The Theme of Honesty in The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

     I am currently at the end of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, by Mark Haddon, and a lot has changed. The main questions that I was questioning was answered. Some of the questions were, who killed Wellington? Another question is why did Christopher receive the letters from his mother if she is "dead"? This book is about this very interesting kid named Christopher John Boone. An example of how Christopher is a very interesting boy is that he knows every prime number up to 7,057, is amazing in math, but he has no understanding of human emotions. Also, he can't stand to be touched. And he detests the color yellow. Christopher went on a quest to do some detective work find out who killed Wellington. Wellington is the neighborhood dog. Christopher's father keeps telling Christopher to not do detective work, because he would be getting into people's business. That is what Christopher thinks, but his father doesn't want him to find out that his mother is actually alive and that his mother left Christopher's father. Also, he didn't want Chris to find out that he killed Wellington because he was mad at Mrs. Shears for leaving him. The way Chris found all of this information out was when Christopher's father hid his notebook, and it was in a shoe box with all of Christopher's mother's letters that she wrote for him. I think that the theme of this book, and what the author is trying to get the reader to think, is that honesty is for the best and that lying has many consequences.
   
     First of all, the author of this book, Mark Haddon, wants us to think that honesty is always for the best and that lying has many consequences. The way that the author tells us to think this is by showing how bad it actually is when the father lied to Christopher. When Christopher finds out that his mother is actually alive and not dead, and that the father killed Wellington, the neighborhood dog, to show how mad he was at Mrs. Shears and to get revenge on her. The author also intrudes in it when Christopher's father explains what happened to Christopher and to clear everything up. When the father explains, the author intrudes with, "You have to know that I am going to tell you the truth from now on. About everything. Because... if you don't tell the truth now, then later on...later on it hurts even more" (120). The author is directly speaking to the reader here in the dialogue of Christopher's father. The 'you' in the intrusion is the reader. The lying to Christopher gets even worse. It makes Chris scared of his father, so he hides in his garden. After that he will go and run and live with his mother in London. He brings his few belongings, which includes his special food, and his pet mouse, Toby. That is horrible for a young child who has some issues to run away, and that is what lying and not being honest does to you. That is what the author wants us to think.
   
      Also, the theme in this book made me change my view on honesty. Honesty is very risky. It can be make things better and it is what you should do, be honest, but other times it actually is good to not be honest and lie. I believe that it depends on this situation. The situation that Christopher's father is in, I personally believe that it was a good idea for him to keep the fact that Chris's mother is still alive only because Christopher has no understanding human emotions. It was wrong for Chris's father to lie about it in the first place right after Christopher's mother left. But once Chris's father said that, the truth can't be revealed until Chris is an adult who fully understands emotions, and when it will be easier for him to comprehend the news. I understand that Christopher's dad was shocked when she left, and I understand why he told Chris that she was dead. Since Chris doesn't understand human emotions, he doesn't know how he feels and that will make him "break" down. The reason why it went bad was because Chris found out about the secret too early. I think that it is right to be honest in most other cases. A case that should have had honesty was with Romeo and Juliet. Them not being honest and telling the truth to their parents lead to their death.
   
     In conclusion, the theme of honesty is a big theme in The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, by Mark Haddon. The author wants us to think that honesty is for the best and that lying has many consequences. The way he does this is by an author's intrusion when the father explains the situation, and by showing how bad lying is in the story line. I only partially feel what the author is trying to get us to feel. I feel that it can be make things better and it is what you should do, be honest, but other times it actually is good to not be honest and lie. I believe that it depends on this situation. I personally feel that it was the right thing for Christopher's father to not be honest. I really love this book, and it definitely changed many of my views on honesty and lying.