Disabilities are generally seen as a weakness, but Mark Haddon shows the strengths. In Mark Haddon's novel, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime, he effectively represents disability through the main character Christopher Boone. Christopher faces many obstacles relating to his disability and his home life. Throughout this book, Christopher's family influences him in his book genre, character relationships, and disability. Within the first few chapters, Christopher explains the genre of his book and why he likes this genre. Christopher is very straightforward and upfront with his writing. He states that this novel is a murder mystery. Generally, in a murder mystery novel, people are the victims. But in Christopher's book, a dog is the victim. Siobhan tells him this is not how most murder mystery novels are done. Christopher writes, “She said that it was usually people who were killed in murder mystery novels” (Haddon 5). This novel is about solving the murder of a dog while also showing the extraordinary life of Christopher. …show more content…
He has his pet rat Toby, his teacher Siobhan, and his parents. Christopher is very self-aware of his disability, and talks openly about his struggles. Christopher even shares some of his behavioral problems like not talking to people for a long time or saying things that people think are rude. Although Christopher might be a likable and great person, his disability might make it hard for people to befriend him. For example, Christopher says, "Once [he] didn't talk to anyone for five weeks"(Haddon 46). I think it would be hard to be Christopher's friend, but he doesn't seem bothered by