What is the effect of reading the letters Christophers mother wrote to him?

In the novel “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time” by Mark Haddon the main character Christopher changes greatly during his adventure.

Christopher is very different to normal people as he has Asperger’s Syndrome, a mental illness which deprives him of his social abilities and emotional interpretation. Christopher changes from an innocent unknowing boy to one of newfound truths and knowledge. At the start of the book he is very shy and protective of himself, only talking to those that he trusts. The author writes “It takes me a long time to get used to people I do not know. For example, when there is a new member of staff at school I do not talk to them for weeks and weeks. I just watch until I know that they are safe”.

Christopher’s real change happens when Christopher finds a stack of letter’s his ‘supposedly dead’ mother - “Mother died 2 years ago.” - writes to him whilst finding the book he was writing. This happens because his father tells him not to mind other’s business - “Father said, ‘Just try and keep your nose out of other people’s business.’” - and in result of not following his dad’s orders gets his book taken away. During his ‘detective work’ Christopher finds out the real reason as to why Wellington’s owner’s husband left as he was one of Chris’s main suspects. He finds out that his mother was having an affair with him. So when Christopher goes to find the book he finds the stack of letters - “One other possibility was that Father had hidden my book somewhere in the house.” -. All this leads to his change because if it wasn’t for his realization that his mother was alive he would have stayed and nothing would have differed. It is what leads to Christopher wanting to find his mother, and on this journey he experiences new danger and he learns how to cope with the real world. I believe the finding of the letters is very important as it helps the readers to sympathize with Christopher it also makes you sad especially because he is autistic and cannot understand why his father would lie to him.

Although the finding of the letters was important and even more important event is him finding the killer of Wellington. Shortly after finding the letters his

06 Aug 2010

by dunearnell in Curious incident of the dog in the night time, Literature

a. What are your feelings towards Christopher as you read this passage? What impressions do you have of Christopher’s mother and how do you feel about her from some of the other letters she has written to Christopher? Support your answer with careful and relevant reference to the passage and details from the novel.

b. Do you sympathise more with Christopher’s mother or father and why? Support your answer with details from the novel.

3a)

I feel that Christopher had to go through this stage somewhere throughout his life somehow since ‘lies will lead to the truth’ as seen in the novel. On one hand, I sympathise with Christopher because he had found out that his only trusted and closest kin to him has lied and this leads to consequences later on in the novel where Christopher cancels out all possibilities that has Father in it, tries to run away from Swidon¾his comfort zone to London, a stranger place to him, in search for his mother now that he knows where she lives and her existence. He completely lost faith in his Father and believes that ‘ if he killed Wellington, then he could possibly murder me too’. He shows signs of extreme fear towards his father after his Father revealed that Mother is still alive and ‘I killed Wellington’.

At first, he was so shocked and confused, he lost his sense of sight and hearing momentarily ‘blacked out’ and ‘sick all over himself’ as if it was the ‘top of a really tall building’. It was so traumatic for him that he shows no signs of violence when Father removed his clothes and touched him.‘ ‘I couldn’t move …I did not hit him.’ His father knew him so well to lie about such a major matter and even his the truth of the death of Wellington. For this matter, I believe Father was clearly at fault. Christopher, having a ‘mind like a tape recorder’ that can ‘Forward’ and ‘Rewind’, would remember this scene throughout his life. This shows that once something is proven, it cannot be undone as shown in the past scene where his ex-psychologist asked him “What is in the Smarties bottle?” and Christopher said ‘pencil’. He had to force himself to accept that Father had indeed lied to him and he was flustered because all along he believed that Father ‘would never tell lies’.

On the other hand, I feel relieved for Christopher because at least he knows that he still have his mother around and she is not dead and not the ‘molecules in the air or rain that falls down’ as mentioned in the first half of the novel. In other words, he regained his mother. It should be a joyous scene but also another harsh truth being revealed that Mrs. Alexandra told him that r Shears and mother are in affair and Father and Mother are not together anymore. This dawns on that his family is ‘incomplete’ and I grieve for his sense of loss emotionally. Christopher’s mother is seen to be less educated from her numerous spelling mistakes seen in all the letters she sent. Examples include ‘anathsetic’ and ‘pacient’ etc. Christopher had an advantage over his mother because Siobhan ‘corrected his grammar and spelling mistakes’. However, it cannot be dismissed that Christopher’s mother is not a good mother. She sends her son letters weekly even though he did not reply back to her and in her letters she updates him about her life in London, such as ‘I have bought a refrigerator and television at last.’ ’Roger and I shifted to the new address’ and her dental experience,’ I had to go to the dentist and have my two molars out.’

Not only that, she makes extra efforts to update Christopher about the time and purposely made the letters very detailed and not forgetting to add some humours in her letters so that it does not feels too serious. The evidence is ‘I was laughing because the dentist had to tug and pull and strain so much and it seemed really funny to me’, ‘….had to lie on the sofa for days and take lots of painkillers.’ Furthermore, in the second letter, she tries to explain in a straightforward and in depth manner why she had decided to leave the family ¾ for the best interest of Christopher. She brought up a couple of memories such as the shopping where ‘you (Christopher) crouched down and blocked people’s path and broke two mixers ‘ and ‘you threw the tray which hurt my foot’. She compares the differences in the attitudes of her and Ed. She said that ‘It seems that I was not around, and it feels worse than we were arguing’. Judy even bothered to sent presents ¾ train set, and reminded him of the timetable and map’. She always ends her note in a loving manner, “Lots of love’ and hopes that her soon will reply.

From her letters, it can be seen that she is ultimately a good mother, like all. No mothers do not love their child and this can be clearly seen from her letters.

3b)

I sympathise with Christopher’s father. He had been the one from the start of the novel who ‘cooked his meals, went to his school whenever he got into trouble, went to police station and brought him out’ while the mother of Christopher had eloped with Mr. Shears to London, having affair. His mother only wrote him letters, which he was not aware of until he found it during his search for his book that was ‘thrown away’ by his father previously when his father found out that he was writing about a book and investigating about the murder of Wellington. His father was there for hi, and supported his pursue of academic ¾ ‘A’ level Additional Maths unlike his mother who thought that he couldn’t take the ‘A’ levels and cancelled it without his consent which only brought him pain, ‘his chest ballooned’. Christopher’s father fight for his son’s rights in school, ‘I’m not going to take no for an answer’, when he argued with the school’s principals. When he got angry and displays violence on Christopher during the scene where he found out about the book, he tried to salvage the issue by bring Christopher to explore at the zoo. He had to regain his son’s trust through a project ¾ ‘Sandy’, a golden retriever puppy when Christopher obviously showed signs of excluding Father in his life completely when he was found to be a lier and a murderer. ‘I’m so sorry Christopher, but you have to trust me.’ The bond between both father and son had to be rebuilt from the bottom ¾ everything is back to square one.

On the other hand, I also sympathise with Mother. She made countless attempts ¾ in fact, 43 weekly letters in trying to keep contact with her son. She is seen to be determined in seeking her son’s forgiveness. Even when she tried to returned to explain, Christopher’s father said to her ‘Don’t ever come back’. It ruined her only chance then and she had to deal with the pain of leaving her only child, yet to find independence and unable to care for him, any longer.

His father definitely spent more time with Christopher, yet two lies led to such break in trust. This shows the extent of my sympathy. He had been a good father who understands him.

Loh Yu Xiu 4 sapphire’10