The Curious Case of the Boy with Autism

Have you ever heard of autism? It’s a brain disorder that affects a person’s senses. A lot of people think that people with autism can’t do a lot of ordinary things, but really, they have so much to say. They just don’t want to say it, or have trouble saying it. Christopher, the main character in “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime” by Mark Haddon, has autism, and that affects how the other characters in the book treat him and talk to him. Christopher’s autism plays a big part in the book, because it makes the characters behave very differently than if Christopher didn’t have autism. This also impacts the archetypes of the book. The typical archetypes are there, they are just changed because of Christopher. There are Siobhan (his therapist) and Christopher’s mother, who are the mother figures. There is the dad, who is the shape shifter. There is also Christopher, who is the reluctant hero, but instead of him being reluctant, everyone else is reluctant about him being the hero.

            The first archetype is the mother figure. This role is played by two people: Siobhan and Judy (Christopher’s mother). Both characters do not take this role for the entire book. Judy was with Christopher for a while, but then left years ago because of Christopher’s autism, and the way Christopher talks about her made it seem that he really didn’t care. On page 27, he talks about how she died: “Father said that she died of a heart attack and it wasn’t expected. I said ‘What kind of heart attack?’” He didn’t really care about the feelings, just the facts. He thought she was dead when she really wasn’t, but even when he found out, he wasn’t overwhelmed with rejoice. She really wasn’t the best mother, because she wasn’t able to cope with his autism, so she left. It made her life very hard. After Judy leaves, Siobhan takes over the mother figure role. Siobhan is a better mother figure than Christopher’s actual mother is. She is there for Christopher and helps him understand what he doesn’t. She does have an advantage, though, because she has worked with autistic kids before and knows what to do. But after a while, Christopher found his mother, giving her a second chance, and she tried to help as much as possible even though it was still hard for her. She tried much harder to cope and they ended up living together. Both Judy and Siobhan were mother figures for Christopher and helped him to understand and protect him from the world.

            Another archetype is the shape shifter. The father, Ed, plays this role. He is a very interesting character because at first he seems like a kind, loving father. Because his wife left him two years ago, he had to raise Christopher as a single parent and he is able to cope with it more. But after the death of Wellington, the neighbor’s dog, Christopher starts investigating, and the more he investigates the worse his father gets. Christopher has been writing everything in a book because Siobhan said it was a good idea. At one point Ed finds the book and reads it, and finds out Christopher has been doing a lot of things he doesn’t want him to, so he gets very mad and hides the book. Eventually Christopher finds the book, along with letters from his mom that prove she’s alive and that Ed has lied to him. Then Ed gets really mad, and admits that he killed the dog and hits Christopher. At this point in the book Christopher’s dad seems like a very bad character, but all his dad was ever trying to do was protect him and that was very hard because his wife left him. On page 115, Ed has just found Christopher with the letters and he gets very upset. He says, “I did it for your own good, Christopher. Honestly I did. I never meant to lie. I just thought… I just thought it was better if you didn’t know… that… that… I didn’t mean to… I was going to show you them when you were older.” Ed was very scared at the time, and it was clear he didn’t mean any harm. Once Christopher finds his mom, he wants nothing to do with his father because of all the bad things his father did. That practically destroys Ed. All he wants is his son back, but his son won’t even talk to him. So he gets Christopher a puppy in hope of being able to start the relationship they had before all of this started. When Christopher gets the puppy, he is very excited because he always wanted a dog, and Ed is hoping this dog will bring them back together, and it does. Christopher’s father is definitely an archetype because the feelings that both the reader and Christopher have towards him change from kindness, to hatred, to empathy, and then finally back to kindness.

            The most important archetype of this book is the reluctant hero. Christopher takes this role, but in an interesting way because instead of him being the reluctant person, it’s everyone else who is. Once Wellington dies, Christopher’s goal is to try to solve the murder of who killed him. When he goes to other people’s houses to ask them questions, though, a lot of them ask if he should be doing this. They think that because Christopher has autism, he can’t do it, but he is determined to solve the mystery. An example of this is on page 39, where he is talking to Mrs. Alexander: “Do you know who killed Wellington?…Do you know who killed Wellington?” He is very determined to find out who killed the dog, and he doesn’t really care what other people have to say about it if it’s not related to solving the case. Christopher’s father is the worst about it, though, because he keeps on getting really mad whenever Christopher mentions the dog or Ms. Shears (dog’s owner), but this makes Christopher want to solve it that much more. Christopher‘s father is reluctant because he is scared Christopher will find out who killed Wellington, which was him; Ms. Shear’s husband left her to leave with Judy, his wife and he is very mad about that. The more Christopher investigates however, the more he learns about his own life, and about how his mother is really still alive. One of Christopher’s favorite fictional characters is Sherlock Holmes and he wants to be like him by solving murders. Christopher’s autism has a big role in why everyone is reluctant about him trying to solve the mystery. The autism makes them think that Christopher isn’t capable of doing ordinary things that everyone else can do. They infer that since he has a brain disorder, it means he’s very stupid and should be treated like a kid, when really he’s perfectly capable of solving the mystery.

            Autism has a very big effect on the archetypes in the book “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime.” Since Judy and Siobhan both try to help Christopher when he needs it, they are the mother figures. Ed is just trying to help Christopher, but sometimes he also seems like the bad guy, so he is the shape shifter. Because Christopher is trying to solve the mysteries that come his way, he is the reluctant hero who wants to do what he wants no matter what other people say. Christopher’s autism affects all these archetypes in different ways: for Judy, it’s that she can’t handle being the mother. For Siobhan, it’s the need to try to fill the mother role at school. For Ed, it’s that he’s unsure of how to treat Christopher. And finally for Christopher, it’s that his autism makes everyone else doubt his ability to solve these mysteries. All the typical archetypes are there, they are just different than in most other stories, because they are deeply affected by Christopher’s autism.