The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-time: Christopher’s Independence

It is essential to have independence as independence helps take control of situations in life. Independence is seen in Mark Haddon’s novel, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time in the main character Christoper John France Boone. A fifteen-year-old boy trying to figure out who killed his neighbor’s dog, Wellington. Along the way, he also figures out what his father has been hiding from him after all those years after his mother’s ‘death’ while attempting to forgive his father. Christopher develops independence throughout the novel due to his father's actions, his journey to London, and learning to forgive others.

Christoper’s father has always cared about his son, doing almost everything for him, he “[I] cooked his meals. [I] cleaned his clothes. [I] looked after him every weekend. [I] looked after him when he was ill” (Haddon 197). His father did almost everything for Christoper, which meant Christoper didn’t have to do that much for himself, he just got to sit back and got everything handed to him. They both had a trusting relationship with each other, but soon gets broken after the father admits to killing the neighbor's dog, “[He killed] Wellington” (Haddon 133). This causes Christoper to have a spiral of emotions, “I had been sick because there was sick all over the bed and on my hands and arms and face”(Haddon 113). This also happens to be the start of Christoper’s journey to independence. Christoper could no longer trust his father, afraid he was going to get murder next, “That meant he could murder me” (Haddon 122). Christoper realized he could not get everything handed to him like before, he needed to do things for himself now because he does not want to be with his father anymore. “I had to get out of the house… because I could not trust him… because he had told a lie about a big thing” (Haddon 122). Christoper decided to run away to London to find his mother that he thought died two years ago, this was the first time Christoper has ever made a big decision for himself. “I would need money if I was going to go to London. And I would need food to eat because it was a long journey and I wouldn’t know where to get food from” (Haddon 132). This is the start of Christoper’s independence, the start of making his own decisions for himself.

Christoper was never an extroverted person, never wanting to talk to other people. Earlier in the novel, Christoper always stated “I do not like strangers because I do not like people I never met before” (Haddon 34). Christoper is not the type of person of getting along with others, He always keeps to himself, he has never interacted with a stranger before until he decided to take a big risk to find his mother in London. This was a big deal for Christoper because it was his first time traveling alone. It also does not help that the fact that he hates large crowds of people.“I went up the stairs and there were still lots of people and I groaned…. There were too many people in the room with chairs, so I walked past it” (Haddon 66). Christoper tries to navigate through the crowds to find a train to London and successfully succeeds. To any average person, this is probably normal but for Christoper, with a lack of interactions he has had, it was an accomplishment. This further proves Christoper can be independent without his father.

Lastly, The final step for Christoper to become fully independent was to forgive his father for his actions. Christoper’s father suggested to do a “[Let’s call it a] project. A project [we] have to do together. [you have] to spend more time [with me]. [and I] have to show [you] that you can trust me” (Haddon 219). At first, Christoper didn’t like the idea, but he knew that wouldn’t fix anything. Even though Christoper forgave his father that does not mean his independence went away, he still recognizes that he could do things without his father. “I know I can do this because I went to London on my own and because I solved the mystery of Who killed Wellington? And I found my mother and I was brave and I wrote a book and that means I can do anything” (Haddon 103). Christoper starts thinking for himself. This shows how far he has come, comparing to him at the start of the novel.