The complexity of human relationships is central to The Curious Incident of the

Dog in the Night-time. To what extent do you agree with this statement?

Mark Haddon’s unique text effectively leveraged form and language to explore the
complex ideas of neurodiverse individuals in 2003 and the difficulty they have with
social interactions. Haddon targeted readers of a similar age to Christopher to create
awareness and represent the qualities of neurodiverse individuals through a one-of-a-
kind narrative voice. Whilst Haddon did not intend to make a narrative voice of a
neurodiverse character. The protagonist's problematic social interactions and difficulty
to cope with change are indicative of ASD. During chapter 3 in the novel, we see
diagrams of faces which further alludes to how Christopher finds it difficult to pick up on
non-verbal cues which is also indicative of ASD. Mark Haddon has eliminated the use of
adverbs when dialogue is being used. ”And she said.” This further represents
neurodiversity as it displays his difficulty in picking up expression and his emotional
detachment from the world. As readers, we are able to pick up on semiotics but the
novel further emphasised the difficulty Christopher has in doing so. Then in chapter 17,
we see a diagram of our galaxy which further constitutes his neurodiversity and
extensive knowledge of topics on his interests. Then Haddon's use of truncated
sentences, “I tried to do chatting” further displays how Christopher finds social
interactions difficult which is symbolic of his ASD. Later in the novel we experience
Christopher hyper attention through imagery. “She was wearing boots which looked like
army boots and there were 5 bracelets made out of a silver colour metal,” The factual
quote is another example of his unique behaviours which are typical to one of someone
who has ASD. Through the use of form and language, Haddon was effectively able to
represent neurodiversity.