Similarities Between The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time And Rubbernecker

The development of a person is heavily influenced by the relationship they share with their parents. The psychoanalytic lens regarding personality is prevalent in Mark Haddon’s novel, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, and in Belinda Bauer’s book, Rubbernecker. As explained by Dennis O’Neil: “There are many potential factors that are involved in shaping a personality.  These factors are usually seen as coming from heredity and the environment” (O’Neil, Process of Socialization: Personality Development). In both novels, the main characters share a limited maternal bond, a loss of father, and needing to deal with parental roadblocks. The relationship a son has with his parents impacts his emotional development.
Usually the mother

is the first person to make a bond with their newborn child. However, these bonds once formed can quickly change as one’s personality develops. “Intimate interactions and relationships affect adaptations to the changing needs and stresses that evolve with each stage of development throughout one's lifetime. Intimate interactions from early life serve as the basis upon which relationships later in life are formed” (Maren Cardillo, Intimate Relationships). In Marks Haddon’s novel The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Christopher’s relationship with his mother diminishes as he grows more independent and as the characteristics of his Asperger’s Syndrome increasingly surface. Christopher is recalling a memory about an afternoon on the beach with his parents. At one point he remembers being frightened when his mother goes under the water, causing him to think that a shark has gotten her: “…I screamed and she stood up out of the water again and came over to where I was standing and held up her right hand and spread her fingers out in a fan…And after a while I stopped screaming and I held up my left hand and spread my fingers out in a fan and we made our fingers and thumbs touch each other…” (Haddon Page 77). Christopher’s experience at the beach that day with his mother causes him to learn to be trusting. His relationship with his mother, although complicated at times, proves to help him in his time of stress, as the maternal bond causes her to help her child. Christopher remembers the times his mother would hit him: “Mother had hit me sometimes because she was a very hot-tempered person, which means that she got angry more quickly than other people and she shouted more often” (Haddon Page 82). Christopher’s autistic tendencies causes his mother to become frustrated with his behaviour. Not knowing how to effectively deal with this frustration, she takes it out on her son who does not understand why she is upset. Her lashing out results in Christopher being cautious and scared of making contact with people. The absence of a maternal bond is more apparent for the main character in Rubbernecker. Patrick’s mother is looking at an old photo of him when she begins thinking to herself: “…No doubt because Matt was behind it, she thought with an unexpected flicker of old resentment. Patrick had always been more Matt’s son than hers. Matt would explain things to Patrick in a low, soothing voice, and never cared if Patrick said nothing in return, or got up and left in the middle of it” (Bauer Page 43). Her bond with Patrick is negatively impacted as she is unable to understand his behaviour which results from his autism and is not directed at her. Her lashing out impacts Patrick's development and relationships and causes him to seek comfort from his father more than his mother. Patrick returns to the Beacons to spend Christmas with his mother. After Sarah lashes out at Patrick about a number of things, she apologizes, but he is not unaware of why she is upset: “She signed. That was the thing about Patrick—he didn’t understand the sacrifices she made, but he also didn’t understand the anger and resentment. It was good in a way, she supposed; maybe for both of them” (Bauer Page 126). The affection that is expected from a mother to her child is absent from Sarah and Patrick’s relationship. The missing affection over the course of Patrick’s development results in voids in his personality regarding identifying loving and caring actions, therefore he is unable to produce those actions towards others. A new born baby makes an instant connection with the person they feeling safe with. The bonds formed between the mother and her child are crucial for the development of their personality. Not only is the maternal bond critical for emotional development but so is a relationships with one’s father.
It is often said that every boy wishes to grow up to be like his father.

They look up to their father as their hero and role model resulting them attempting to be like them. “The absence of parental relationships can also have an effect on children and adolescents” (Lauren B. Childers, Parental Bonding in Father-Son Relationships). In The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Christopher’s relationship with his father is strong until problems arise causing him to lose trust. Christopher’s father becomes extremely frustrated with his son and explodes at him: “Father had never grabbed hold of me like that before…But Father was a more levelheaded person, which means he didn’t get angry as quickly and he didn’t shout as often. So I was very surprised when he grabbed me…But Father didn’t let go, and he was shouting. And I hit him again…” (Haddon Page 82-83). The physical violence Christopher experienced from his father causes him to lose trust in him. It is abnormal for his father to behave in such a manner and so it is frightening. The new point in their father-son relationship as Christopher is no longer are of how his father will react. Christopher’s father confesses that he is the one who murdered Wellington and lied to Christopher about his mother. Christopher responds: “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 had said, ‘ Trust me,’ because he had told a lie about a

big thing” (Haddon Page 122). As the truth unfolds, Christopher realizes that his father has been hiding things from him by lying. He is unable to comprehend why his father lied but the situation and this impacts Christopher ability to trust, as he becomes more nervous around male figures. In contrast to Christopher, Patrick in Rubbernecker physically loses his father due to a hit-and-run accident. Patrick is stunned: “The car hit him so hard that it knocked him out of his shoes. One moment his father was coming towards him with his hand outstretched; the next there was a space, with only the Doc Marten boots to show where he’s been…” (Bauer Page 50). The physical loss of a parent, especially the one in which the child relies heavily on, impacts how they develop emotionally. Patrick loses the parent that he feels most comfortable and safe with, and due to his autism he does not fully understand what has happened to his father. This results in him seeking the answers about the death of his father through exploring dead animals and later dissecting bodies in his anatomy class. Patrick tries to understand death: “Losing his father had at first seemed to be a kind of confusion — like losing a glove or a sock. Those things didn’t cease to exist just because you couldn’t see them; they were always somewhere —under the bed, in the machine down the back of the sofa — and eventually they turned up” (Page 202). The lost of his father creates a barrier in which he cannot move forward. Losing one’s father, either through trust or by death, plays a major role in how a person will develop emotionally. Since the father figure is gone, the special lessons and skills that he often hands down to his young cannot be provided, and so the child is missing that part of their development.
Unknowingly, parents place roadblocks that impact how their maturing child will develop. As explained by Maren Cardillo: “They discover themselves as having new emotional and sexual needs. As they make these discoveries, adolescents begin to realize the limitations of their parents” (Maren Cardillo, Intimate Relationships). In The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Christopher tries to become more independent, but his father blocks this in an attempt to keep him safe. Christopher and his father are on their way home from the police station. Christopher’s father warns him:
… ‘Just try and keep your nose out of other people’s business.’ I thought for a little and I said, ‘I am going to find out who killed Wellington.’ And Father said, ‘ Were you listening to what I was saying Christopher?’ I said, ‘Yes, I was listening to what you were saying, but when someone gets murdered you have to find out who did it so that they can be punished.’ And he said, ‘It’s a bloody dog, Christopher, a bloody dog.’ I replied, ‘I think dogs are important, too.’ He said, ‘Leave it’ (Haddon Page 20).
Christopher’s father interferes with his development as he stops him from exploring and becoming independent. He places a mental barrier which causes Christopher to stop his questioning, since he follows rules religiously. Christopher must overcome this limit if he wants to discover Wellington’s murder, resulting in him developing the trait of doing was is morally right. Christopher’s father tells his son to leave the issue alone in the hope that it will protect Christopher from discovering the truth. This roadblock, although it is to help Christopher, it is mainly to save his father from divulging his secrets. When searching for the book he is writing, Christopher looks in his Father’s closet and finds letters addressed to him from his mother: “Then I stopped reading the letters because I felt sick. Mother had not had a heart attack. Mother had not died. Mother had been alive all the time. And Father had lied about this” (Haddon Page 112). The lie his father tells him results in Christopher believing that his mother is dead. The death of a parent heavily impacts the emotional development of a child due to the absence of that parent. This causes a space where the nurturing from that parent should be. Similar to Christopher, Patrick in Rubbernecker is forced to deal with roadblocks created by his parents. Trying to figure out the answer to his mystery, Patrick phones his mother but has difficulty asking her a question. Sarah senses something is amiss with her son but she neglects to try to understand what it is: “Sarah Fort’s head asked the questions her heart didn’t want answered. She had been expecting the worst for years…He was obviously getting muddled, but she didn’t help him out. She was in no hurry to hear what he wanted to say” (Bauer Page 206). Patrick is clearly in need of help to complete his quest to unravel the cause of death for Number 19’s body, but his mother places a roadblock down in front of him causing a temporary halt in his progression. Patricks is investing his efforts to solve the murder but the roadblock is preventing him from continuing forward. Right after Patrick’s father’s death, he asks his mother: “‘What happened to Daddy?’… ‘Daddy’s dead,’ she said hoarsely. ‘Why?’ ‘Because of you,’ she said, and her voice broke in half. ‘Because of you’” (Bauer Page 51)! Sarah takes her anger out on her son forming a roadblock as she blames him for the death of her husband and his father. Her response does not help her son understand the death or to begin to grieve their loss. How someone deals with obstacles formed by their parents shapes their relationship impacting their emotional development.
Emotional development is affected by the relationships shared between a son and his parents.

Lack of maternal bonds that Christopher and Patrick have with their mothers affects how they cope with stress and respond to affection from others. The loss of trust for Christohper’s father also impacts how he now interacts with him as he no longer feels safe enough to trust him. As for Patrick, the death of his father causes him to seek answers about death, but he discovers more that what he had planned. The roadblocks created by their parents impact how the characters learn to overcome them and to push forward on their journeys. The importance of a strong and healthy relationship between parents and their son is seen through development: “A child at this age largely only interacts with his or her parents; therefore, they are the main source of trust and mistrust in the child’s life. If parents have a trusting and supportive relationship with their child, then the child overcomes the crisis and establishes the virtue of hope” (Kelsey Sharpe, Parental Influence on the Development of

Children).