The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2003

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Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 2-41

Chapters 43-127

Chapters 131-157

Chapters 163-233

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

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Themes

Coping Mechanisms and Safety in an Uncertain World

People want to feel safe. As they grow up, they learn how to deal with others, navigate their social worlds, and learn how to negotiate with those whose desires conflict with theirs. Christopher needs all of this, too, but he struggles to communicate, which places him at a disadvantage with others and puts him in danger when he goes out alone. Christopher is aware of this, and he finds safety, not in other people, but in his own mind.

First, he has strict rules about how to deal with the world. He plans his day to the minute; he eats specific foods in specific ways; he speaks rote phrases to social questions; he rates days as good or bad depending on how many red or yellow cars in a row he sees from the school bus window. These techniques may seem stiff and arbitrary to outsiders, but to Christopher they represent stability in a chaotic world.

Second, he fills his thoughts with math and science. Christopher does this partly because he loves the power and certainty of mathematical and scientific proofs, and partly for their soothing effect on his often-anxious mind. On his journey to London, he must wend his way through crowds of people whose overwhelming presence terrifies him; to soothe his anxiety, he performs difficult arithmetical exercises in his head, which keeps his mind occupied and less frantic.

Third, he loves honesty and dislikes lying, fiction, and metaphors. Only the truth makes him feel safe, whereas the mere idea of stories and comparisons confuse him: “even writing this makes me feel shaky and scared” (19). He does, however, enjoy reading the Sherlock Holmes stories because he admires the fictional detective for his outstanding mental abilities and keen observational skills.

Christopher’s search for safety ironically puts him in danger as he searches for his mother, but to restore the security he once knew in his family, he must reach deep into his own resolve. Christopher’s risky cross-country journey in search of his mother helps him to understand that a principal source of safety is self-reliance, and that he has the ability to adapt and respond to new and scary situations. He realizes that he can do anything he sets his mind to, and that he can survive terrors and overcome dangers to achieve his goals. He also gets his parents back, which restores a foundation of emotional safety on which he can build a solid and secure future.

The Quest for Understanding Between Different Minds

The Curious Incident tells the story of one boy’s attempt to navigate a social world largely alien to his way of perceiving. The book also describes the struggles of people close to that boy as they try to understand him better and to help him share his vividly powerful intelligence with others.

Christopher has Autism, which gives him an unusual way of perceiving the world. To begin with, he can’t decipher people’s facial expressions, nor can he reconcile their informal and metaphorical speech with his precise mind. Both of these limit his ability to communicate.

One of Christopher’s coping mechanisms is to develop his intelligence to a high degree, so that he can reason out what other people are thinking. His logical and scientific way of interacting with people and the world lead him to the conclusion that most humans have highly informal and inaccurate perceptions. When he tries to explain this to others, they often become impatient with him. This is hard for Christopher to understand—Why wouldn’t anyone want the full and accurate truth?—and it interferes with his ability to communicate his observations fully.

Another of Christopher’s workarounds is to memorize stock phrases that he can use in a variety of social situations. For example, “I said, ‘I’m doing very well, thank you,’ which is what you’re meant to say” (66). Already, he tends to be terse and direct, and these simple responses fit well with his personality. This has the side effect, however, of deferring lengthy observations he might wish to share. Thus, Christopher lives with many thoughts and ideas that have no outlet. Christopher’s teacher Siobhan, recognizing the boy’s need for self-expression, suggests he write a book about his murder investigation and related experiences; this provides Christopher a much wider platform from which he can communicate.

So thorough is Christopher’s description of his experiences that the reader comes to understand him better than any of the other characters. These other people the reader must decipher from the clues provided by Christopher’s random observations of their manners, their possessions, and their words. In this way, the reader gets an impression of how Christopher’s very different, yet very capable, mind works.

As much as Christopher struggles to understand others, they struggle to understand him. His brutal honesty and precise behaviors and habits can be off-putting. Despite knowing him for years, his mother and father still struggle to understand him. This is evident when his mother hugs him when they reunite. They must confront and overcome their own limitations—they are as different from Christopher as he is from them—before they are fully able to embrace their roles as his parents.

Accomplishing Goals and Overcoming Obstacles

Christopher tests himself with three goals: to solve the mystery of the dog’s murder, to take the A-level math exam and do well, and to solve the mystery of his missing mother. These challenges are linked, and to accomplish all three, Christopher must grow as a person. His parents, too, face severe emotional tests in their struggle to become successful parents to a child with autism.

Christopher’s first challenge, the case of Wellington the dead poodle, forces him to speak to outsiders, something he hates to do, but his love for dogs and his sense of outrage at Wellington’s killing drive him forward. He investigates with great determination, to the point of defying his father, who wants him to stop bothering the neighbors with his detective work. Christopher’s search leads him to clues that take him closer to solving the murder, which, in turn, moves him closer to solving the mystery of his mother’s disappearance.

Christopher wants to take the A-level math exams to demonstrate his abilities and give himself a head start in a campaign to attend college: “I am going to prove that I’m not stupid. Next month I’m going to take my A level in maths and I’m going to get an A grade” (44). To this end, he studies hard. His detecting, however, will lead him down a path that interferes with taking the exams.

His father discovers Christopher’s journal and confiscates it. In searching for it, Christopher finds a set of letters to him from his mother, written long after she was supposed to have died. Christopher realizes she moved away and misses him, and that his father lied about it. When he discovers that his father killed Wellington, he concludes that he must find his mother and live with her. Overcoming many obstacles, Christopher gets to London and locates his mother, but she isn’t ready to support him in taking his A levels. She must overcome her sense of failure as a parent and give up her relationship with Roger Shears to do justice to her son’s needs. She does so, and Christopher is able to take his exam and pass it with a top grade.

Christopher’s father, too, must atone for lying about Christopher’s mother, killing the dog, and fist-fighting with his son. Both father and mother realize that their squabbles and petty needs pale in comparison with their son’s need for a safe and nurturing family. They push past anger, selfishness, and remorse to reunite and support Christopher and his growth as a brilliant and productive human being.

Christopher solves all of the challenges he set for himself; on top of that, he writes a book, The Curious Incident. In the process, he grows as a person and learns that he can accomplish much more than he dreamed. His parents also pass the test of their commitment to their son, which reunites their family and gives Christopher the love and safety he needs to move forward in life.