A Life Full of Numbers

The “Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night,” follows a story of a boy named Christopher who has autism. The book and the play are awe inspiring and tell an amazing narrative depicting the life of Christopher.  Both the play and novel have many similarities and differences including point of views, description, characters and general set. 

    The point of view in the play and the book are very different.  For example, when you are reading the play, it is from Siobhan’s point of view. She is reading Christopher’s story and makes comments about it throughout the play. She is the narrator of the play, expressing time and placement. For example she reads, “It was seven minutes after midnight.” (Stephens, 3) She generally makes these comments throughout the book. This shows she is leading the play. This differs from the book, because in the book it is from the viewer’s point of view.  There is no narrator in the book, the book has descriptions in words about what time it is, the location, etc. The book is a continuous story told through words and some dialogue, but the words hold all the description. 

    Another difference is the book is more descriptive then the play. The play tells the general area that is taking place, like, “Christopher leaves, and he goes back to his house.” This is a stage direction from the writer of the play; however, it lacks detail on what the house would look like. This is contrasting the book, which describes in detail everything around Christopher. For example, the book specifies details including specific locations like, “she lived on the opposite side of the road, two houses to the left.” (Haddon, 10) This allows the reader to picture an idea of the scene. 

    The play and the book, have all the same characters with the same mindset. The characters match up in the way they act and depict themselves throughout the book and the play. For example, in the play and the book, Siobhan is nice and is a person Christopher confides in. Also, the book and the plot have the same story line of Christopher. They have several main events. 1. Christopher finds the dog. 2. Christopher writes the book about the dog. 3. Christopher finds out about his mother’s affair. 4. The letters. This list can go on and on because both the play and the book depict this storyline. They are told in different ways but they both follow the guidelines.   Another similarity is the play and the book both have the same sets, or main places they were at. They had Christopher’s room, his kitchen, Ms. Shear’s house, his mom’s house, the school, the train etc. This goes along with the same plot, because the location follows the plot. 

    Throughout the play and the book, the readers learn a different perspective on how Christopher sees’ things. However, they viewers of the play and the book get the same general idea of the story line and what was happening. The play and the book both brought their own aspects to the table, and in the end pulled the entire story line together. As you can see, there are many similarities and differences.

                 

Source: http://www.thejournal.co.uk/culture/arts-culture-news/preview-curious-incident-dog-night-time-8483382