Jessica Martinez- The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

In the novel, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night- Time, by Mark Haddon, the main character Christopher John Francis Boone, feels compelled to solve the riveting mystery of who killed Weelington, his neighbor's dog. Christopher is a very unique child. He can't stand the color yellow and absolutely detests when anyone touches him. The main character does not lack a brain, he is extremely intelligent, "I know all the countries of the world and their capital cities and every prime number up to 7,057. " (p.g. 2) He just has trouble comprehending feelings and why things like metaphors exist, "... the word metaphor is a metaphor. I think it should be called a lie because a pig is not like a day and people do not have skeletons in their cupboards." (p.g. 15) It is because Christopher has trouble doing certain things that solving the mystery of Wellington's death challenges him. He concluded that whoever killed Wellington had it out for the owner, Mrs. Shears. Christopher also knew that he needed to ask if anyone had seen anything that might help him locate the murderer and to do this, he needed to consult with strangers that lived withinn his neighborhood. "I do not like strangers because I do not like people I have never met before. They are hard to understand." (p.g. 34) He sucked up his fear and went against his father's wishes to discover who killed Wellington. All the people who Christopher talked to seemed to not have seen anything, as a result, Christopher decided to look at the situation from a different perspective. He knew that Mrs. Shears was once married and that Mr. Shears had suddenly left around the time that Christopher's mother died. " I only knew one person who didn't like Mrs. Shears, and that was Mr. Shears, who knew Wellington very well indeed." (p.g. 42) In the middle of his investigation, Christopher came across some letters that were adressed to him hidden in his father's closet. He immediately recognized the handwriting as his mother's, but how could this be? Wasn't his mother dead? His father walked in on Christopher and found no choice but to tell his curious child the truth. His mother did not die she left them for Mr. Shears. Christopher did not know how to react to this, he dosen't get emotions very well. He did react, however, to the other truth his father told him; he stabbed Wellington. "I had to get out of the house. Father had murdered Wellington. That meant he could murder me because I couldn't trust him..." (p.g. 122) There was only one place where he knew he could go, his mother's. He grabbed the adress and a few of his things and began his travel to find mommy. His mother was ecstatic when Christopher showed up on her doorstep. Christopher's father did everything within his power to get Christopher back, but he felt safer with his mom, so he stayed with her.

I found this novel to be unlike anything I've ever read before. There were times when I was reading it that I thought it was going to be a very boring, pointless book, but that's kind of the idea of this book. It was meant to be odd that's what makes it unique. The author created a very intelligent boy who lives with a fear that is unexplainable, yet perfectly understandable. The fears that Christopher has are the kind of fears that we contain even though we are even more afraid of expressing them, like Christopher has the ability to. The actions that take place in this book are normal actions that any 12 year old boy would do. They enjoy being detectives and knowing the truth, curiosity drives them. Anyone would want to get out of a house where a murderer lives and go somewhere where they feel secure. I realize now that, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, is a great piece of literature and that there is absolutely nothing boring about it.