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What Is The Truth In The Curious Incident Of The Dog At Night

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How would you feel about someone who went against your definition of love and truth?
In the book, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time By Mark Haddon, Christopher, the protagonist, is a 15-year-old boy with Autism who sets out to solve the murder of his neighbor's dog. Along the way, he not only solves the murder but uncovers the truth and lies behind his own family as well. Christopher's meaning of love and truth stays the same throughout the novel and doesn't make exceptions for the people he considered close to him.
Other Characters in the book like his mother and father also insinuate what they believe loving someone is. With every character’s own meaning of what love is, Christopher’s concept of love and truth seems …show more content…

Christopher goes into more detail when he explains,” Loving someone is helping them when they get into trouble, and looking after them, and telling them the truth, and
Father looks after me when I get into trouble like coming to the police station, and he looks after me by cooking meals for me, and he always tells me the truth which means that he loves me.”
However, it ends us being revealed that Christopher’s father had lied to him about many things including his mother’s death and the death of Wellington, betraying Christopher’s love and trust which he considers unforgivable. His definition doesn’t change over time which is proven when he refuses to talk to his father willingly. When Christopher learns that his father killed the dog Wellington and lied about his mother’s death, Christopher loses all trust in his father and becomes frightened whenever he is around. On page 167 Christopher states,” father had murdered Wellington. That means that he could murder me because I couldn’t trust him, even though he has said ‘trust me because he had told a lie about a big thing.” He also gets scared when his father is in the room with him because he’s afraid he might kill him by thinking. He shares, “And then Father came into …show more content…

But I was holding my Swiss Army Knife with the blade out iin case he grabbed me( pg
197).” And goes on to say,” And then he held up his right hand and spread his fingers out in a fan so that I could touch his fingers but I didn’t because I was frightened(pg 197).”
Other characters, like his mother and father, imply that to love someone means sacrificing for them and caring for them. His father insinuates that he cares for Christopher more than his mother when he shouts, “I cooked his meals, I cleaned his clothes. I looked after him every weekend. I looked after him when he was ill. I took him to the doctor. I worried myself sick every time he wandered off somewhere in the night. I went to school every time he got into a fight. And you? What? You wrote him some fucking letters” While the mother implies that she cared for Christopher by writing ”And I think that was when I realized that you and your father were probably better off if I wasn’t in the house. Then he would only have one person to look after instead of two” in one of her letters( pg, 109).
Christopher’s definition of love and truth is reasonable to a certain extent. While a person shouldn't lie to you, it isn’t necessary to fully rely on someone As for people lying,

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