The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Nighttime Analysis

Three writing techniques Mark Haddon uses to portraying how Christopher thinks
In The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime, Mark Haddon shows how Christopher, someone with autism, operates. One way he demonstrates this is through the way that he goes off topic all the time. In one example, he goes from talking about going into his father’s room to talking about what objects Joseph Fleming eats in a couple of sentences. In another example, Haddon explains Christopher’s actions and opinions by spelling out why he likes timetables. Haddon uses the same dialogue tags to show that Christopher has trouble seeing different tones and he does this to show when Christopher is nervous. Haddon does a great job of portraying how Christopher thinks

This is perfectly shown in this quote when Christopher thinks, “It was six days before I could go back into Father’s room to look in the cupboard...On the first day...Joseph Fleming...went to the toilet all over the floor...and started to eat it...Joseph eats everything...He eats string and rubber bands and tissues and writing paper...” (102-103) In the quote, Christopher starts talking about going into his dad’s room but quickly switches the topic and talks about a boy at school. Haddon brilliantly shows how his brain connects one thought to another. People who are autistic often notice more than an average person does. A reason why Christopher has so much to say and goes off topic so much because he notices everything. He has trouble ignoring almost everything that he sees, so he feels the need to say everything that he sees. Haddon does a great job timing when Christopher’s brain wanders off topic. Most of the time, he goes off topic because he is feeling anxious or nervous. When Christopher starts to talk about something that makes him uncomfortable, like sneaking into his father’s room, his brain tries to distract him from these scary thoughts. This happens a lot and he says that it sometimes makes his head hurt. A similar way the author helps us understand Christopher’s thought process is by telling the readers everything that Christopher does and his reasoning behind his actions and