The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night Learning Disabilities

Learning disabilities have destroyed peoples’ self-esteem for the longest time, and unfortunately everyone has them, large or small. In the novel, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon, the main character Christopher experiences learning disabilities and explains how it affects him throughout the book. The idea that everyone has learning disabilities is clearly shown through Chris, his father, Mrs. Peters, Siobhan, and is also proven true with myself. Chris’s inability to understand jokes hinders him from learning because some learning comes from humor. At the beginning of the novel, he immediately opens himself up. He explains,

“This will not be a funny book. I cannot tell jokes because I do not understand them. If I try to say the joke to myself, making the word mean the three different things at the same, it is like hearing three different pieces of music at the same time, which is uncomfortable and confusing and not nice like white

Peters, and Siobhan. When Chris is talking about learning

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disabilities, there is an entire paragraph dedicated to pointing out disabilities that the people who he is most comfortable with. It reads,

“Everyone has special needs, like Father, who has to carry a little packet of artificial sweetening tablets around with him to put in his coffee to stop him from getting fat, or Mrs. Peters, who wears a beige-colored hearing aid, or Siobhan, who has glass so thick they give you a headache if you borrow them, and none of these people are Special Needs, even if they have special needs.” (Haddon Pg. 43)

He explains all the problems these people have in an attempt to make himself feel better and to prove his point about everyone having learning disabilities. This paragraph in the novel is crucial to his point and demonstrates how he can see the struggles that others go