Who is the narrator of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time? What to Know

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    The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time is written in the first-person point of view. Christopher Boone acts as both the protagonist and the narrator of the novel, meaning the reader experiences the story from his point of view. The novel is organized as a written account of Wellington’s murder and Christopher’s subsequent investigation. Christopher is highly intelligent and especially good at mathematics and logic puzzles, but he goes to a “special school” because of emotional and behavioral problems, and his unique developmental disorder shapes the narration. Because Christopher has a nearly perfect, photographic memory, he can recount the details from his life in full, vivid detail. He contemplates his experiences and observations with savant-like judgment, and this emotionless logic gives the text its detached, matter-of-fact tone. For example, after he learns that his mother had an affair with Mr. Shears, Christopher says, “I don’t feel sad about it. Because Mother is dead…So I would be feeling sad about something that isn’t real and doesn’t exist. And that would be stupid.” The wide gap between his intellectual and emotional intelligence often creates dramatic irony, in which the reader understands something that Christopher does not. For example, the reader learns early in the novel that Mrs. Shears often came over to his house, cooked Christopher and his father dinner, and spent the night. While the reader understands that Christopher’s father and Mrs. Shears were romantically involved, this reality evades Christopher. From Christopher’s perspective, complex mathematical equations are easy to understand, but routines of everyday life are confounding mysteries.

    Christopher Boone is a fifteen-year-old boy with Asperger syndrome. We dare you to find another book told from that point-of-view. This kid sees the world in a way we would never imagine on our own, and because the story is told in the first person, we get a VIP pass into his brain.

    If you read our thoughts on “Why Should I Care?”, you know how important the narrator is to this story. Actually, if you read the book, you know how important the narrator is to this story.

    How would this story be different if it were told in the third person and we only heard about Christopher instead of from him? Reading Christophers own take on the world helps us empathize with him, sure, but it also opens our minds to the possibility of seeing the world through a different lens. And thats an opportunity well seize, thank you very much.

    Mark Haddon is an author that has won 3 awards in his lifetime from the book The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime. This book has many characters that develop throughout the book such as Christopher Boone, Ed Boone, Judy Boone, Mr. Roger…

    Christopher Boone Christopher John Francis Boone is a 15-year-old boy with sandy brown hair, light brown eyes and can understands most logic of the world, but he hasn’t quite figured out people yet. Christopher has a present characteristic of his ability that can’t really n…

    ‘The Curious Incident of The Dog in The Night-Time’ (2003), explores the world through the perception of a 15 year old Christopher Boone. Mark Haddon, the author, expresses Christopher’s struggle with human, society and many other complex things in life throughout the novel to expose awareness of autism. Haddon used various techniques to achieve his goals for the novel. The use of an inadequate narrator, symbolism, dialogue and love and fear. How Christopher views the world forms the structure and the language of the book and everything stems from that.

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    Dr. Temple Grandin once said that; “the most interesting people you’ll find are ones that don’t fit into your average cardboard box. They’ll make what they need, they’ll make their own boxes.” Mark Haddon’s, Curious incident of the dog in the nighttime explores prevalent topics…

    The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime by Mark Haddon (Book Summary) – Minute Book Report

    The writing style of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time is unique to Christopher’s voice, which is matter-of-fact and childlike. The matter-of-fact style contains metafictional elements, which is when the narrator directly refers to the book he or she is writing and reminds the readers that they are reading a work of fiction…continue reading…

    The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time is written in the first-person point of view. Christopher Boone acts as both the protagonist and the narrator of the novel, meaning the reader experiences the story from his point of view. The novel is organized as a written account of Wellington’s murder and Christopher’s subsequent investigation…continue reading…

    Christopher is likely on the autism spectrum, though this is never explicitly stated in the book. Autism was not recognized until the twentieth century, and for many years, it was regarded without question as a disorder for which a cure needed to be found. The autism rights movement began in the late 1980s and is still gaining strength, led by autistic people who believe that they need no cure; instead, society needs to change its perspective on autistic people. People on the autism spectrum, they argue, function differently than others, but not in a lesser way. In fact, they have many qualities that allow them to excel in particular areas. Curious Incident could certainly be read as expressing support for this point of view. For his part, Mark Haddon claims to know little about autism (and makes it clear that he never specifically diagnoses Christopher), saying that Christopher matters more as a character for his unique perspective on the world than for the fact that he is probably on the autism spectrum.

    In many ways, Christopher is an exceptionally reliable narrator because of his excellent memory and unsentimental nature. Christopher is uniquely observant and remembers every physical detail of his surroundings, including entire conversations, facial expressions, and even smells. [However], Christopher could also be considered an unreliable narrator because he often lacks the emotional intelligence to understand more nuanced realities and easily becomes overwhelmed…continue reading…

    This article, written by Bethan Mai Roper for Medium, discusses how contemporary novels such as The Curious Incident merges genres, forms and structures to disobey expected narrative rules.