Narrative Essay

Narrative Essay Kaelan Smith

The curious incident of the dog in the night-time

Christopher doesn't have the ability to fully understand what takes place in the minds of other people, as shown by his inability to identify a person’s mood from their facial expression early on in the story. As a result, at many times in the story Christopher fails to understand what other people mean. On the other hand, the person reading the story may recognize Christopher’s misunderstanding, making Christopher’s view of events different then the reader’s view. The novel becomes funny and moving, creating much of its emotional impact on the reader.

For example, Christopher becomes afraid of his Father when he begins to think that he is capable of murdering him. The reader can see that this reaction is excessive. “I had to get out of the house. Father had murdered Wellington (the dog). That meant he could murder me...” Reading the story from the start, you can tell that Christopher's Father is perfectly normal. He does have a bit of a temper, but that is also normal. So the reader can definitely tell that Christopher sees things differently and we know that his Father would never kill his own son.

But this ironic gap between the reader's view of events and Christopher's view also shows the idea that each person has a unique view of the world. A great deal of the story, including many of Christopher’s problems and doubts, helps the reader to understand the way Christopher sees the world. While sometimes we think Christopher is ridiculous, like when he leaves the house of his elderly neighbor, Mrs. Alexander, when she goes inside to get him biscuits, we also come to sympathize with Christopher in his struggles. We see, for instance, how he suffers when he realizes that Mother never died and Father has been lying to him.

Christopher see's the world in a very logical way. He doesn't like to think or act unlogically. Christopher says: “People believe in God because the world is very complicated and they think it is very unlikely that anything as complicated as a flying squirrel or the human eye or a brain could happen by chance. But they should think logically and if they thought logically they would see that they can only ask this question because it has already happened and they exist. And there are billions of planets where there is no life, but there is no one on those planets with brains to notice.” What Christopher said here is quite brutal and can be seen as an example of his relative insensitivity to the way other people view the world. At the same time, his argument here is also a very sensible one and one that is difficult to argue with. We see therefore how his logical views of the world can be at once alienating as well as crystal clear.

As I've said, Christopher's view of events is very different from everyone else's. He causes lots of conflicts because of his different view of the world. The conflict we see between Father and Christopher in the second half of the novel grows because of Christopher's misunderstanding of Father’s meanings. This difference between the readers view of events and Christopher's view of events lends the novel a sense of irony throughout the story and makes the novel funny at times. It is also quite funny when other characters become frustrated at their inability to make Christopher understand them... if that makes sense! I now know that everyone see's the world differently, and I cant make any negative judgements about anyone because they are different. Because I am different too, and anyone can easily judge me aswell.