Why does Mark Haddon use Christopher as narrator in the Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time?
I think Mark Haddon uses Christopher as narrator because he feels it is the best way to convey the viewpoint of a boy who suffers from Asperger Syndrome. Using Christopher as narrator means using the first person which allows the reader to see the world through Christopher’s eyes and lets the reader share Christopher’s feelings. In fact the whole point of the novel is to bring out the personality and the thought process of the young boy who has a form of Autism.
Christopher is a fifteen year old teenager who suffers from Asperger Syndrome and lives with his single father. Christopher’s past is riddled with uncertainty over what actually happened to his mother but he intends to find out.
Christopher has many different characteristics for example he is very intelligent when it comes to puzzles and numbers, this is shown in the book when he says “I played 76 games of minesweeper on expert version in one hundred and two seconds”. He also cares quite a lot for animals; this is shown when he says “Dogs are important too”. There also numerous times when he mentions Toby, his pet rat which he feeds and looks after daily. Evidence for this caring nature towards his rat is provided on page 27 of the Curious Incident when he says “I got Toby a carrot” indicating that he doesn’t forget to feed his rat even when his mind is on something else like it was in page 27. Another characteristic Chris has is that of being socially inept which means he has trouble understanding other people’s body language and can’t pick up verbal clues or understand emotions unless they are explained to him; for example, he knows that a raised voice may indicate anger. Although socially inept, his mind processes details the average person would miss, for instance we might see cows and some flowers in a field but he would know how many cows there are and also know the species of every flower. Being very logical and literal is another side to Christopher’s nature and one that stops him from understanding certain expressions and metaphors which he thinks of as being “lies”. To Christopher phrases like "raining cats and dogs" and "you'll catch your death from cold" are incomprehensible nonsense.
