The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime: Christopher and his father

            Over the summer I read the book, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime, by Mark Haddon. The book itself is written in a sort of matter of fact tone, from the perspective of a 15-year old autistic boy.

It was a really intense read, with the main character, Christopher, and the characters surrounding him filled with lots of pain. His dad was particularly a contributor to the pain that Christopher feels without knowing it. At some points in the book he is blunt with his son, and not as gentle as he could be. I feel that the stress of raising an autistic child is getting to him, and you can see that he is burdened with different concerns every night. In some ways, I feel sorry for Christopher’s father, but it is hard to feel compassionate for him when he is yelling at his son.

“Prime numbers are what is left when you have taken all the patterns away. I think prime numbers are like life. They are very logical but you could never work out the rules, even if you spent all your time thinking about them.”

― Mark Haddon, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime

I think that Christopher spends a lot of time trying to categorize and organize his life into smaller, maybe more manageable pieces. But, like it is stated in the quote, you could never work out the rules, no matter how much time and energy you put into trying. But Christopher tries, and sometimes in the book I feel that his father doesn’t understand the importance of this routine to Christopher. His father gets fed up with all the lists and timetables and rules, even though they make his son feel safer.

Christopher and his father have a complicated relationship. For the most part, his dad is patient. He really does try his best to put up with some of his son’s antics and understand him. In the book, the author mentions that Christopher’s father was the more levelheaded of the two parents. As for Christopher, he is used to his dad taking care of him, and even thought they don’t always get along, I think he likes it that way. There is a routine that he and his dad have settled into, very delicately balanced and precarious, but a routine nonetheless.