Mark Haddon’s the Curious Incident

Mark Haddon’s The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, is essentially a novel based on the challenges faced by its main characters. The characters in the text are faced with problems and obstacles that they need to overcome. This essay will explore how each member of the Boone family- Christopher, Ed and Judy deal with these challenges.

Ed, Christopher’s father, who is also his sole carer, faces difficulties and challenges as he raises a son with special needs all on his own. Ed struggles with the fact that Judy, his ex-wife leaves him for their neighbour Mr. Shears. It is seen that Ed is an emotional person however bottles up his feelings. He knows Christopher might have difficulty understanding the complexities of love and heartbreak so decides to lie to Christopher about what happened between his wife and himself. He tells Christopher that his mother had died of a heart attack. Out of frustration and anger, Ed murders Mrs Shears’ dog Wellington. As Christopher likes dogs and investigates the murder of it, his father disapproves. However, Christopher continues with it all and goes behind his father’s back. When Ed finds out what his son is up to, he is furious and cannot contain his anger. He is hot tempered and is also very violent. This is evident in the novel by, ‘But Father interrupted me and grabbed hold of my arm really hard. ‘ (page 103). Dealing with his son’s disabilities and his wife walking out on him proves to be the biggest challenge for him and he struggles tremendously.

Christopher, the protagonist of the novel suffers from Asperser’s Syndrome. This is a syndrome that enables him to see the world only through his limited perspective which results in fear of, and the inability to understand people’s emotions. He has a fear of germs, interacting with strangers and crowds, inability to eat certain foods with particular colours. Furthermore, Christopher does not like to be touched. This is a challenge for his father as he can only express his love for his son through spreading out his fingers in a fan and make their fingers and thumbs touch each other. This is demonstrated in the novel by, ‘I do not like hugging people, so we do this instead, and it means that he loves me.’ (page 21). Christopher faces the ultimate challenge when he