Context of the Novel

2.4 Context of the Novel

Mark Haddon who came from Northampton, the 21 st -largest settlement in England, had been working with children and adults with mental and physical disabilities. From his experience, working with people with mental and physical disabilities, he created a novel telling about an autistic boy. The title of this novel is The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. In 2003, this novel was successfully published. While writing this novel he proclaimed himself as ‘hard- line atheist’. One of the evidences that can be proven is when the main character in The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time states that God is stupid “Mark” 1. The setting of this novel is in Swindon, Wiltshire, in 20 th century. In this place people commonly believe that dog is their partner and friend. “The loyalty and devotion that dogs demonstrate…. closely mimics the human instincts of love and friendship, leading many dog owners to view their pets as fully-fledged family members” “Love” 1. This novel tells about a boy, with asperger’s syndrome or asperger’s disorder, named Christopher who wants to uncover the secret information about his family. Asperger syndrome is the autism spectrum disorder. Spectrum disorder is a complex syndrome that must be cured. The story begins with the finding of the bleeding dog by Christopher. His curiosity encourages him to investigate the murderer of the dog. On the contrary, his father is the murderer of the bleeding dog. 19

CHAPTER 3 METHODOLOGY

This chapter is divided into three main parts, namely object of the study, approach of the study and method of the study. The aim of the first part is to describe the novel used in this study. The second part presents the approach available in this study. Then the third part describes the steps taken to complete this study.

3.1 Object of the Study

The object of this study is the psychological aspect of the novel The Curious Incidents of the Dog in the Night-Time. This novel, written by Mark Haddon consists of 226 pages. Mark Haddon wrote this novel in 2003 and was first published by Random House, Inc, New York. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time has been published in two imprints. The first is dedicated for adult written under Jonathan Cape imprint. The second is available for young adult written under David Fickling Books. In this study, I use the novel available for adult. This novel is unique because this novel does not have chapters inside. Mark Haddon only put primary number to distinguish every part of the story. He writes this novel like a diary using the perspective of an autistic boy. This unique novel tells a story about an autistic boy who is curious with the mystery of a murdered dog in the garden near his house. The Curious Incident