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Christopher, the protagonist in The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon, is subtly shown as autistic by Haddon through his actions in the text. The author guides the reader to assume the protagonist has a form of cognitive issue evidenced by his obsession with inconsequential details about many things. This trait also arises when discussing his emotions, as evidenced by his confrontation involving a dog impaled by a fork. Christopher’s investigation does not elicit faith in his detective capacity. The character is not a good detective, an issue that is proven through easy distraction, discomfort speaking to people.
Firstly, while Christopher is uncomfortable and loses objectivity when speaking to people, he talks to them when investigating Wellington’s death. However, the protagonist fails in this aspect as he leaves several possible witnesses without concluding the investigation. A detective should eliminate feelings from a conversation and focus on developing a trail for their work. “…He said, “Bloody hell, policemen really are getting younger, aren’t they.” Then he laughed. I do not like people laughing at me, so I turned and walked away….” Christopher leaves individuals when he discerns they may fight or express negative feelings towards the investigation as with occupant forty-three (he jokes about Christopher’s young age) (Haddon 17). As a detective, he should not have left these individuals before gaining helpful information that would aid him in determining Wellington’s possible killer.
Christopher also illustrates deviation from sound observational skill as he considers seemingly unrelated materials in the case. For instance, he is distracted by different tools in Mrs. Shear’s shed when he conducts his investigation, though the pitchfork that killed Wellington is in the shed, he does not focus primarily on the investigation (Haddon 60). He leaves the place without doing any work he intended to and deems various patterns as positively related to the case. Detectives should not get distracted from their roles based on personal whims and have to focus on a particular aspect to observe these issues. Christopher’s autism plays a role in propagating a lack of observation skills. The disorder does not refute the fact that the character is not a good detective based on this aspect.
While Christopher has the tenacity and a positive attitude typical of detectives, he does not weigh decisions before acting on his instinct. For example, his father discourages him from investigating Wellington’s death, deeming the issue unnecessary. However, Christopher is determined to find the killer despite the warning from police to stay away from his neighbor. In the course of his investigation, he trespasses on her property and enters her shed without permission. He also has a problem communicating with people, a factor that hinders him from making progress with the case (Haddon 25). Despite Christopher’s positive attitude as he determines the day a good one for investigations, he goes against the law to conduct his investigation. He ignores his father and the police, adverse traits for a detective as they should listen to everyone and weigh their actions before arriving at a course of action.
Detective work requires various skills to elicit proper results. Though Christopher conducts investigations on Wellington’s death, he does not get these answers. He gains information from his father, actively ignoring the advice in favor of his personal determination and does not involve the process. Detectives need various traits to work efficiently. Christopher does not empathize with other people and is unlikely to gain sufficient information for his investigation. Therefore, Christopher does not illustrate a good detective’s traits.
Work Cited
Haddon, Mark. Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. Vintage, 2018.
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