Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time Charcter Traits

In the novel The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Hadden the main character, Christopher Boone, exhibits the personality trait of anxiety. In the story the anxious Christopher Boone finds a dog dead in his neighbor's lawn. He wants to find out who the murderer is and during his investigation he finds out that his mother has not been dead for two years and that his own father killed the dog. There are many things that make him anxious such as changes in his environment, things that have rules that are not followed, specific colors, and being touched.

Christopher gets anxious because of changes in his environment, such changes include when he meets new people, his furniture is moved, and he has to use an unknown bathroom. Christopher always gets frightened when he meets, sees, or has to talk to new people. An example of this is, "It takes me a long time to get used to people I don't know. For example, when there is a new member of staff at school I do not talk to them for weeks and weeks" (35). Christopher also hates when his father or anyone else moves the furniture in his house. An example is when Mrs. Shears vacuum's the Boone's house Christopher hates the movement of furniture, so after she is done Christopher moves it all back into place. Finally Christopher does not like using bathrooms that he does not know of. An example is when he is on the train to London he decides to wet himself before he can decide to go to the bathroom that he had never used. When Christopher gets associated with anything new he gets anxious.

Christopher also gets anxious about things with rules that are not followed. One example of this is lies. In the Bible it says, "You shall not lie." Christopher almost always follows this rule. "I don't tell lies... But it is not because I am a good person. I is because I can't tell lies" (19). Christopher only tells "white lies," which is like explaining your day but leaving some things out on purpose. Christopher's father lies to Christopher for two years straight. Christopher's father said Christopher died but actually she ran away with their neighbor. Christopher hates leis especially when they are told to him. Getting told leis makes Christopher anxious.

Another thing that makes Christopher anxious is being touched. In general autistic people do not like being touched. He does not even hug his parents