The curious incident of the dog in the Night-Time-ANTI HERO

The curious incident of the Night-Time is about Christopher, a fifteen-year-old boy with an autistic spectrum condition, lives with his father; he explains that his mother, Judy, died two years ago. He discovers the dead body of Wellington, the neighbor’s dog, speared by a garden fork. Mrs. Shears, Wellington’s owner, calls the police, and Christopher comes under suspicion. When a policeman touches him, he hits the policeman, and is arrested, then released with a police caution. He decides to investigate the dog’s death, despite his father’s orders to stay out of other people’s business. However, he is severely limited by his fears and difficulties when interpreting the world around him. Throughout his adventures, Christopher records his experiences in a book: a “murder mystery novel”. During his investigation, Christopher meets people whom he has never before encountered, even though they live on the same street, including the elderly Mrs. Alexander, who informs Christopher that his mother had an affair with Mr. Shears and had been with him for a long time.
Ed, his father, discovers the book and confiscates it from Christopher, after a brief fight between them. While searching for the confiscated book, Christopher uncovers a trove of letters which his mother wrote to him, dated after her supposed death, which his father has also hidden. He is so shocked by his father lying about his mother’s death that he is unable to move, curls up on the bed, vomits and groans for several hours until his father returns home. Ed realizes that Christopher has read the letters and cleans him up. He then confesses that he had indeed lied about Judy’s death and also that it was he who killed Wellington, stating that it was a mistake resulting from his anger after a heated argument with Mrs. Shears. Christopher, having lost all trust in his father and fearing that Ed might try to kill him since he had already killed the dog, runs away.
I think Christopher Broone is an Anti-Hero because he isn’t really skilled at much except for being probably smarter than his teachers, I also think he is an Anti-Hero because even though the owner a convictional hero like most he just tries to do the right thing and he isn’t trying to be a hero I think he is just trying to prove that he did not do it and so when he finds out who did it he will prove it to the owner who did it and that he did not.

1 Comment

  1. It’s great to see you keeping up to date with your reading journal.

    To extend your thinking further – consider how the written style of the book, the setting and the tone also support the notion of an anti-hero genre. Are there any distinctive features that you want to pick up on that you may then be able to explore in relation to other texts? Currently the journal entries concentrate too much on the plot and not these thematic and generic elements.

    CW

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