History Literature / TheCuriousIncidentOfTheDogInTheNightTime

* IdiotSavant: Christopher. He is a math genius but barely functional.

* TheRainman: Christopher is a classic example of the "autistic savant" trope: brilliant at math, poor at communicating, a CreatureOfHabit.

* HalfTruth: Christopher's father on Christopher's mother:
-->'''Father:''' She has a problem ... [[FromACertainPointOfView a problem with her heart]].

* YourCheatingHeart: Christopher gathers from a conversation with his neighbour Mrs Alexander that his mother started cheating on his father with Mr Shears. [[spoiler: This is the real reason he doesn't see his mother anymore—not because she's dead, as his father told him, but because she moved to London with Mr Shears.]]

* AmbiguousDisorder: While Christopher is clearly meant to be somewhere on the autistic spectrum, it never says in the novel what exactly he is diagnosed with, if anything, though it could be...

* {{Hypocrite}}: Christopher frequently derides normal people for being illogical, although much of what he does is equally illogical. For example, he feels that it is stupid that some people randomly have bad days. He has a much more logical reason for deciding a day is bad - seeing three yellow cars on the way to school. He maintains a strong disdain for supernatural tales, which he considers a whole big pack of lies—but he enjoys science fiction and mystery novels, which also consist of fictional scenarios that happen to involve science in them. (And even ''they'' can't be counted on to be accurate either, largely due to RuleOfCool and ScienceMarchesOn.)

* KidDetective / AmateurSleuth: What Christopher wishes to become.

* ShoutOut: Christopher is a big fan of ScienceFiction and mentions several franchises he likes, including ''StarTrek'', ''StarWars'', ''Series/DoctorWho'', ''[[Series/BlakesSeven Blake's 7]]'' and ''Film/BladeRunner''. He also talks about Literature/SherlockHolmes at length, who is his chief inspiration as a KidDetective, in fact the title is a line from "Silver Blaze" (''The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes'').

%%* CaptainObvious: Christopher

* NiceJobFixingItVillain: AntiVillain in this case: [[spoiler:Ed confiscating Christopher's notebook of his investigation leads to Chris finding his mother's letters while searching for his book, which in turn leads to him learning that is mother is alive that that Ed lied about her death. Ed then makes matters worse by confessing that he killed Wellington, which is TheLastStraw for Christopher, who runs away to find his mother]].

* NiceJobFixingItVillain: AntiVillain in this case: [[spoiler:Ed confiscating Christopher's notebook of his investigation leads to Chris finding his mother's letters while searching for his book, which in turn leads to him learning that is mother is alive that that Ed lied about his death. Ed then makes matters worse by confessing that he killed Wellington, which is TheLastStraw for Christopher, who runs away to find his mother]].

* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation: In-universe. To most people, killing Wellington would be a pretty disgusting KickTheDog (no pun intended) moment but not quite the MoralEventHorizon. To Christopher, it is as serious as killing a human being and [[spoiler:his father is a murderer and Christopher must escape from the house because his father could kill anyone, including him]].

* EveryoneHasStandards: Roger Shears is hardly a shining example of family values, what with the whole [[spoiler: "leaving his wife to run off with a married woman"]] thing, but even he seems pretty disgusted when he hears what happened to Wellington.

* FootnoteFever: In-universe. [[UnusualChapterNumbers Nearly every other chapter]] in Christopher's journal is some digression about scientific or mathematical facts, or notes on his mental condition and personal interests, including generous helpings of explanatory footnotes.

* NoAntagonist: The story has no defined bad guy. Ed tries to paint Mr. Shears as one [[spoiler:because Judy left Ed after starting an affair with Mr. Shears, and Mr. Shears doesn't want Christopher around when he decides he wants to live with Judy.]]

* PetTheDog: Ed takes Christopher to the zoo on the weekend to apologise for hitting him in anger. (No pun intended to the actual dogs in the story.)

* PoliceAreUseless: And how.

** At the beginning, a policeman grabs Christopher by the arm and Christopher (due to how he HatesBeingTouched) hits him, and he gets promptly arrested for assault.

''The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time'' (2003) is a novel by Mark Haddon. It is about young Christopher John Francis Boone, who knows all the countries of the world and all the prime numbers up to 7,057, but has almost no comprehension of human emotion.

* TrademarkFavoriteFood: Christopher ''loves'' strawberry milkshakes and mentions them several times in the book. He's also fond of the Indian food Gobi Aloo Sag, though as it is yellow he has to put red food coloring in it before eating.

* {{Hypocrite}}: Christopher frequently derides normal people for being illogical, although much of what he does is equally illogical. For example, he feels that it is stupid that some people randomly have bad days. He has a much more logical reason for deciding a day is bad - seeing three yellow cars on the way to school. He maintains a strong disdain for supernatural tales, which he considers a whole big pack of lies—but he enjoys science fiction and mystery novels, which also consist of fictional scenarios that happen to involve science in them. (And even ''they'' they can't be counted on to be accurate either, largely due to RuleOfCool and ScienceMarchesOn.)

* AbusiveParents: It's mentioned that Christopher's mother hit him a few times as a kid simply because she didn't know how to deal with him. She did feel remorse though, and it's part of the reason she felt she wasn't a good enough mother for him.
** Christopher's father also, although in his defense it takes a lot more to rattle him, considering his son's condition. On top of that [[spoiler: killing a dog because the owner turned him down and the lying that his son's mom died]] show that his dad reacts really poorly when he is at his breaking point.
*** Downplayed, his parents are not portrayed as the typical abusive parents. They both tell their son that they love him and they both do, they make any effort to show it, and they both want what is best for him. It is true and a bit sad that they have threatened him, for example, his father saying that he will hit him and sometimes does (his mother has also), but both feel remorse after having done so, and his mother saying that he will send her to an early grave, and will be put in a home, but I think if his parents did want to put him in a home, they would probably have already done it, and if they did do it, they would most likely feel bad about it. Both parents try to make amends with their son (his father buying him a new pet, [[spoiler: after having killed a dog that he loves, and later on his pet rat dying]]; his mother for [[spoiler: kicking Mr. Shears out of the house, after previously abandoning her son]], only wanting to be with her son (she even tells him to postpone taking the test)), true she is still frustrated with him when he does move in with her temporarily, she chooses by her own choice to be a much better mother than before. They even try to make him feel happy by the given events that they assign per day, and even scold others when they stress their son. Both are even openly sad when he rejects their love at times. True, these parents are not the best parents, they are certainly not the worst, and are in fact, good, devoted, and loving parents.

*** Downplayed, his parents are not portrayed as the typical abusive parents. They both tell their son that they love him and they both do, they make any effort to show it, and they both want what is best for him. It is true and a bit sad that they have threatened him, for example, his father saying that he will hit him and sometimes does (his mother has also), but both feel remorse after having done so, and his mother saying that he will send her to an early grave, and will be put in a home, but I think if his parents did want to put him in a home, they would probably have already done it, and if they did do it, they would most likely feel bad about it. Both parents try to make amends with their son (his father buying him a new pet, [[spoiler: after having killed a dog that he loves, and later on his pet rat dying]]; his mother for kicking Mr. Shears out of the house, only wanting to be with her son (she even tells him to postpone taking the test)), true she is still frustrated with him when he does move in with her temporarily, she chooses by her own choice to be a much better mother than before. They even try to make him feel happy by the given events that they assign per day, and even scold others when they stress their son. Both are even openly sad when he rejects their love at times. True, these parents are not the best parents, they are certainly not the worst, and are in fact, good, devoted, and loving parents.

** Christopher's father also, although in his defense it takes a lot more to rattle him, considering his son's condition. On top of that [[spoiler: killing a dog because the owner turned him down and the lying that his son's mom died]] show that his dad reacts really poorly when he is at his breaking point. He too feels regret after hitting his son. His parents do clearly love him, unlike most abusive parents, and want what is best for him, but having an autistic child was probably too much for them.

* JerkAss: Mr. Shears [[spoiler: cheats on his wife with a married woman and then breaks up with said married woman days after her son arrives.]] Judy and Ed aren't much better; [[spoiler: Ed has serious anger issues and [[KickTheDog killed Welllington]], and Judy abandoned both her husband and her son.]]

** Christopher's father also, although in his defence it takes a lot more to rattle him, considering his son's condition. On top of that [[spoiler: killing a dog because the owner turned him down and the lying that his son's mom died]] show that his dad reacts really poorly when he is at his breaking point.

** When Christopher finds out that [[spoiler:Ed killed Wellington]], he is terrified because he feels he can't trust [[spoiler:his father]] any more because of how he lied about not only that but the fact that [[spoiler:he told Christopher his mother wad dead, which she wasn't.]]

* NoSocialSkills: Christopher. To the point he threatens the people that saved him because they touched him and he punch a cop for the same reason.

* ReadingYourRights: Christopher gets this from the cop at the beginning, which he recognizes as standard procedure (and which he actually finds comforting, despite the fact that he just pissed off said cop by assaulting him).

* AmateurSleuth: Chris, who very much idolises the GreatDetective Literature/SherlockHolmes.

* MustMakeAmends: Both of [[spoiler: Christopher's parents, for varying reasons.]] [[spoiler: Ed lied about his wife's death and killed an innocent dog that Christopher liked, all because he was angry at the dog's owner and his life situation, and Judy ''left her son'' to pursue an affair and thought letters were a form of maternal care.]] By the end of the book [[spoiler: Ed has bought [[ReplacementGoldfish a new puppy]] for Chris, and Judy has taken in Christopher after Mr. Shears leaves her.]]

* PickyEater: Chris, a trait of his ASD. He refuses to eat any food that has touched a different kind of food on his plate, and keeps a bottle of food colouring in the kitchen for yellow foods (his least favorite colour).

* ReplacementGoldfish: As part of his MustMakeAmends, Ed [[spoiler: buys a new puppy for Chris, as a peace offering after revealing he killed Wellington. Although technically the dog is also meant to replace Toby, Christopher's pet rat, who died of old age (rats only live to around two years)]].
* SarcasmBlind: Chris, as a consequence of his autism. He takes sarcasm from others at face value, particularly when he can't recognise the emotions accompanying it (usually anger or irritation). Take for instance his conversation with an irritable store clerk when buying a map of London:

One late night (exactly 7 minutes after midnight), he finds his neighbor's dog killed by a garden fork, leading him into an investigation that becomes about more than just a dead dog, but about the real world told through the eyes of a 15-year-old with severe autism, right down to the unnecessary details.

* AloneWithThePsycho: An unusual example, but this technically applies to the moment when Christopher's father catches him reading [[spoiler: his still-living mother's letters]], and due to having betrayed Christopher's trust, is forced to confess that [[spoiler: [[WhamLine he murdered Wellington]]]].[[note]]Certainly his father must seem even more of a psycho from Chris' point of view, given that he both [[spoiler: lied about his mother's death ''and'' killed a dog, especially since Chris relates better to dogs than most people]].[[/note]]

* BeigeProse: Chris writes in a rather stilted and matter-of-fact tone. His sentences follow a strict "this happened, and that happened" pattern. Most of his paragraphs begin with "And" or "Then". He usually only uses long sentences when digressing from the plot to discuss scientific concepts or his personal interests (or his autism).

* {{Cloudcuckoolander}}: Chris. Justified because of his autism.
* ComingOfAgeStory: A fairly unconventional one, sure, but Chris does do quite a bit of growing up—most notably by going to London by himself, overcoming his fears of the very unfamiliar and unpredictable outside world, and it's all the more amazing considering his autistic condition. He matter-of-factly but proudly ends his book by reiterating his dream to go to university and become a scientist:
--> '''Chris''': And 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 [[spoiler:my mother]] and I was brave and I wrote a book and that means ''I can do anything''.

* DisproportionateRetribution: To some, Christopher's conviction that [[spoiler: his father]] should go to jail for killing the dog, Wellington seems like this, but for Chris himself, who understands and empathizes with dogs more than human beings, this is entirely [[JustifiedTrope justified]]. [[note]]However, in the United Kingdom, where the story takes place, an animal abuse criminal database is being created, and you can get ''prosecuted'' for animal cruelty.[[/note]]

** Turned out to be what the crime was about, [[spoiler: Christopher's dad was still suffering that his wife ran with another man, leaving him alone to raise their autistic son, when the neighbor, whose husband ran off with his wife, turned down his desire to start a family again he killed Wellington because the woman seemed to care more about the dog than him and his son.]]

* ExactWords / LoopholeAbuse: When Chris' father admonishes him to drop the investigation into Wellington's murder, Chris carefully picks apart his father's words and deduces that, literally speaking, Ed has not expressly forbidden him from talking to his neighbour Mrs Alexander, although Chris clearly isn't supposed to be asking her about the murder. His father even points out he still disobeyed, as he ''did'' also say to stop interrogating people (although he used a more colorful version but so did he when he asked him to stop asking about who killed the "fucking" dog) which makes Christopher so scared he has problem remembering what happened.

* HairTriggerTemper: Chris' mother flat-out admits this in a letter to him. She threw tantrums when he refused to eat food and often hit him simply because she didn't know how to handle his behavioural quirks.
* HalfTruth: Chris's father on Chris's mother:

** [[spoiler: [[WhatTheHellHero Judy calls out Ed for telling Chris she was dead]], but he counteracts that writing letters is no substitute for parental care.]]
* KidDetective / AmateurSleuth: What Chris wishes to become.
* LaserGuidedKarma: [[spoiler: Judy left Chris and Ed to pursue her affair with Mr. Shears.]] When Christopher shows up [[spoiler: years later, Mr. Shears leaves Judy.]]

* LiteralMinded: The reason Chris doesn't understand metaphors and therefore considers them lies. For example: the common saying "the apple of one's eye" baffles him because he can't [[{{Pun}} see]] how appreciating someone has anything to do with having an apple literally stuck in one's eye (which to him probably counts as an EyeScream).

* MinorCrimeRevealsMajorPlot: Sort of; namely, Murder of the dog Wellington → [[spoiler:"Fraud", in the form of Ed lying to Christopher that Judy died, by hiding her letters to him]]. The former's only indirectly related to the latter, however, and from Chris' point of view, killing a dog is in no way a ''minor'' crime.

* MustMakeAmends: Both of [[spoiler: Chris's parents, for varying reasons.]] [[spoiler: Ed lied about his wife's death and killed an innocent dog that Chris liked, all because he was angry at the dog's owner and his life situation, and Judy ''left her son'' to pursue an affair and thought letters were a form of maternal care.]] By the end of the book [[spoiler: Ed has bought [[ReplacementGoldfish a new puppy]] for Chris, and Judy has taken in Chris after Mr. Shears leaves her.]]

** Chris also mentions that [[TheMentor Siobhan]] wears green plastic glasses with very thick lenses that give others headaches.
* TheNineties: The story, if you pay attention, is actually set around 1997-98, since Christopher gives his exact age as 15, and then later writes about an event in 1992, when he was nine. Plus, [[spoiler:his supposedly-dead mother's letters are postmarked beginning in 1996, a little after when she left him and Ed (not to mention that if it were set in ThePresentDay—even at the time the book was actually published, in 2003—Chris would much likelier be using email at least, and his mother might've emailed him instead—which would also make it much more difficult for his father to hide the evidence from him)]].

* NonIndicativeName: What Christopher thinks of his own name. He knows he was named after the GentleGiant saint who purportedly carried the young Jesus across a river (which is literally what "Christopher" means: it's the Greek for "Christ's bearer"), and that his parents picked the name for its general association with kindness and helpfulness, but Chris himself doesn't feel his name describes him at all, at least in that "kind and helpful" isn't quite what come to mind when he is spoken of.

* PhotographicMemory: Or, more precisely, ''Cinematographic'' Memory—Chris compares his memory to a video reel and frequently uses video similes ([[InsistentTerminology not metaphors]]) to illustrate his memory functions. If he blacks out at one point, he speaks of having his memory-tape erased; if he tries to recall something, he simply "rewinds" or "searches" through his mental archives to find relevant information (including how to respond to people having ConvulsiveSeizures). He also speaks of playing and pausing previous memories like video clips in his head.
** Most importantly, due to his inability to filter sensory information normally, he can recall practically ''every'' visual detail of any given scene, even going years back. When, for instance, Chris revisits a farmland scene with a few cows, he remembers the number of cows, their skin patterns, the shape of the field, the details of a nearby village, the different kinds of litter at his feet, and so on.

* ReplacementGoldfish: As part of his MustMakeAmends, Ed [[spoiler: buys a new puppy for Chris, as a peace offering after revealing he killed Wellington. Although technically the dog is also meant to replace Toby, Chris' pet rat, who died of old age (rats only live to around two years)]].

--> [''Chris thinks, well, duh, it's not a crocodile.'']

* ScheduleFanatic: Chris. He plans his daily routine down to the minute and gets upset when he isn't sure what time it is.

** Chris also plays a lot of {{VideoGame/Minesweeper}}, sometimes for hours on end.

* ThreateningShark: [[DiscussedTrope Discussed]] by Chris. He is absolutely terrified of sharks and remembers a time when he started screaming at the beach thinking his mother had been eaten by one (when in fact she was just swimming under the surface).
* TranquilFury: Christopher cannot identify this in other people. When, for example, his father finds the book he's been working on, and realises he went out of his way to continue investigating Wellington's death, Chris can't tell at first that his father is angry at him because Ed questions him about this in a low, even tone.

* MinorCrimeRevealsMajorPlot: Sort of; namely, Murder of the dog Wellington → [[spoiler:"Fraud", in the form of Ed lying to Christopher that Judy died, by hiding her letters to him]]

* MinorCrimeRevealsMajorPlot: Sort of; namely, Murder of the dog Wellington ——> [[spoiler:Ed pretending to Christopher that Judy died, by hiding her letters to him]]