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Students’ Study Guide for The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

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Students’ Study Guide for The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-
Time
Like all well-written books, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, by Mark
Haddon, generates many questions and ideas from many different angles. The purpose of
this study guide is to expose you to as many of these questions, ideas, and angles as
possible, in order to stimulate your interest, encourage you to re-read passages, and
engage you in the book’s complexity as you examine it by yourself or discuss it with
others. By reading the book this summer, and by using this study guide, you will be
amply prepared for the Discussion Event on August 27
th
!
How to Use This Study Guide
This is a study guide, not an examination or test! As you read through this guide,
take note of the questions and ideas that pique your curiosity and that encourage
you to explore your interests more fully.
Spend 10 minutes reading through the entire study guide, not just part of it, before
looking at the questions in more detail. Each section of questions takes you
through major aspects of the book and through passages and chapters that are
memorable. Then, once you’ve familiarized yourself with this guide, go back to
each section in the guide. Recommended time spent on this study guide: 1 hour .
As you read the book and use this study guide, share your experience and ideas
with others.
Bring the study guide with you, along with any notes you may have taken, to the
Discussion Event on August 27. You are not required to take notes on the book
prior to this Discussion Event, but you are guaranteed to have a better grasp of the
book if you do jot down some notes before you arrive on campus. (And because
you’ll be taking lots of notes during your university years for all of your classes,
you might get into the habit of doing this now, with this book…!)
First: An important, 5-minute task
Christopher Boone, the narrator of The Curious Incident, is unique. Everything about the
novel – its plot, pacing, dialogue, characterization, perspectives, ideas, format, style,
themes, and motifs
1
– takes its cues from this unusual and engaging narrator. Because
Christopher is autistic, the very first thing that you will want to do is to spend 5 minutes
on-line, looking up Autism and a related cognitive condition, Aspergers Syndrome, on the
web. Knowing something about these conditions will enable you to appreciate
Christophers “take” on life and to understand more fully how and why he sees things the
way he does.
1
A motif is a thing, any thing – an object, a color, an article of clothing, a pattern of action, an element of
the landscape, a phrase, etc. – that is repeated throughout an entire narrative, and because it is repeated, this
thing takes on special significance and adds meaning to the story. For example, Christophers many graphs
and charts become one of the story’s important motifs.
1

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General Questions about your Reading Experience
The following questions ask you about your impressions – your “gut” response or your
subjective response – to the novel. These questions also ask you to explore how this
book may or may not be different from other stories that you have read. Read the six
questions listed here, attempting to formulate answers, in your mind, to as many as you
can.
1. What was your first impression upon reading the first few pages of this novel?
2. In what ways did your first impression about the book change, as you continued
to read the story? Why did it change? If your first impressions did not change,
why is this the case?
3. What made reading this book an unusual, engaging, and sometimes challenging
experience?
4. It is safe to say that most of you have not read a book such as this one before.
Because you haven’t, the novel will strike you as “different” in many ways. In
what ways is this novel different from many of the other novels or short stories
that you have read? Examine everything about the novel, from its style (word
choice, voice, sentence structure, and sentence length) and characterization, to its
plot and formatting (e.g., chapter numbers, use of italics, boldfacing, etc.) and
make a list in your mind, or on paper, of all the ways in which this novel does
NOT fit your usual idea of a novel.
5. Despite the novel’s many oddities, the author of the work, Mark Haddon, has still
told you a story that has a beginning, a middle, and an end. In other words, The
Curious Incident makes use of literary conventions common to many, if not all,
works of fiction or similar genres.
2
What aspects of The Curious Incident remind
you of other stories that you have read, or even films that you have watched?
What conventions of all novels are also followed and developed in this story?
6. Generally speaking, what did you appreciate the most about this story? The least?
And why?
Questions about the Narrator
Describe anything and everything about Christopher John Francis Boone that you can
remember (and if you can’t remember certain things, then take a few minutes to re-read
portions of the story that strike your fancy, so that you can get a “feel” for this narrator).
Since the whole story is filtered through his gaze, the more you try to see the world
through his eyes, the more you’ll come to appreciate the special way in which he tells his
story.
Questions about the Narrator, continued:
1. What does Christopher like? What does he not like? Does he offer any
rationalization for his likes and dislikes?
2
We use the word genre to describe certain kinds or classifications of literature. Novels are one genre;
short stories are another; poetry is still another, sonnets are a sub-genre of poetry, and so on.
2

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Students' Study Guide for The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time Like all well-written books, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, by Mark Haddon, generates many questions and ideas from many different angles. The purpose of this study guide is to expose you to as many of these questions, ideas, and angles as possible, in order to stimulate your interest, encourage you to re-read passages, and engage you in the book's complexity as you examine it by yourself or discuss it with others. By reading the book this summer, and by using this study guide, you will be amply prepared for the Discussion Event on August 27th! How to Use This Study Guide This is a study guide, not an examination or test! As you read through this guide, take note of the questions and ideas that pique your curiosity and that encourage you to explore your interests more fully. Spend 10 minutes reading through the entire study guide, not just part of it, before looking at the questions in more detail. Each section of questions takes you through major aspects of the book and through passages and chapters that are memorable. Then, once you've familiarized yourself with this guide, go back to each section in the guide. Recommended time spent on this study guide: 1 hour. As you read the book and use this study guide, share your experience and ideas with others. Bring the study guide with you, along with any notes you may have taken, to the Discussion Event on August 27. You are not r ...
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