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The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time By Mark Haddon

1304 Words6 Pages

Magali Fernandez
Gillett
ERWC
17 May 2023
Final Writing: Curious Essay Edward Boone was justified in lying to his son since knowing the truth about his mother would make things more difficult and painful for both of them. He wanted to protect Christopher as much as he could even if that meant hiding the truth from him. "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time" is a novel written by Mark Haddon, first published in 2003. The story is narrated by a 15-year-old boy named Christopher John Francis Boone, who has Asperger's syndrome, a form of autism. Christopher discovers the dead body of his neighbor's dog, Wellington, and sets out to solve the mystery of who killed him. Along the way, he uncovers family secrets and confronts his own …show more content…

Christopher, who is on the autism spectrum, struggles to understand social cues and emotions, which often leads to misunderstandings with his father. Despite these challenges, there are moments of love and connection between Christopher and Ed throughout the novel. Ed demonstrates his love for his son by supporting him in his investigation of the dog's death and by ultimately helping him achieve his goal of taking the math A-level exam. Christopher also shows love for his father by recognizing that he is trying his best to support him, even if they don't always understand each other. Although recognizing Christopher and Edward’s arduous relationship. Ed lovingly and diligently cares for Christopher, yet he also struggles with the frustration he feels as a result of not always being able to understand Christopher’s behavior. However, Edward also becomes regularly angry with Christopher due to misunderstandings between them. In spite of the fact that he is extremely protective of Christopher. This impulse to protect Christopher and his desire to punish Christopher’s mother Judy for the way she left, leads him to lie to Christopher about his mother’s leaving. Edward lied to Christopher because he was trying to protect him. Edward felt that Christopher was too young and fragile to handle the truth about his mother's absence from the family and the fact that she had abandoned them. Edward believes that the truth would cause Christopher more pain and confusion, so he chose to lie in order to protect him. “We lie to protect the feelings of others,” states Michael Lewis, Ph.D., an influential professor of pediatrics at Rutgers University. In the Article “Liar, Liar: We All Lie…” by author Robert Roy Britt. This quote strongly supports why Edward chose to lie to his son. Edward truly cares and loves his son and does not want to see Christopher get hurt. Numerous

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The role of adults play a crucial role in Christopher’s life, and his father is no exception. Ed Boone has been seen as a negative influence,, as he forces Christopher to be secretive, is very unstable, and uses crude language and physical force on his son, as well as lying about crucial parts of Christopher’s life. Christopher’s father often goes to extremes when demonstrating his emotions, occasionally blowing up in anger, and he lacks the confidence to work through his problems verbally. When trying to explain himself he stutters and stops and often has trouble connecting sentences. Like Christopher, he has very few friends—Rhodri is the only one the novel mentions.

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This can distinctly be seen when Christopher divulges, during his conversation with his dad, “Then he came back with a golden retriever” (219). This demonstrates that Ed wants Christopher to stay positive and joyful, even after his pet rat, Toby, dies. Hence, he buys the puppy, as Christopher loves dogs. Overall, Ed Boone’s good parenting skills keep him constantly on the job of making Christopher feel and be

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This is not the case with his view of Christopher’s mother. Christopher’s mother cheated on his father, which betrayed their love and trust. When Christopher’s father showed up at his mother’s house, they just argued the entire time. Christopher’s mother betrayed his father’s trust, and he no longer loves her. Christopher betrayed his father’s trust, but his father still loved him.

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The quote also shows that his father is not going to let people marginalize or walk all over Christopher. “I want to see my son,” and “ why the hell is he locked up?” and “ of course, I'm bloody angry.” ( Haddon 16) this is another example of how Christopher's father Ed Boone Wanted to help and be a good parent for Christopher by being there for him when he was at the police station instead of yelling at Christopher or Blaming him for getting put in a holding cell for punching an officer. This shows how, even though Ed Boone did many things that would be considered things that a bad person

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People should not trust anyone when they are full of rage or full of sadness because chances are they would say something that they wanted to keep a secret and they would most likely regret it. In the book, it states “I killed Wellington” “please Christopher. Just...let me explain.”(86) There was a policeman at the door [I told the police] father killed Wellington, who is a dog.”(134) This explains that when Christopher 's father was full of sadness he randomly told Christopher that he killed the dog, but Christopher told the police and did not keep the secret.

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Christopher’s parents, Ed Boone and Judy Boone, are very important people in Christopher’s life, as well as important characters in this novel. They play a big part in his life, he wouldn’t be the kind of person he is without their constant lectures and care that they provide. Both, the mother and the father, love and care for Christopher. “She had sent me lots of love and had my Get Well card on the table beside her bed.” Before his mother passed away, and even during her slow death, Judy continued to send love to her son.

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Even though I would not state that telling the truth would drastically impact Christopher, judging by the way his mind works, the big lie possibly prevented unwanted consequences of the truth, for example if Christopher did not approve the separation, and wanted to meet his mother even though she left him and Ed. Stephanie Ericsson, in ‘The Ways We Lie,’ calls this variation of lies White Lies, or a lie that ‘assumes that the truth will cause more damage than the truth’ (Ericsson 2). In the novel, even though Christopher’s exhibits rational and logical thinking, he is too young to take responsibility for his decisions - 15 years, 3 months, and 2 days old - thus it is better for his father to determine and choose what he should know, and what he should not know. It includes information about his mother, who has left them reasoning her decision to not be a ‘patient person’ to handle Christopher, as Ed in contrast is. In the novel, Ed reveals to Christopher that he is the one who killed Wellington, hence it means that Ed has been hiding it throughout the novel.

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On the contrary, he also deals with problems and issues that are felt by every human on the planet, allowing the reader to feel empathy for him. His social tendencies show that he may suffer from a social disability. Despite this, Christopher goes on a journey, displaying courage and the benefits and the new beginnings that will happen. In addition, Christopher becomes much confident and a better and stronger person than he ever was. During his search he meets new people who become his friend resulting in unexpected answers to be brought to light.

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