Analysis Of The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time

Trust and attachment, both ingredients to complete the never-ending love we all desire. Some search for the love of their friends, others for the love of a significant other; however, everyone longs for the love of their family. Throughout life, we seek this ceaseless love thinking the one we trust is harmless. What we fail to realize is why we trust them and why we remain so attached. So, what happens when our loved one breaks our trust? Well, without trust, the attachment does not exist. We feel betrayed, unsafe, and extremely hurt to the point we no longer want to be around this individual. The novel The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon demonstrates this concept. Christopher trusts his father with all his heart

We cannot embrace one without the other, and one little mistake can ruin this love that seems never-ending. When it comes to the person to which we attach, we believe the best in them, and the fact they could cause so much damage never even crosses our minds. Christopher believes his father is truthful and reliable until the day he finds out his father lied about his mother’s death and the truth about what happened to the neighbor’s dog. Haddon reveals this truth, “I had to get out of the house. Father had murdered Wellington. That meant he could murder me, because I couldn’t trust him, even though he said ‘Trust me,’ because he had told a lie about a big thing” (Haddon 122). Once Christopher realizes what his father has done, he no longer feels safe; as a result, Christopher wants zero contact with his father. The trust between father and son breaks and Christopher feels no sense of attachment. This is shown when he decides to venture out on his own to find his mother and to live with her. The only time he ever feels completely safe is with his father, and now there is no connection between the two of them due to the lies and broken trust. Throughout the rest of the novel, Christopher’s father tries to win back his trust, knowing that without Christopher’s trust there will never be another connection or attachment between them. We experience some form of this in our own lives and we always try to win back someone’s trust, but is that truly attainable? Onora O’Neill gives insight on the matter at hand, “We can rebuild a bit of trustworthiness. We can do it two people together trying to improve trust. But trust, in the end, is distinctive because it’s given by other people. You can’t rebuild what other people give you. You have to give them the basis for giving you their trust” (O’Neill 7:42). Overall, once the trust disappears so does the attachment to