Conflict discussions

     In our group discussion on characters, we had mixed opinions on thoughts of their actions and personality. this is probably because of the stressful and questionable decisions the characters make. The discussion with the most heat was the character one because we didn't agree on rather the father lieng and the mother leaving were the right decisions. Setting was a very boring discussion other then deciding on if the setting played a role in the story. If Chris was ina  city perhaps the decisions made would of been less responsible than if he lived in a rural part.

Climax

I've reached the point in the book where the directions changes from the focus of finding dog murderer to Chris in search of a somewhat normal life after he finds his father, Ed Boone, is guilty of the crime and turns violent. Chris ends up hiding out in shed before he takes himself on a mentally excruciating journey to london by train. he has to fight his fears of talking to strangers, changing his daily schedule and his fear of crowded places. He decides to go to London as he found out his father lied to him about his mothers death. After his father found him reading the ltters his mom wrote to him but never received, he exposes everything about what he kept from  Chris. He explains the tension between the Mrs. Shears is the result of Chris' mom cheating with Mr. Shear's. Astonishingly she left Chris and Ed and everything else except for Mr. Shear's, randomly for London. Further explained n the last chapter's, she does so as she noticed Chris was always happier with Ed and not her. She blames her short temper and demanding personality as one of the reasons why the family relationship never worked out.

Letter written from Judy Boone to her son Chris.

On his way to London he gets lost near the school so he is forced to fight his fear of asking strangers for directions to the train station. He becomes very distraught and confused once he reaches the city because of all the commotion and noise. he ends up finding his mothers apartment address (from letters) and waits in garden for her to come out. I was expecting a larger expression but it resembled more a greeting after a week long trip to a camp. Mr. Shears is annoyed with Chris' prescense and suggests he leaves. The couple and Chris end up going back to their home in Swindown where Ed is forced to stay elsewhere. The book ends by the mother and Mr. Shear's buying a red brick house down the street and buying a dog at ed's house for Chris' and his father's relationship to strenthen.

I believe this was a good book because as previously stated in my psots i suspected something with the death of the mother being false and ed being the murderer, and as Chris boone said,

       "In a murder mystery novel someone has to work out who the murderer is and then catch them.        It is a puzzle. If it is a good puzzle you can sometimes work out the answer before the end of the book. (5):"

... it was a good puzzle.

Suspicion

Father figure

The lack of concern of the father interests me, and makes me question if he commited the crime. He tells Christopher not to play "detective" perhaps scared that Chris is so smart he may find out who the criminal is. I can also see some tension between the owner of the dog (Ms. Shears) involving the dad. Christopher seems to have social anxiety perhaps from his parents not teaching him the difference between meeting people and stranger danger. He talks to his teacher about his novel/diary and all his family problems which I can see a problem arising in these actions. When Ed verablly assaulted Chris I think Chris developed a strong sense of fear but worsened when his own father badly abused him. Chris told some few white lies (not really lieng to Chris) about the bruises to Siobahn so no action was taken (again, conflict of truth. vs lie). He developed such a fear of his father he did not want to talk to him let alone go home so resorted to camping outside in a  garden shed. His father seems to have a really bad temper and actually abuses him quite often. He must get upset with the constant attention Chris requires which must be the reason he cusses out Chris pretty bad and hits him. At one point Chris even leaves his strict day-to-day routine to go sit out in the garden shed for a lengthy period of time. Perhaps his anger problem could of started after the incident of his wife.

 The excess really detailed information which has nothing to do with the story makes me wonder why the author bothered to put this in, perhaps to build character to a better understanding but this seems a little bit too excessive from beginning to end.

I feel this book is a diary novel recounting the tale of the author writing this book which really confuses your thinking because of the complicated theories and thoughts shared.

Story line

Why? 

After the cops were called to investigate the situation of the dog stabbed by the garden fork, Christopher accidently assaulted an officer which then led to his arrest. After his arrest, the police paid no attention to the matter of the dog and realised how in society dogs are still disregarded through the law and in importance. The father showed little to no emotion when Chris recounted to him the story of events. He also prohibited Chris from investigating or "playing detective" of the situation for a reason that's not completely understood. Chris talks to a neighbor of his, whom he asks her, Mrs. Alexander, if she knows anything about the murder of Wellington. She says she has no idea but asks Chris to sit down and talk. He is a man of very few words and is where we understand his lack of social understanding. He can't comprehend people's emotions and needs a diagram that Siobahn dew for him to understand the right emotion. She goes inside to get cookies leaving Chris outside, making Chris feel nervous she is ringing the police so he runs away. This is where I better understood Chris' social problems.

Turns out this secondary character will play a large role in the events of the story. Further on in the novel, Mrs. Alexander is who we learn from why Mrs. Shear's has hatred towards the Boone family. She exposes how Judy Boone cheated with Mr. Boone and made Chris promise not to tell anyone she told him that. Chris does in fact keep this promise.

Story line of the curious incident of the dog in the night-time

The climax moment comes up when Chris finds out his mother is in fact alive, which switches the focus of Wellington's death to resolving a family issue.