Mark Haddon synopsis

The curious incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, by Mark Haddon is about a young boy named Christopher who, while snooping in his neighbor, Ms. Shear's yard, stumbles upon a dead dog. The dog, Wellington, has been stabbed with a garden fork and Christopher takes it upon himself to find out who has killed him. Christopher lives with his father, Ed, in the town of Swiddon, England. He has either autism of asperger's syndrome. Christopher goes to a school for children with learning disabilities and his teacher, Siobahn, gives Christopher the idea to write about his investigation into the murder of his neighbor's dog. When Christopher tells his father about the murder of Wellington and his ensuing detective work, Ed becomes angry and tells Christopher to stop butting into other people's buisness. Christopher disregards his father's command and continues to do detective work asking neighbors and even the dog's owner if they were involved in the dog's murder.
At school Christopher continues to write his detective story and even borrows investigative tips from his hero, Sherlock Holmes. One day, Christopher comes home from school and sees that his father has found the book and is furious. He informs Christopher that he is taking his book and keeping it so that he can no longer write in it. Christopher being determined to solve the mystery, waits for his father to leave for work one day and then combs through the house in search of his book. He eventually finds it on top of a shelf in his father's closet, underneath a toolbox, but what he finds along with the book proves to be the most important part of the story.
Along with finding his detective novel, Christopher finds a stack of letters written to him from his mother, who he believes has been dead since he was a young child. Confused, Christopher brings the pile of letters to his room where he reads them and concludes that his mother is alive and that he has been lied to. His father returns home from work and finds Christopher in his room having thrown up on himself, laying in a pile of his mother's letters. His father begins to cry and tells Christopher that he lied to him about his mother's death, explaining that he had no idea of how to tell his son why his mother had left them, and that instead he thought it would be better to tell Christopher that his mother had become sick and that she needed to go to the hospital, but that she got worse and died. He also confesses to killing Wellington. Christopher decides that he cannot trust his father and that if he killed the dog, he might also kill him. He waits for his father to go to sleep and then sneaks out the front door, beginning a long and dangerous quest to find his mother. After several train rides and a run-in with a few police officers, Christopher finds his mother's apartment and waits outside in the rain for her to come home. His mother, along with her new boyfriend, Ms. Shears's ex-husband, finds her son waiting for her on the front steps. He moves in with his mother but is eventually forced to move back in with his father. The story ends with his father buying him a puppy and slowly trying to regain his trust.
Christopher appears to have symptoms of asperger's syndrome and autism. For instance, Christopher has very little development of social skills and appears to lack interest in haveing friends, both characteristics associated with autism. He never plays with any of the children at school and does not interact with children in his neighborhood. He also displays what our textbook calls, "maintanence of sameness, and stereotyped and ritualized behaviors" (pp. 520, Durand) evidenced in his need for surroundings to stay the same and in strange necessities such as not having food touch other food on his plate. He also makes groaning noises and screams loudly when upset, characteristic of autism. However, Christopher has developed meaningful speech and does not have a low IQ, which implies that he leans more towards asperger's syndrome than autism. Also symptomatic of aspeger's syndrome is a tendency to be obsessed with arcane facts, which Christopher certainly shows in his memorization of every country and it's capital, and by knowing every prime number up to 7,057. Christopher can also be very vocal when he wants which is characteristic of asperger's syndrome and not autism.
The book was very realistic in portraying the difficulties inherent in raising children with developmental disorders. Christopher's father had to make sure that his food wasn't yellow, because Christopher hated the color. He was not able to hug his child because he didn't like to be touched, and had to accomodate all of the special needs that come with raising a child with autism or asperger's. The characters were also realistic and sympathetic to Christopher's needs, especially his teacher, Siobahn, who taught him many skills to function in society outside of school. His mother howeved did not seem to be sympathetic to Christopher's needs. The ending made sense because it showed that Christopher was going to need a lot of time before he was able to trust his father again.
I found Christopher's character strange because I know someone with autism and someone with asperger's syndrome and he seemed to fit right in the middle in respect to his symptoms. The person with autism cannot function nearly as well as Christopher and the person with asperger's syndrome is much less ritualized and exaggerated as him. Also, I knew someone with autism who lived in the same dorm as me freshman year, who is much more talkative and self-sufficient than the person I know. This shows me that there is a broad spectrum of symptoms and abilities among people living with autism and asperger's syndrome.