he sees four yellow cars in a row, it will be a very bad day, so he won't talk to anyone, he won't participate in anything, and he won't take any chances. However, if he sees four red cars in a row, it will be a very good day therefore he will be more outgoing, he will take more chances, and everything will work out well. The

For instance, his father killed Mr.Wellington, which he should be punished for. Even though his father committed a terrible act Christopher’s perspective was, “I had to get out of the house. Father had murdered Wellington. That meant he could murder me. because I couldn't trust him, even though he said “Trust me”. After all, he had told a lie about a big thing”. Yes, Christophers' father did a terrible, unforgivable thing. But it is quite obvious Christopher's father could not hurt him. Christopher did not factor in important variables such as his emotional connection to his father. On a separate note, his mindset is an amazing asset regarding his academics. “Mr. Jeavons said that I liked maths because it was safe. He said I liked maths because it meant solving problems, and these problems were difficult and interesting but there was always a straightforward answer at the end.” Due to his black-and-white thinking, all of the solutions he considers are apparent and everything has a simpler solution. He makes no other considerations. He enjoys maths because it has formulae, a starting query, and an ending solution. He likes maths, talks about it frequently, and uses it as a relaxing approach since, in contrast to human emotions, viewpoints, and particular human relationships, it is simple and easy to understand. In summary,