Curious Incident: Family & Divorce as themes

Another theme in The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time revolves around the stress placed on a marriage when a member of the family has special needs.

In the book, Christopher's parents are divorced, but his dad lied and told Christopher that his mom had died. Why do you think he did that? What do you think of the way Christopher reacted when he found out the truth?

I think that his Dad foresaw that reaction from the beginning, and that (to his father's thinking) Christopher would have been able to cope better with death, which is something rational that everyone experiences and can be explained by science, than his mother betraying him by running away.

Maybe he was afraid at the time of having to calm Christopher's potentially violent and/or severely reclusive reaction to the news of his mother's departure by himself, and rather than face it alone he fell into the lie to keep things calm.

From what I can tell Christopher sees the world in black and white and likes things to be explained by reason and truth. When lies that are complicated add the gray area that he cannot understand the confusion is too much to bear. His fear and anxiety were understandable, and I think his dad should have consulted Siobhan, who seems to understand and work well with Christopher, before he acted as he did.

Yes, I agree that Christopher's dad should have consulted Siobhan about what to tell Christopher. She is a marvelous teacher. Author Mark Haddon worked with autistic children when he was younger. I suspect he was a lot like the fictional Siobhan!

Another point of view is that Christopher's father was very angry at the mother for leaving, abandoning both of them for the comforts of another relationship. He made a snap decision to lie to Christopher out of emotion and then couldn't see a way to unravel the deception or explain the basis of lying. The father's own limitations, anger, and perhaps embarrassment caused him to lie to Christopher. This lie created structure in which both he could cope with the abandonment and Christopher could cope with the loss of his mother. Ironically, the death of the dog ultimately leads to the unraveling of this deception.

Great insights, glfngals. I wondered why the father lied and the hid the letters to perpetuate the lie, and I think you've offered a good explanation for that. Sometimes an initial lie happens without much planning on the part of the person saying it, but then more lies follow in an attempt to avoid admitting to telling a lie. With Christopher's stong opinion about lies, I'm not surprised the father was hesitant to admit to the intial lie early on.