Overview of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time Essay

In The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon, audistic 15 year old Christopher Boone finds his neighbors poodle, Wellington, murdered.

The neighbor, Mrs. Shears, discovers the dogs death when she sees him holding it, covered in its blood. She has him arrested for killing Wellington without finding out why Christopher was in her garden to begin with. She assumes that because he was trespassing and was found with the dead poodle that he killed the dog despite her previous knowledge that he loves dogs. Her blame could be seen as ignorantly rational due to the evidence presented to her at the scene, or terribly irrational due to known history. It is reasonable that Mrs. Shears accused Christopher of murdering her beloved poodle because he has been the cause of his fathers (and presumably dead mothers) stress, anxiety, and woes for years, as well as to relieve years of pent-up anger toward the boys mother.

It is not until much later in the book that Christopher discovers that his mother is, in fact, alive and well. Upon such discovery, he takes the liberty of further investigating Wellingtons murder, finally uncovering his mother and Mr. Shears secret affair, which is why Mr. Shears left Mrs. Shears, and left both Mrs. Shears and Christophers father hating the pair. Eventually, he also finds out about the affair between Mrs. Shears and Christophers father. Although Mrs. Shears occasionally cooks for Christopher and his father, she does not necessarily like the boy because he has many behavioral problems. A friend of his fathers may dislike him because of the stress of looking after someone who has Behavioral Problems.

Wellingtons death and Mrs. Shears discovery of Christopher cradling the bloody dog gave the woman a perfect opportunity to remove the boy from her and Mr. Boones lives. An accusation as severe as murder, even of an animal, in combination with Christophers attack on the police officer who touched him could push his father over the edge. This would allow Mrs. Shears, who is quite fond of the man, to be with him without the nonstop worry and burden of an autistic child in their care. Therefore, Mrs. Shears principal reason for accusing Christopher of murdering her dog was as a way to not only to release the hatred she has felt toward his mother since she left, but also to get him out of the house and his fathers life so that she may more actively be a part of it.