The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon | Teen Ink

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon

March 18, 2014
By Mister_J PLATINUM, Colorado Springs, Colorado
Mister_J PLATINUM, Colorado Springs, Colorado
42 articles 3 photos 17 comments

Favorite Quote:
"Captain, I wish to report a mutiny. I can name fingers and point names." - Captain Jack Sparrow


The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon has been banned in numerous schools for explicit content and use of foul language. However, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, which is about a 15-year old autistic boy named Christopher and his experiences in his daily life, has some literary merit. It teaches people about the struggles, and the advantages, that come with having autism. It also gives readers a novel that is very realistic and sounds like something that could actually happen.

The use of foul language in the book, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, is very severe. Schools ban this book for its use of foul language because they do not want children reading this novel and then using some of the words that they read in their everyday lives. In reality, however, children are using this foul language before they even read the book. Stopping them from reading this novel does not affect their use of foul language. The use of foul language makes the book more realistic because people use this foul language in real life. It also shows the reader another way in which Christopher is affected by autism, because he has the inability to understand foul language.

The book, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, is a very realistic novel. Christopher and his family are a very average middle-class family, and their neighborhood is a very average suburban neighborhood. None of the events in the book, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, stretch past the boundaries of what can be done in real life. Nowadays, fiction and fantasy novels are the most popular novels among most readers. This makes The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time much better because it is still a well-written novel without fictional elements. The fact that The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time is realistic also makes it a book that readers can relate to, because it contains realistic elements that most people encounter in their own lives.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, because it is so realistic, allows readers to connect with the characters and feel as if the characters’ struggles were their own. However, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time also allows readers to learn of a new perspective on life. Christopher, who has autism, thinks and views the world differently from the average person. He has incredibly high-level mathematical ability, a logical and reasonable way of thinking, and a unique thought process. Reading The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time gives the reader an idea of how other people think and view the world around them.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time is overall an outstanding book, and there are many reasons why someone should read it. The book is extremely realistic, making it easy for readers to relate to and allowing readers to connect with the characters in the story and share their struggles. Also, the main character, Christopher, allows readers to view life from the perspective of an autistic teenager, an uncommon perspective in books nowadays. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time is a good book for people to read in order to step out of the fantasy world and jump back into reality.


The author's comments:
In my literature class, we are reading "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time" and I was told to write an essay analyzing its literary merit. So, here it is.

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