Looking In To: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time. Tanzim Ahmed

            I’m almost finished reading this book and it’s just amazing. The pieces of the puzzles are all fitting together and the resolution of the book is peaking out of the window. The protagonist is an example of perseverance. Christopher found out that his dad killed Wellington, Mrs. Shears’ dog, and he also found out that his father lied to him about his mom (read previous post). After he analyzes all this information, he decides to leave and go live with his mom. Unfortunately, his mom lives in London. This is very far away from Swindon, where Christopher lives, so he has to take the train there. There is one thing that you should know about Christopher and that is that he HATES being in crowded places with strangers. Even though he hates strangers and is afraid of really loud noises, he realizes that if he stays with his dad, he might try to kill him like he did with Wellington. His dad also lied to him about his mother which makes Christopher not trust him anymore. This is why Christopher goes through all the hardships of being on a train. After he reaches his mother’s house his dad comes over. He wants Christopher to come home with him but Christopher refuses, still afraid that he might kill him.

            The fear of Christopher can be understood by how much struggle he needs to go through. He goes through overcrowded trains and stations just to be safe. In the book, the author also includes moments of when Christopher is holding his knife in his pocket in public, so he can assure himself that no one will try to hurt him.

            This book showed me what can happen if you don’t tell the truth. Christopher’s dad told him that his mother had died. When Christopher found out what actually happened, his father had lost Christopher’s trust. The book also teaches the reader to perceiver. Christopher had a goal in his mind and he wanted to reach it. He was determined to get to his mother’s house and didn’t let his fear of strangers and loud noises interfere with that. This teaches the reader not to quit and to be strong.  

Looking In To: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time. Tanzim Ahmed

            Last week I only read forty-nine pages of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time. That was enough to pull me in to the book. This week I’m up to page 114 and I am loving it. The author is putting information out in the perfect order. He introduces new scenes by different characters. The author wants the reader to know why something is happening, but he doesn’t come out and say it directly. He says it later on in the story using small clues that he includes earlier in the book. He also opens up scenes in this book accidently. It looks like the main character is about to do something but then stumbles upon something else!

          In one part of this book, Christopher’s father takes the book that he was writing and pretends to throw it away. A few days later when Christopher goes to look for it in his father’s room, he finds the book along with a bunch of letters from his mom. Christopher is now confused. Wasn’t his mom dead? Didn’t his father say she died of a heart attack? After he read a lot of the letters he started to put the pieces together. Before this part, Christopher found out that Mr. Shears, Ms. Shears’ husband, had an affair with his mom. They both left their spouses but Christopher was told that his mom had died. In the letters, that had the date after her death, his mom tells him the entire story. That’s how the author tells the reader what happens.

          This message relates to both teens and adults. A father and his child need to be open to one another. They can’t keep any secrets between each other. Christopher’s dad probably thought that because Christopher was a little abnormal, he wouldn’t be intelligent enough to figure out what happened. His dad kept a big secret from his son, this isn’t good because Christopher deserves to know the truth about what really happened to his mom. This can be applied to teens too. In the letter his mother explains to Christopher why she was angry all the time. He and his mom would always fight because Christopher would never listen to her. This tells teens to appreciate their mother. Now that Christopher doesn’t have a mom, he doesn’t know what a mother’s love really feels like. This tells teens to always be polite with their parents and to not hurt them anyway. Christopher once embarrassed his mom in the mall during Christmas time. She had to drag him home because he didn’t like the nose in the mall. He also threw a plate at his mom and broke her toes. This might have led to why his mother would lose her temper really quickly. The lesson is for the child to be polite to their parents and for the parents to be honest with their kids.     

Looking At Our Books Through a Lens of Justice and Fairness. The Incident of the Dog in the Night-time By: Mark Haddon. Tanzim Ahmed

The question that I asked myself after reading forty-nine pages of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time was: what really hard things are happening in this text? To find the answer to this question I didn’t have to read for very long. Christopher, a boy with a mental issue, wants to find out who killed his neighbor’s dog. The night of the murder, the police found him hugging the dog. They arrested him for assaulting a cop because he punched the officer. Christopher doesn’t like to be touched and when the officer put his hand on him, Christopher let it fly. After being released he obtained a curiosity to find out who killed the dog.

            The tough issue that is going on in the book right now is the way people treat Christopher. Some kids at his school call him stupid or a moron. They think just because he is different from them he is stupid. This is totally incorrect because Christopher is the smartest kid in his school. He wants to grow up and get a degree in math or physics or even both. In his school there is a thing called Level A math. No one in his school ever did this type of math at the age fifteen and Christopher wants to take on the challenge. But the principal of his school won’t let him be in that class because she thinks that he can’t handle it and that he can’t be left alone. This is very tough and this is what happens in real life. People assume a person with a disability can’t do something because they are different. They should at least give the disabled person a chance before denying them. This is what is happening in the book and in the outside world. Everybody deserves a chance, at least one.