In the novel The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time we learn about a young boy with autism. From the point of view of this young autistic boy we learn that family and love don`t always make sense in what seems is complete logic, but it doesn`t need to make complete sense to make a family work. Christopher, the young autistic boy, likes logic and everything to make sense so he knows and understands how everything works. He also doesn`t like change and has trouble dealing with it but as his life goes on, he learns how to deal with his struggle.
We know Christopher likes logic and everything to make sense. ``I find people confusing. This is for two main reasons. The first is that people do a lot of talking without using any words. The second is that people use metaphors. The word metaphor means carrying something from one place to another, I think it should be called a lie because a pig is not like a day and people do not have skeletons in their closets.``(14,15) Christopher needs logic in his life for things to make sense or else he can find himself getting sick or groaning loudly in pain. Although some cases of logic don`t make sense to the others around them he believes they make sense like when he says three red cars in a row means a good day and three yellow make a bad day he is told by his principal that this is not very logical and he said it makes sense to him. This is also shown when he says he wont eat his food if it touches different items of food on his plate, but he will if it touches while being prepared.
Another form of logic in his life is his family. He doesnt understand his families love toward him in different instances of the novel and tries to break away from them like when his mother tries to hug him and he gets confused and pushes her away And Mother put her arms around me and said, Christopher, Christopher, Christopher And I pushed her away because I didnt like it, and I pushed her really hard and I fell over. (191). Christopher doesnt like her hugging him and pushes her away because she is touching him because she loves him, which doesnt make sense to Christopher. This shows how, in Christophers mind, love doesnt make sense but it is still all around him.
Also Christopher doesnt like change; he says he doesnt like it when furniture is moved around in his house and doesnt like seeing new things at first because he doesnt understand them at first like at the train station going to London because he didnt know anything about the building or the train or even where he was when he was on the train, which made him feel sick. Although the one of the instances of change that takes place in the novel is when he finds out his dad has been lying to him when he finds the letters from his mother and discovers that she is still alive. Once he knew his dad was lying to him he got sick because he realized everything that he had known for so long was wrong so he didnt understand it anymore. This shows that in a way his dad was lying to him because he loves him since he didnt want him to get hurt by the fact that his mom left them and didnt want to have anything to do with them.
Another huge instance of change is when he again finds out his dad lied to him when he tells him that he killed Wellington any explains why he did it I think she cared more for that bloody dog than for me, for us.(121.) Christophers dad reacted out of anger when he killed Wellington which was made by love between him and Mrs. Shears and handled it that way in spite of how she treated him. After Christophers dad tells him this he gets sick because he doesnt understand why he would do that to Wellington since it wasnt his fault and how come he and Mrs. Shears were arguing. This is because he doesnt understand love and how the family works.
These two different situations show how he loses all trust for his father since he had lied to him so many times to him without even knowing it. This doesnt make Christopher feel safe because he sees how his life is so different now and didnt understand how it could change so quickly. He also doesnt feel safe because he doesnt know what else his dad has been lying to him about and also that he cant trust him anymore because he will lie to him and thinks that he will kill him due to this just like he killed Wellington. Although Christophers dad tells him he loves him and that hes sorry Christopher doesnt believe him since he doesnt understand love and how he can trust him.
After many different instances of showing how, to Christopher, love doesnt make sense, in the end we see that his family still works. By the end of the novel he gets back together with his father and reunites with his mother. Showing that love doesnt make sense to him like when his mom tried to hug him and he pushed her away and when he finds out that she is still alive and also that his dad killed Wellington he is even more confused about how love works since it doesnt seem to make sense. And even though he doesnt understand it he sees that his dad still loves him when he returns from London back to Swindon with his mother after countless different apologies and it shows how he begins to trust his dad again and that he in fact does love his parents just like they love him, but he doesnt understand why. So he realizes that even though love doesnt make sense to him, that his family is still working, and that is all that really matters.
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