The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time Analysis

Throughout the novel, ‘The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time’, author Mark Haddon uses various ways to express the different perspectives of characters in the story. This is evident through the several techniques used, such as, first person narration, followed by the use of tone, language style techniques, and many more which all assisted in representing these perspectives.

The use of first person perspective and symbols are presented in the narrative to assist the reader on how Christopher processes everyday situations. Not only does this allow the reader to see and understand how Christopher perceives the world, it helps give a closer connection and understanding of him, and how he functions. Christopher is the only character

The flashbacks used do not help build the readers perspective on Mother. When she states ‘Jesus Christopher, I am seriously considering putting you in a home’ and ‘You are going to drive me into an early grave’ skews the readers perspective of her. The readers would have felt sympathetic for Christopher and his disabilities growing up, and his mother stating harsh and rude comments is a confronting scene. Throughout the novel, Christopher finds letters written to him by his mother which have been sent throughout the years. The reader is then able to get an understanding of how his Mother is presented as a character and her perspectives of why she left him. For example, Mother wrote to him, ‘I said that I wanted to explain to you why I went away… I was not a very good mother, Christopher. Maybe if things had been different, maybe if you’d be different, I might have been better at it.’ This evidence helps portray a much deeper outlook on her and how she struggles to deal and understand Christopher. Through Christopher first person narration, the readers get detailed factual and un-reliable descriptions of Mother and only see her in a certain, biased way. They way Haddon uses first person narration, and factual and toneless writing styles help characterises Mother as once an unkind and selfish person but has changed her ways and felt sorry for the way she