The Curious Incident of The Dog in The Night Time 

Mark Haddon

Protagonist

Christopher Boone is “15 years, 3 months and 2 days old.” He is the central figure and the narrator of this novel. Christopher suffers from Asperger’s Syndrome. This ailment disables him from communicating socially with family and peers. His behavior is one of his major issues. Christopher is uncontrollable emotionally. He uses his love and talent for math as one of his compact ways to calm himself down. Christopher adores animals. In fact, he owns a pet rat called Toby. Christopher takes great care of his companion but when it comes to humans it is impossible for him to relate. He cannot deal with physical contact at all. If someone anonymous approaches him, he immediately retaliates and attacks them with a knife.  Christopher has some odd habits which includes being unable to eat or drink anything that has to with the colour yellow or brown.      

Antagonist

Christopher himself actually is the antagonist. He battles against his mind and imagination throughout the novel. He misreads the reactions and actions of the people in his environment. For instance: Christopher’s relationship between him and is father. Christopher does not understand his father’s affection. In his mind, he thinks that his father is a murderer and drunkard, so he scorns him and disconnects him from his life in return. What Christopher doesn’t really interpret, is that his father has been protecting him throughout his existence.

Conflict

After a clash with his father, Christopher discovers a secret stash of letters from his mother. After many months of investigating the case of the dead dog he is led to a much more important realization. Christopher’s mother was not dead. She was living in London with another man. With this terrible revelation he realizes that he must escape from his “murderous” father to find his mother.