essay from post

Alec Mansky

805

YA blog post

            “The curious incident of the dog in the nighttime” by Mark Haddon is a moving novel about a boy who gets caught in a tough situation with his parents. The narrator, who is the boy, appears to be on the autistic spectrum. In this story the boy, named Chris, lives with his dad and believes his mom is dead. Chris is also trying to solve the murder of his neighbor’s dog wellington. In the middle of the book Chris finds out that his mom is not dead and his dad killed the dog. These secrets confuse and hurt Chris ultimately putting his relationship with his father in jeopardy. This shows how key honesty is in our day to day relationships. 

              Honesty affected Chris; it affected his relationships with many different people. Towards the middle of the book, before Chris suspects anything, Chris finds a large amount of letters in his dad’s closet. After he reads the letters he says, “There was sick all over the bed and on my hands and arms and face.” (p. 113) Chris also says “I don’t know what happened then because there was a gap in my memory,” (p. 113) both of these parts of text shows how he doesn’t feel good and doesn’t feel normal. Also this unease derives from the fact that he is uniformed with a lot of different things. In addition, later on in the book Chris becomes scared of his dad and leaves to meet his mom in London. All of these feelings can show how honesty affected him, and how with help he powered through his fear.

            Honesty affected his dad; it made Chris's dad's strongest relationship weak and made him sad and alone. For example, when Chris goes to London his dad searches for him and sobs when Chris rejects him. This proves how much Chris meant to his dad. Another example is after Chris reads the letters and his dad says, “ I’m sorry Christopher. I’m so, so sorry.” (p.114) and, “ We have to get you cleaned up, Ok?. . . Then I’m going to come back and take you to the bath room, Ok?” (p. 115) These reactions are his dad fearing losing Chris, which shows how special their relationship is to the dad. All of the help and assurance shows that the dad is panicking about his relationship with his son.

            In conclusion, this story teaches us about the importance of honesty in your everyday relationships. Whether it’s a close friend, your best friend, or even your parents. Personally I was so connected to the dad and Chris's relationship thst I was angry when Chris left his dad, I was frustrated for the dad. This story tests Chris’s relationship but ultimately his relationship with his dad survives.

from http://alecssupercoolbookblog.blogspot.com/