Do you think it was appropriate for mrs. alexander to tell christopher what she did?

Father has prepared supper when Christopher comes home; Christopher's plate is laid out so the different foods were not touching because if they touched he could not eat them. Father asks where Christopher has been and he responds that he's been out, which is a white lie. Christopher explains that a white lie isn't a lie at all, but not telling the whole truth. Father says that he received a phone call from Mrs. Shears and reminds Christopher to keep his nose out of other people's business. Christopher tells Father that Mr. Shears is the Prime Suspect, but this only angers Father further. He bangs the table and knocks some of the food together, meaning Christopher couldn't eat it anymore. Father does not want the man's name mentioned in the house because he is evil; Christopher asks if that means he might have killed Wellington, which only frustrates Father further. Christopher adds that he knows he was told not to get involved but Mrs. Shears is a friend; Father says she's not a friend anymore. Father repeats his orders to Christopher: to not ask Mrs. Shears about who killed the dog; to not ask anyone about who killed the dog; to not trespass in other people's gardens; and to stop the detective game. Father makes Christopher promise this, and he does.

Notes - More clues about the second mystery are provided in Father's reaction to Mr. Shears. Ironically, while Father told a lie about what happened to Mother, according to Christopher's view of the world he only told a white lie about Wellington since he never denied killing the dog because he was never asked.

Chapter 83

Christopher believes he will make a good astronaut because he is intelligent and likes being in tiny spaces on his own. He wouldn't be homesick because he'll be surrounded by things he likes. He would like to take Toby with him, perhaps as part of an experiment, but would go even if Toby couldn't because it would be a Dream Come True.

Notes - The depths of Christopher's isolation are revealed in his reasons for wanting to be an astronaut. What many would consider a drawback - being alone in a tiny space - is one of the aspects that most appeals to him.

Chapter 89

The next day Christopher tells Siobhan that Father wants him to stop detecting and so the book was finished. Siobhan likes the book and says Christopher should be proud of himself, but he insists that it isn't a proper book since there is no proper ending because the murderer of Wellington was still At Large. Siobhan compares this to real life, such as Jack the Ripper, but this does not appease Christopher. He mentions how Father did not like hearing Mr. Shears' name and thinks he may be the killer and Siobhan suggests that he may just not like Mr. Shears very much. She adds that Mrs. Shears is a friend and so Mr. Shears' treatment of her may be why Christopher's father doesn't like him. However, Christopher points out that Father claims Mrs. Shears is no longer a friend. Siobhan doesn't know what else to say. The next two days Christopher sees four yellow cars in a row, meaning they were Black Days and so he keeps to himself. On the third day he closes his eyes all the way to school because he's allowed to do that after two Black Days in a row.

Notes - More clues abound in the hidden second mystery, but again the misdirection continues to draw the reader's attention to Wellington. Note how Christopher gives himself a way out of facing too many Black Days in a row, which shows that he can make accommodations to make his life more tolerable.

Chapter 97

Five days later Christopher sees five red cars in a row, which is a Super Good Day. He goes to buy candy at the local shop and meets Mrs. Alexander again, who asks why he ran off the other day. He explains that he was afraid she would call the police but she doesn't understand why he'd think that. As Mrs. Alexander makes her purchases, Christopher goes outside and pets Mrs. Alexander's dachshund. When Mrs. Alexander soon joins him and says the dog's name is Ivor. At first, Christopher doesn't want to chat with Mrs. Alexander but decides that since it's a Super Good Day, something special should happen but hasn't yet. He thinks he can find out from her something about Wellington or Mrs. Shears without asking her, which would mean he doesn't break his promise to Father. He tells Mrs. Alexander about taking A-level maths and he watches while she cleans up after Ivor's poo.

He thinks of the different orders given by his father and decides to take a risk since today is a Super Good Day. So he asks Mrs. Alexander if she knows Mr. Shears. She says she knows him only in passing and suspects he's asking in relation to Wellington. She then believes it best not to talk about these things because Christopher's father is right and he shouldn't be asking questions on this topic. Christopher asks if Mr. Shears killed his Mother, which Mrs. Alexander denies. He asks if Mr. Shears caused Mother enough stress to die of a heart attack and Mrs. Alexander is surprised to hear Christopher's Mother had been in the hospital and died. Mrs. Alexander realizes Christopher doesn't know something she does and decides to tell him as long as he promises not to tell his father she did so. She knows that if she doesn't answer, Christopher will keep pushing and it will upset his father. Christopher makes his promise and Mrs. Alexander tells him that before she died, Christopher's mother and Mr. Shears were having an affair. She apologizes and says she didn't mean to upset Christopher, but he needed that answer and didn't want his father to relive bad memories. Christopher asks if this is why Mr. Shears left Mrs. Shears and Mrs. Alexander says she expects so. Christopher goes home, but not before Mrs. Alexander reminds him of the promise he made her.

Notes - Using language to his advantage, Christopher follows the exact instructions of his father while still going against his overall wish - that is, he observed the letter of the law but not the spirit of it. Mrs. Alexander's surprise about Christopher's mother's hospitalization and death are a clue as to her real whereabouts. Christopher's views on human relations is very specific, so he describes the relationship between his mother and Mr. Shears not under the euphemism of an affair or the even subtler "very, very good friends" (as Mrs. Alexander says), but that "they were doing sex". This cuts to the heart of the matter but does not trouble Christopher because it is the truth.

Page 2

Mr. Jeavons believes that Christopher likes maths because it is safe and has straightforward answers which life rarely provides. Christopher disagrees with this view of maths and explains in great detail The Monty Hall Problem to prove this. Someone wrote a letter to a column written by Marilyn Vos Savant, who has the highest IQ in the world according to the Guinness Book of World Records, asking what to do in a scenario where there's a game show where a contestant must choose between three closed doors, two with goats and one with a car. After choosing a door, the game show host opens one of the other two doors and shows it has a goat behind it. When asked what to do from there, Vos Savant responds that she would always change the choice of what door to open because the chances are 2 in 3 that the car would be in that door. Her response raised a furor among mathematicians and other scientists, who believed the chances are 50/50, but Vos Savant proved her point mathematically. Thus, Christopher argues that intuition can be wrong and that numbers can be very complicated.

Notes - The Monty Hall Problem allows Christopher to express his appreciation of life's complexity but still remain within his safe zone of mathematics.

Chapter 103

Christopher comes home and finds Rhodri, Father's employer, there, watching television and drinking a beer with Father. Father asks what he's been up to and Christopher tells a white lie about talking to Mrs. Alexander's dogs. Rhodri asks him what is 251 times 864 and Christopher tells him it's 216,864; Christopher asks Rhodri if this is right but he doesn't know. Father offers to cook some Indian food for Christopher and he agrees. Christopher mentions this because Siobhan told him to include descriptions in his book, including one or two details of the people in it so readers can better picture them. Christopher tries this, then tries to describe the garden but it isn't very interesting or different. The sky is interesting, though, and he describes some clouds, one of which looked like an alien spaceship. From here he discusses how people make false assumptions of what spaceships could be, then returns to writing about sounds in the garden. He tries to determine if the garden has a particular smell, doesn't sense anything, and goes inside to feed Toby.

Notes - Christopher describes a shortcut he uses to figure out Rhodri's math problem, an unusual but effective approach. That Rhodri doesn't know the answer and doesn't particular care shows how Christopher's mathematics skills can be seen as an oddity by some people. Siobhan's advice to include certain descriptions and details is taken up by Christopher, however the quality of those details show how his concerns are different from other storytellers.

Chapter 107

Christopher's favorite book is The Hound of the Baskervilles and he sums up the plot of the story. He doesn't like some aspects of the book: a passage from an ancient scroll which is difficult to understand and some of the descriptions written by author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. He does like finding words he doesn't know so he can look them up in the dictionary. He likes the book because it is a detective story with clues and Red Herrings, and he lists three examples of each. Christopher also likes Sherlock Holmes for his intelligence and some of the things he says; like Holmes, he also gets lost in a field of study if it catches his attention. And like a description of Holmes by Watson, he wants to fit strange and seemingly disconnected episodes into a coherent scheme. He also likes Holmes because he doesn't believe in the supernatural and ends with two interesting facts about Sherlock Holmes, of how his portrayal in the original stories are different from how we know him today.

Notes - Christopher's discussion of Holmes breaks down some basic elements in the mystery story itself as well as helps remind readers of what to look for in Christopher's own story. The importance of Red Herrings - that is, information that seems like clues but aren't - ties into the pursuit of the obvious mystery of Wellington's death when the true mystery is the whereabouts of Christopher's mother, something he isn't even aware yet is a puzzle that needs solving.

Page 3

Christopher writes in his book that night and shows it to Siobhan the next morning at school. Siobhan sits down with Christopher and asks if he's discussed with his father the conversation with Mrs. Alexander. When he says no and that he has no intention of doing so, Siobhan says that she thinks it's a good idea. She then asks Christopher if he is upset finding out about the affair but he says he isn't. Siobhan assures him it's okay to be sad but Christopher doesn't because Mother is dead and Mr. Shears isn't around anymore. He then spends the rest of the day doing maths, describes his lunch, and shows a likeness of some pictures he draw in Mrs. Peters' class after lunch.

Notes - Christopher's reasoning shows how fundamental his mother's death is to his view of the world. If she was alive, there is a chance he'd be upset; since he think she isn't alive, he isn't upset.

Chapter 113

Christopher likens his memory to a film, which is why he can remember things very well; as he goes through his example, he realizes it's more like a DVD player because it can jump instantly to whatever scene he needs, something film cannot do. If asked what his mother is like, he can recall different scenes, such as 4 July1992 when he was nine and his family were in holiday in Cornwall. He cannot remember anything before he was four, however. Christopher goes on to state that he recognizes people in the same manner, as well as figure out how to act in difficult situations: by accessing his memory to see what happened previously and allow that to guide him. All the pictures in his head are of things that really happened, unlike other people: for example, his mother once imagined what it would be like if she hadn't married Christopher's father, while Siobhan says that she imagines a house in Cape Cod with her friend Elly when she's sad. People sometimes ask what he would say to someone who's died, but he finds that stupid since it's not possible. Further, his grandmother has pictures in her head but they are muddled and she cannot tell real life from television.

Notes - The dissatisfaction of Christopher's mother in her marriage is described by Christopher, who describes it only as a memory he can access and not an explanation of what may have happened with Mr. Shears. His description of his grandmother's mind is an attempt to express how her senile dementia seems to influence her thoughts.

Chapter 127

Christopher comes home from school. His father hasn't arrived yet so he leaves his book in the kitchen and in the living room watches a Blue Planet video about underwater life. His father comes home at 5:48 p.m. and says hello to Christopher, who forgot that he left his book in the kitchen, an example of Relaxing Your Guard. At 5:54 p.m. his father returns to the living room with the book in his hand. He asks of the conversation with Mrs. Alexander, which Christopher says is a rhetorical question; Christopher responds that he didn't break any of Father's orders but he won't accept this excuse. Still angry, Father reminds Christopher not to stick his nose into other people's business; Father grabs Christopher, which surprises him, and he hits Father, who's still shouting, and hits him again. Christopher has no memory of what happened right after, though it was only a short lapse based on his watch. When he switches back on he is sitting on the carpet with blood on his right hand and his head hurting, Father standing a meter away, the book still in his hand. He goes outside to throw the book in the dustbin and gets himself a beer.

Notes - This incident of lost time is a precursor to a greater loss in a later chapter. Christopher contrasts the temperament of his father and mother to show how his father is usually even-tempered and, unlike his mother, didn't hit Christopher.

Chapter 131

Christopher gives two lists: one of why he doesn't like yellow and one of why he doesn't like brown. Mrs. Forbes says that hating these colors is silly but Siobhan says everyone has favorite colors. Christopher actually agrees with both of them, but believes you have to make a lot of decisions and if you don't you spend all your time choosing between things.

Notes - The dislike of brown and yellow is shown as being arbitrary in the choice of color, but necessary as a means of simplifying certain decisions in life.

Page 4

Father apologizes the next day and says he didn't mean to hit Christopher. Father cleans up Christopher's cut and since it's Saturday they go to Twycross Zoo together, packing sandwiches for Christopher since he doesn't like eating food from places he doesn't know. Christopher had never been to this zoo before and they didn't have a route worked out in his mind; so they purchased a guidebook and walked around the whole zoo so he could decide which were his favorite animals. He lists his favorite animals: Randyman the Red-Faced Black Spider Monkey; the Patagonian Sea Lions, named Miracle and Star; and Maliku the Orangutan. They ate at the cafe, where Father says he loves Christopher: if he sometimes gets angry, it's because he worries about Christopher and doesn't want him to get hurt. Christopher doesn't know if he understands but Father asks if he at least understands that he loves Christopher, to which Christopher says yes. They touch fingers and thumbs to show this. Christopher then provides a map of the zoo and describes seeing the gerbils before going home.

Notes - It's important for Christopher to have favorite animals in mind, which is why he draws this list. Father's discussion with Christopher helps to establish his motives later on in the novel.

Chapter 139

While Christopher likes Sherlock Holmes, he does not like Holmes' author and creator, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Unlike his creation, Doyle believed in the supernatural. In 1917, he was one of those fooled by The Case of the Cottingley Fairies, where two cousins claimed to play with fairies and took five photographs as proof. Harold Snelling, an expert in fake photography, declared these images were real and Doyle wrote about the pictures for The Strand. In 1981, Joe Cooper interviewed the cousins, Elsie Wright and Frances Griffiths: Wright said all five photographs were fake and Frances claimed only one was real. This case shows that people can be stupid if they don't want to know the truth and that Occam's razor is true.

Notes - The hoax of the fairies is analogous to the hoax Ed Boone pulled on his son. The idea of people being stupid because they don't want to know the truth is an important idea, because it helps to explain Christopher's reluctance to understand the letters from his mother in the next chapter. Occam's razor translates to "No more things should be presumed to exist than are absolutely necessary." It is a heuristic guide - that is, a guide to solving problems - by advising that the simplest of explanations is often the correct one. However, this is not a strict rule more than a general guideline, and there are times when a more complex answer is actually the truth.

Chapter 149

When Christopher goes to school on Monday, Siobhan asks about the bruise on his face. He explains what happens and Siobhan makes sure Christopher is alright, asking if he's scared of going home or wants to talk anymore about it, then going over when grabbing is okay and why hitting is not allowed. Father is still at work when Christopher goes home, so Christopher checks the dustbin to get his book back. It isn't there, however, so he begins a search of the house to see where Father may have hidden it. He checks all the rooms except his own and Father's bedroom - the only way Father would have hidden the book in his room was as a Double Bluff, so he checks on Father's bedroom. He promised Father not to mess with anything in his room, and so decides to move things when looking for the book and then move them back to how they originally were. After searching throughout the room, he finds in a cupboard a shirt box with his book. He is happy that the book wasn't thrown away but knows he can't take the book or Father will know what he's done.

Just as he hears Father coming home, Christopher notices envelopes underneath the book in the shirt box. The envelopes were unopened and addressed to him, with a handwriting where the i's have little circles instead of dots. He knows only three people who do this: Siobhan, Mr. Loxely, and Mother. As Father starts calling for him, Christopher takes an envelope and hides it under the mattress of his own room. He goes downstairs to greet Father, and they prepare supper together. After eating, Christopher returns to his room and reads the letter in the envelope: it's a letter from his mother, describing her work as a secretary, how she and Roger have moved to a new flat in London and expressing understanding at his not writing back yet but hoping he doesn't stay angry forever. Christopher is confused by this letter as it didn't correspond with anything he knew about Mother. While there was no date on the letter, the postmark on the enveloped was 16 October 1997, which was 18 months after Mother died. Father then stops by Christopher room and asks what he's doing, and Christopher answers that he's reading a letter. Given his mother's death, Christopher considers possible answers for this letter and is excited that he now has two mysteries to solve. He decides not to think of it any further that night as he doesn't want to Leap to the Wrong Conclusions and decides to wait until Father is out of the house to investigate further. He hides the letter under his mattress and goes downstairs to watch television.

Notes - Despite the evidence before him, Christopher still believes his mother is dead. The idea is too integral to his understanding of the world that he can let go of it so quickly. Also note how he lists pornography among his father's belonging but places no value to this fact; this emphasizes the loneliness of Ed Boone for readers, as well as Christopher's lack of interest or understanding in sexual matters.

Page 5

Christopher states that many things are mysteries but that doesn't mean there isn't an answer - just that scientists haven't found the answer yet. He uses the example of ghosts, such as the one his Uncle Terry saw at the Greyfriars Shopping Center. Christopher believes scientists will discover an explanation for ghosts, as they have for electricity and lightning. However, sometimes a mystery isn't a mystery and he gives an example: involving the frog population for a pond at school. The fluctuation in the number of frogs every year can be attributed to a mathematical formula about animal populations, tied into population density and the application of a constant. When the constant is greater than 3.57, the population numbers stop being regular and become chaotic, as discovered by Robert May, George Oster, and Jim Yorke.

Notes - Christopher finds comfort in explaining chaotic experiences through mathematics. That is a way to try to understand things that would otherwise cause him mental discomfort.

Chapter 157

Six days later, Christopher is able to return to his Father's bedroom. It's a Monday evening and Father has two emergencies that his business has to handle: Rhodri takes care of the first and so Father must take care of the second. When Father is gone, Christopher goes to his bedroom and looks into the shirt box: he finds forty-three letters in all and opens one to read. Dated May 3, Mother writes about getting a new fridge and cooker, and of how she looked at some old photos and remember what Christopher was like when he was younger.

Christopher reads another letter, this one where Mother explains why she left Christopher and Father to be with Roger Shears. She tells him that she wasn't as patient as father and they had many arguments; she spent more time with Roger as a result. Then there was an argument with Christopher where he accidentally broke her foot with a chopping board; soon after, when Roger said he was leaving for London and asked her to join him, she said yes. She meant to say goodbye but when she called Father he said she couldn't come back or talk to Christopher. She asks Christopher to write to her, or call.

Christopher opens a third envelope, this dated September 18, where Mother talks about getting a job with Perkins and Rashid, a Chartered Surveyors. A fourth letter, dated August 23, begins with an apology for not writing the previous week. She had been to the dentist and taken a good deal of painkillers... Before Christopher can finish the letter, however, he feels sick. He realizes Mother had been alive all this time and Father had lied. He rolls onto the bed and curls up in a ball, but there is a gap in his memory. It's a large gap, as when he wakes it's dark outside and he had been sick all over the bed and himself. Christopher hears Father coming into the house and when he comes to the bedroom, sees what has happened. He apologizes to Christopher and tries to explain that he did it for Christopher's own good and that it was an accident. When Mother left, he didn't know what to say so he told Christopher she was in the hospital and from there it went out of control. He tells Christopher that they need to clean him up, and so Father starts a bath and carries him to the bathroom. Christopher doesn't scream or fight or hit.

Notes - The spelling in the letters of Christopher's mother is often flawed, indicating a lack of education. Christopher's inability to fight at being touched shows how traumatic the revelation about his mother proves to be for him. In effect, the second mystery is solved almost immediately after it's discovered by Christopher.

Chapter 163

When Christopher first started in school, his main teacher was Julie. One day she held open a Smarties tube and asked him what was inside; he said Smarties but it turned out to be a pencil. She then asked if his mother came in and was asked the same question, what would she say? Christopher answered, "A pencil." At that time, Christopher did not understand about other people having minds, something Julie believed he'd have difficulty with but which he now understands. He likens this to how people think their minds are different from computers but it's really the same. An experiment shown on a TV series called How the Mind Works explains how the eye processes changes in its view through flicks called sacades, creating a sense of continuous motion for the mind viewing the image. Further, people can have pictures on the screens of their minds that aren't what they are looking at, which gives them an advantage over animals. As a result, people believe there is someone in their heads, a homunculus, which observes brain activity and sets them apart from computers. However, Christopher says, the homunculus is just another picture on the mind's screen. Also, people think they're not like computers because they have feelings and computers don't, but Christopher sees that as just another screen responding to a certain event or image.

Notes - What Christopher describes is the homunculus fallacy, which argues that there is an agent within the mind that observes the behavior of the mind. However, such an argument leads to infinite regress - that is, there must be another agent that controls the agent making the observation, and in turn that agent needs its own agent, and so on.

Chapter 167

Father gives Christopher a bath, dresses him in clean clothes, and places him in bed. He asks Christopher if he's had anything to eat but he doesn't respond. When Father goes to put the dirty clothes and linens in the wash, Christopher tries to clam himself by doubling 2's in his head. When Father returns to check on Christopher, he continues not to respond. Father sits next to him and confesses to killing Wellington. Christopher at first thinks this is a joke since he doesn't understand jokes, but Father continues to talk. He explains how he thought the friendship with Mrs. Shears would continue but she said something hurtful and seemed to care for the dog more than Father and Christopher. After one argument with Mrs. Shears, Father was so angry that he took it out on the dog, which is when he killed Wellington.

Father holds out his hand to touch fingertips and thumbs with Christopher, but he screams and pushes himself away from Father. Father apologizes again and leaves the room. Christopher is now scared: Father murdered Wellington, which means he could murder Christopher as well. However he couldn't leave immediately, he had to wait until Father was asleep. At 1:20 a.m. he checks to find Father asleep downstairs. Making sure of this, he packs some items and takes Toby in his cage to the garden, where he hides in a gap between the shed and the fence. Here he feels safer and wonders what to do next.

Notes - Christopher equates the ability to murder a dog with the ability to murder a human, which isn't surprising since Christopher has more respect for dogs - who are easy to understand - than humans, who are more difficult to understand.

Page 6

From his hiding place, Christopher sees the constellation Orion. He explains how the stars in the constellation form the image of Orion the hunter but argues that there are other ways to connect the stars together. And all of it is pointless anyway, as they are stars, nuclear explosions that are billions of miles apart.

Notes - The truth of constellations - that they are arbitrarily drawn connections of stars - is another variation of the literal way he approaches the world.

Chapter 179

Christopher tries to stay awake but falls asleep at 3:47 a.m. When he wakes it is dawn and he hears Father in the garden, calling for him. He prepares himself by taking out his Swiss Army knife but Father then turns around and leaves the garden. He then hears Father drive away in his van. Christopher decides to knock on Mrs. Shears' door and live with her, since she wasn't a stranger and he had stayed in her house before. When he goes there, however, nobody answers. He sees other people on the street and hides behind the dustbins of Mrs. Shears' house. He goes over possible actions he can takes and finally determines that the only real choice he has is to go and live with Mother in London. He had never been to London before but he imagines all the possibilities and this is the only one that was possible. He thinks of how he could not be an astronaut because it was much further than London and the thought of going to London already hurts him.

Deciding he needs money if he's going to London and should have somebody watch Toby. He goes to Mrs. Alexander and asks her to watch Toby; when she asks why, he explains why, mentioning Wellington's death as well. Mrs. Alexander is alarmed at hearing all this, and tries to convince Christopher that they should contact his father to smooth out the misunderstanding. Instead, Christopher leaves and returns to his house. The kitchen door is locked so he breaks in with a brick. Christopher sees Father's mobile phone and wallet and address book in the kitchen and thinks Father is home, then realizes he left it behind when he drove away earlier. He takes Father's bank card out of his wallet and takes Toby out of its cage to instead carry in his pocket. He starts walking to the school to ask Siobhan where the train station is. As he approaches school he sees his father's van and grows sick again. He approaches a lady with a baby and a little boy and asks where he can buy a map; when she asks why and he says to find the train station, she points out the building where the station is. She tells him to follow a certain bus and Christopher runs after it but loses sight of that bus. He finds himself lost but knows the train station is near; he thus chooses to walk in a spiral pattern and in this way locates the train station.

Notes - Christopher uses the certainties of logical thinking to help the choices he makes: in determining his course of action he narrows it down with the help of a diagram, and when he loses sight of the train station he uses a basic heuristic to find his way. Math is also a way to understand the intense feelings he has, as he draws up an equation that shows how the mathematical constant of his total fear comes from the inverse proportion between his fear of a new place and his fear of being near Father.

Chapter 181

At the station, Christopher sees everything. Most people are lazy and do not observe everything around them, instead choosing to glance and get general details. Christopher cannot do this and, using the example of a countryside, enumerates how much more he would observe than other people, including what each cow looked like in particular. At this point he realizes that he told a lie in Chapter 13 and does know three jokes he can tell. Siobhan tells him he doesn't have to change what he wrote in Chapter 13 and instead offer this clarification. The joke involves an economist, a logician, and a mathematician observing a cow at the border of Scotland. When Christopher is in a new place, seeing everything and dealing with people is like being a computer that is processing too much information at once. He closes his eyes and puts his hand over his ears and groans, which he likens to pressing the CTRL + ALT + DEL buttons to reset the computer. This ability to take in details and not be distracted is why he is good at chess and maths and logic.

Notes - The joke Christopher tells is built on the exactness of the characters' statements instead of the usual wordplay and ambiguity one associates with humor. The comparison of his mind to a computer is in keeping with his views of humans.

Chapter 191

Christopher describes the train station and draws out a rough diagram of the place. He is scared of the activity at the station, however, but also frightened of going home. He tries to make a plan of what he should do but he still suffers from a sensory overload. He puts his handover his ears to block out the noise and think. He tells himself to walk down the tunnel, find a place to sit down, and shut his eyes so he can think. He manages this and sits down at a cafe table. He covers his eyes and, when he uncovers them, groans to himself to block out the noise. To think more clearly, he plays a math problem called Conway's Soldiers. He is approached by a policeman, who asks Christopher what he's doing. While the policeman watches, Christopher uses his father's bank card to take out money and buys a train ticket. At the ticket counter, he's told to go to Platform 1 to catch the train and imagines this walk to the platform as a game in order to accomplish the task. He gets on the train and heads to London.

Notes - Again, math puzzles are used to help Christopher calm down and think more clearly. Christopher has to imagine himself in a different setting - that is, playing a video game - in order to make it to the platform, another way to cope with the sensory overload of this experience. A video game is more narrow in scope than life and allows Christopher to focus.

Page 7

Christopher likes timetables because he likes to know when everything is going to happen. He gives an example of a timetable he had when he lived at home with Father and thought Mother was dead. Unlike space, one's experience in time isn't based on a fixed relationship - time is always moving, while two spatially related items can have a distance that remains constant. This means time is a mystery that can't be solved like a puzzle. A timetable, then, helps to keep from getting lost in time.

Notes - Christopher provides a map of time and space to show how understanding time is relative. The timetable is a way to make sense of something Christopher cannot control, which is also why he always needs his watch.

Chapter 197

The train is crowded, which Christopher does not like. As he stands in the carriage he is approached by the policeman who had helped him earlier. He wants to take Christopher back to his father, who is waiting at the police station. Christopher starts to run away but the policeman grabs him, provoking a scream from Christopher. He insists that he's going to live with his mother and asks if Father has been arrested for the murder of Wellington. The train begins to move and Nigel, the policeman, can't stop it; he calls another officer to pick him up at the next train stop. Nigel sits down next to Christopher; Christopher watches the view and thinks of math, but then needs to use the bathroom. He can't hold it in and starts to wet himself, so Nigel tells him to use the bathroom in the train carriage. Christopher does so but is repulsed by how filthy it is. Afterwards he sees a luggage compartment opposite the toilet and hides himself in there to shut out all the noise and sights. He calms himself with quadratic equations and as the train slows down hears the policeman looking for him. Christopher does not answer and remains hidden in the luggage compartment. A woman notices him there but says nothing, and the train continues its route.

Notes - Christopher takes his Father's murder of Wellington seriously but begins to see how other people do not. Ultimately, the first mystery of the novel is negligible - much like the death of the dogs in The Hound of the Baskervilles.

Chapter 199

Christopher states that people believe in God because they believe it unlikely that the complexity of what they see around themselves is highly unlikely. However, he argues the very fact that asking such questions is only possible because such an unlikely outcome could have occurred, especially in light of the billions of planets where such development didn't occur. The odds may be very high, but so are the number of times they can occur across the universe. Christopher adds that life on earth is accidental, occurring through three conditions: replication, mutation, and heritability. While rare, these conditions are possible. Christopher adds that people who believe in God think they are the best animal, but that may not always be the case.

Notes - Christopher again explicitly equates humans with other animals and gives possibilities of how they can lose their supremacy over earth. In this way, he can imaginatively fulfill the fantasy he has of being the only person on Earth.

Page 8

The train stops several times and Christopher keeps track with his watch. Several people find him in the luggage compartment but generally leave him alone. When the train becomes very quiet he steps out of his hiding place; he finds his belongings left at his previous seat have been taken. He sees another policeman but decides to avoid him. He traces his way back to the station but is approached by a man who tells him a policeman is looking for him. The man goes to fetch the officer but Christopher keeps walking. He feels panic at the sensory overload and the signs he sees begin to blur together and become meaningless. A man in a blue outfit with brown shoes tries to help Christopher, but he fends the man off with his Swiss Army knife. At the Information booth he asks how to get to his mother's address but only when he mentions Willesden is he told which train to take. He tells himself he can do this and goes ahead on his mission. He takes escalators down and buys a ticket to Willesden Green. He finds the platform to Willesden Junction and followed the signs there. He is frightened by the sound of trains arriving and leaving, and it feels like when he had the flu; he's shaking and wants to be back home, a wrong thought which means his mind wasn't working properly. Christopher closes his eyes and waits, even as he hurts.

Notes - The example of the signs and how they become incomprehensible illustrates how his thought processes are overwhelmed by all the new stimuli under which he suffers.

Chapter 223

Christopher includes another description, since this is what Siobhan recommends. Here, he talks about an advertisement for Malaysian tourism he saw at the train station, one which features two orangutans. He traces the etymology of the word orangutan and gives some facts on Malaysia. Siobhan told Christopher that people go on holidays to see new things and relax, but new places do not relax Christopher. Further, he believes there is a great deal of new things to discover in a familiar place. He recounts the text of the advertisement and recreates the image of the two orangutans.

Notes - The description seems superfluous, as was the previous one Christopher attempted, but it does allow him a chance to re-iterate his view on new places.

Chapter 227

Christopher keeps his eyes closed and doesn't look at his watch. A great deal of time passes and when he checks his watch it says 8:07 p.m., meaning he was sitting on the bench for five hours though it didn't feel that way for him. He also realizes Toby is no longer in his pocket. He watches the trains and keeps track of the sign of what trains are arriving. He decides to look for Toby and locates him where the rails are. He goes down to fetch Toby but a man with black shoes and gray argyle socks starts yelling at him. The man grabs Christopher's shoulder but he screams at being touched; then a train came roaring up and the man pulls Christopher to safety, even as he screams because his shoulder is hurt by this. The man asks Christopher what he was doing and he finally says he was finding Toby. A lady with a guitar case approaches Christopher and asks if he is okay, touching him and causing him to scream. He drives away both her and the man.

After eight more trains, he gets on a train with Toby in his pocket. He gets off at Willesden Junction and sees two people at the station: a drunk in a stained coat and an Indian man running a shop. He asks the shopkeeper about the address of his mother's home and the shopkeeper makes him buy a map of London. Using the map, Christopher makes his way to his mother's home. No one answered the bell and he waited outside, hiding behind the dustbins. At 11:32 p.m. he hears a man and woman talking as they approach the building - the woman is his mother, Judy Boone, and she is with Roger Shears. Christopher meets them and Mother tries to hug him but he pushes her away. Answering her questions, he tells her that Father is back in Swindon, he took the train to London by himself, and that he came here to live with them because Father killed Wellington and he's now afraid of him.

They go into their apartment and Christopher takes a bath; he tells her that Father told him she was dead and she begins to wail and apologize. After Christopher's bath, a policeman comes by to speak to Christopher and make sure he's okay. Later that night, at 2:31 a.m., Christopher wakes to shouting: Father has arrived and is arguing with Mother and Mr. Shears. Father and Mother then come into Christopher's room, Father making sure he's alright and apologizing about Wellington and the letters. He holds up his hand with fingers spread but Christopher is afraid to touch him. The policeman comes back because Mr. Shears called for him and helps Father out of the flat. Mother tells him everything will be all right and Christopher goes back to sleep.

Notes - Christopher's narration of his near-death in the railroad station is underplayed and almost beside the fact. This is because Christopher is himself unaware of its significance, as his main concern throughout this scene is recovering Toby. This shows again how different his priorities are from other people.

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Christopher has one of his favorite dreams. In it, nearly everyone on earth is dead, and all that are left are special people like himself who want to be alone and don't look in other people's faces. In this dream, Christopher can go anywhere in the world and not be bothered. He goes to Father's house and it is quiet even at mid-day; he can go into other people's houses and play detective and does whatever he wishes, since you can do anything you want in a dream. He then finds someone's car keys and drives the car into the sea. He watches the surf afterwards then gets dry clothes and returns home to Father's house, which is now his. This dream makes him happy.

Notes - Again, this dream emphasizes how different Christopher is from others. The fact that he claims Father's house as his own shows how he is most comfortable there, that this is his true home.

Chapter 233

The next morning during breakfast, Mr. Shears and Mother argue over how long her can stay with them. Mother takes the day off from work and takes Christopher shopping for clothes, but he grows frightened and screams so Mother takes him home. She goes shopping on her own and returns with new pajamas for Christopher. He tells her he has to go back to Swindon to take his maths A level exams, which surprises her. She doesn't know if returning to Swindon would be possible, which alarms Christopher. That night, he could not see the stars because of light pollution; when he finds he cannot sleep and at 2:07 a.m. he goes outside and sits between a skip and a Ford Transit van. He hears Mother calling for him and when he goes to her she warns him against going outside on his own again, as it's too dangerous in London.

The next day he spends indoors watching videos and the next day the office where Mother works called and told her she was replaced. Christopher again reminds Mother about going to Swindon for his A level, but she says it can be postponed. The next morning he looks out the window to count the cars but there are too many for him to be able to decide if it was a Good Day or Black Day - the system didn't work in London. That afternoon they go to Hampstead Heath to watch planes from Heathrow Airport and Mother tells Christopher that she spoke to Mrs. Gascoyne and delayed the exam until next year. Christopher is upset and screams, and they return home. Mr. Shears brought library books on math and science for Christopher, but they were for children so he didn't read them. Mother and Mrs. Shears ague and Christopher drowns them out by setting his radio to white noise.

Monday night, a drunk Mr. Shears wakes up Christopher to harass him verbally. The next day, Mother packs her clothes and takes Mr. Shears' car to return with Christopher and Toby back to Swindon. They go to Father's house and when Father comes home Mother tells him to stay with Rhodri until she finds a new place for herself and Christopher. Christopher continues to bring up his maths A level exams and Mother apologizes for this. The next day Mother drives Christopher to work and Mrs. Shears insults her. Siobhan meets with Mother and then arranges for Christopher to take his A level after all. She asks him if this is what he really wants to do and he isn't sure because he isn't able to think as clearly about maths as before. Still, he decides to take the test and that afternoon takes the first part while Reverend Peters serves as invigilator, as was originally planned.

Christopher is at first violently frustrated at Paper 1 but calms himself down, managing to take the test. The next day he takes Paper 2 and that evening Mr. Shears comes to take back his car. The following day Christopher takes Paper 3 and has a favorite question: he wants to write out how he answered this question but Siobhan told him it wasn't interesting to most people and he can include it in an Appendix. Christopher must wait to hear the results of his exams and is not sure of how well he did. The night of Paper 3, Father comes to the house to ask how the exam went. Christopher tells him and Father says thank you.

The next week Father tells Mother she has to move out of the house. Christopher asks her if Father will be arrested for killing Wellington but she says that the police can only do so if Mrs. Shears will press charges - which she won't. Mother gets a job and has pills prescribed to stop her from feeling sad. She and Christopher move to a room in a big house. He continues to wait for the exam results; mother gives him a wooden puzzle and they paint the room they now live in. Because of Mother's work, Christopher has to stay at Father's house between 3:49 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. To keep himself safe, Christopher pushes the bed against the door; Father sometimes talks to him through the door. Toby dies because he was old for a rat, so Christopher and Mother bury him in a plastic pot since the place they live has no garden. Christopher solves the puzzle that Mother gave him.

One day, Father asks to speak to Christopher; he refuses, but Mother says its OK. Father says it hurts having Christopher refusing to talk to him and wants Christopher to learn to trust him again, no matter how long it takes. He calls this a project that they can work on together, to spend more time together to rebuild trust. He then brings in a cardboard box with a two-month old golden retriever inside. Christopher names the dog Sandy. Christopher finally gets the results from his maths A level and it is an A grade, which makes him happy. When Mother gets the flu, Christopher spends three days with Father but it's okay because he sleeps with Sandy keeping guard. Father begins a vegetable patch in the garden and Christopher helps with this.

Mother helps him get a book for A-level further maths, which he will take next year. He knows he will get an A grade, as he will in A-level physics the year after that. When this happens, he will go to university in another town - not London - and take Sandy with him, and wind up a scientist. He knows he can do this because he went to London on his own, solved the mystery of Who Killed Wellington?, found his mother, was brave, and wrote this book - which means he can do anything.

Notes - The only time we see Christopher in an aggressively violent mood - as opposed to defensively to protect himself - is at the start of his exam, when he isn't sure about his math skills. This is because his main source of stability, the logical way he looks at the world and filters its information, isn't as strong as it could be when he needs it most. The book ends on a realistically hopeful note, as Ed Boone slowly regains the trust of his son.

Appendix

This is the solution to Christopher's favorite exam question from A-level maths.
Notes - By ending with an actual mathematical problem, we not only see its importance in Christopher's life but are given a symbolic restoration of order in his world.

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As the protagonist, Christopher is the character we most expect to grow and develop in the course of the novel. However, it's sometimes difficult to measure how much Christopher has matured as a character, if only because his thought processes are so different from other people.

The subtleties of Christopher's inner development - that is, his emotional growth - are not as evident as they would with other first person narrators, in part because he explicitly denies the importance of this aspect. He states time and again that the brain is as mechanistic as a computer and that humans are no more special than animals - views that reflect his own experiences with the limitations from autism. For him, the seams of human thought processes show up more obviously than others, and he has accepted them. Further, his social skills are limited by his autism, which makes it easier for him to identify with animals than people, which is why he values them as much as humans.

His emotional expressions are expressed in a limited fashion, and for a simple reason: when they grow too strong - such as when he discovers his mother is alive or when he travels to London by himself - it manifests in a more physical manner, such as growing sick or blacking out or his mind overloading. Add to this, his emotional reactions to certain revelations are limited by his focused perspective: he is not upset to find out of his mother's affair because he assumes his mother is dead; he does not appreciate the significance of almost dying at the train tracks of London because he was too busy fetching Toby. However, he does feel loneliness and heartache as he leaves Swindon for London, and there is a note of personal triumph at the end of the book which is different from what we encounter before. In this sense, his character is allowed to feel new emotions through the experiences he goes through.

The most obvious measure of growth are the accomplishments he lists in the last paragraph of the novel, the observable events which make up the bulk of his story. Christopher uses these events as proof that he can fulfill his ambitions to go to university and be a scientist - for him, there is an irrefutably logical chain between accomplishing the past set of actions and fulfilling the future set of actions. He has become a more confident and experienced person, better able to cope with the complexities of life after his unusual adventures.

The development of Ed Boone as a character is interesting in how he starts as an apparent saint and becomes more flawed as the story progresses. We are introduced to him as a patient father and widower, but flashes of anger at Christopher's mystery investigation show that there is more to his personality than infinite patience and kindness. The depths of his patience, however, are upended by the secret he keeps: if anything, the decision to tell Christopher that his mother is dead shows a lack of patience, a search for the easiest, most convenient way to cut ties with Judy Boone and spare Christopher any suffering. However, Ed Boone's innate goodness resurfaces as the story comes to a close. His understanding of Christopher, called into question by the secrets he kept and the anger he vents as he loses control of the situation, is also regained in the project he describes to his son about rebuilding trust. He does not see the trust as being recovered immediately and even states he'll work at it for as long as it takes, which shows the reserves of patience which readers first associated with him does indeed exist.

In contrast, Judy Boone's character undergoes a more straightforward positive transformation. From the start, we know she didn't have as much patience with Christopher as Ed; however, the extent of her inability to handle him only becomes clear when we discover she isn't dead but has run away with Roger Shears. She is traumatized by the news that her son believed her dead for the past two years; though this is never stated as a motivation for reclaiming her responsibility as Christopher's mother, it does tie into a symbolic "resurrection" for Judy Boone. She not only comes back from the dead in Christopher's eyes, she also comes back reborn as a better parent and more committed caregiver, even giving up her relationship with Roger Shears to take care of her son. A line about being prescribed medicine that keeps her from being sad indicates the possibility that she suffers from her own mental illness - depression, perhaps, though the scattered thoughts of her letters may indicate something more serious. At the end of the novel, she seems as stable a force in Christopher's life as Ed Boone.

Outside of the Boone family, there is no discernible character development. Indeed, we do not know if there are any further resolutions in the relationships with important characters such as Mrs. Alexander or the Shears. That is because the story is being told from Christopher's view and the restoration of the family - and his success at his math exam - are the most important concerns by the end of the narrative.

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Reflecting the themes of the book, the structure of the plot is based on order, a disruption of the order, and a reestablishment of a new kind of order. The novel begins as a straightforward whodunit, as Christopher tries to solve the death of Wellington. A second mystery is also in the process of being solved, which he initially does not realize. When he does, the seemingly simple problem of a dog's death takes on a new dimension. Then, the mystery narrative is disrupted in the middle of the novel: both mysteries, the overt and the covert, are solved by Ed Boone's confession. From there, a less esoteric kind of puzzle-solving (going from point A to point B, Swindon to London) and a more everyday narrative (uniting with his mother and taking his A-level math exam) takes over.

Thus, the mystery of the novel is itself built on a trope that Christopher does not mention: the MacGuffin, which is a Red Herring which starts the action but misdirect readers away from the true central plot. This is how the second, hidden mystery manifests itself, as the details of that hidden mystery - the affair of Judy Boone and Roger Shears, then their running away to London together - becomes entwined to the facts surrounding Wellington's death.

In being a mystery novel of this kind, the book is also a kind of bildungsroman - the solving of the mystery is also a means for education and a new level of self-awareness for Christopher. For him to completely solve the mysteries of who killed Wellington and whether his mother is dead, Christopher not only learns new things about his parents but also forces himself to undergo difficult tasks that he would have otherwise avoided - most notably, taking the train to London.

The mystery plot also allows a family history to emerge, one which eventually takes over the book: in piecing together details about Wellington and the other Shears, Christopher discovers the truth about his mother and father. He also describes what his life was like when he was young and his mother was around. To complete the obvious gap in this family history - what his mother did after leaving Swindon and before returning with Christopher - we have Judy Boone's letters.

Finally, there is a metafictive thread in the narrative - that is, the story calls attention to its being created, as the narrator Christopher discusses how exactly he writes the story that we read. Unlike other books that employ metafictive devices, this self-reflexivity isn't used to subvert or upset traditional narrative conventions - if anything, it's Christopher's unique perspective that upsets those conventions and not the metafictive elements. Rather, the act of writing the book is part of Christopher's claim to being able to do anything he wants - an assertion of control in the very narrative of his life, which he shares with the readers.

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It is difficult to discuss the two major themes of the novel - the search for order and stability and the role of absence in life - because the search for order in this novel often involves the acknowledgment and filling of an absence. The theme of the search for order and stability in life develops subtly but is changed radically when the presence of the second mystery is revealed - an absence. While it seems that the story is about the search for Wellington's murderer, most all the clues that Christopher discovers also seek to answer an absence he isn't even aware exists: the status and whereabouts of his mother Judy. This is the true "curious incident of the dog in the night-time" - the incident which is significant precisely because nothing happens, it is the absence which points to a deeper truth. The solving of the two mysteries are only the prologue to the true fulfillment of order in Christopher's life: a reunion with his mother and the restoration of a more balanced family order, as well as the successful completion of his A-level math exam to pave his planned future as a scientist.

Further, it should be noted this is not a story about "overcoming" a disease, but rather of living with a specific condition. The triumph does not hinge on acting as if this condition doesn't exist but in working with that condition to lead as rich a life as possible. Christopher makes no attempt to pretend he is anything other than he is, nor is there any encouragement to do so by the people around him. This is played subtly, since the kind of autism that Christopher suffers from - Asperger's Syndrome - is never named in the text and the exact clinical parameters of his condition are never explained. As we see things from within his perspective, these are things he would take for granted as just how his life is and how his mind works. Stability and order, then, isn't the removal of all obstacles in life, but dealing with the situation one is given.

As for the theme of absence, it manifests in various ways throughout the book. The loneliness of Ed Boone is brought up subtly, in his failed romance with Mrs. Shears and the pornography that he keeps in his bedroom. A larger absence occurs when he loses his son's trust after his deception is revealed - this is accentuated by Christopher's refusal to speak or touch his father in the latter half of the book. Christopher is given his own taste of absence, not when his mother dies, but when he realizes she is still alive and thus still within reach. Further, his decision to leave Swindon and all that's familiar provokes new emotions in Christopher: he feels heartache and longing for home, further accentuated once he goes to London and loses such things as the nighttime stars and a garden. The restoration of a new family order and Christopher's continued success intellectually help fill this loneliness, as father and son work to re-establish trust at the end of the novel.

Related to these major themes are various minor themes which spring from Christopher's basic struggle.

There is the theme of family: the story begins with a truncated family unit of son and widower father, seemingly stable and happy. However, we also get a hint that there was a maternal figure in Mrs. Shears after Judy Boone "died" but this did not work out; we also are told that when she was around, Christopher's mother was not as patient a mother as she needed to be. Finally, the notion of a stable family is disrupted in both the past and present: we find out that two years earlier, Judy Boone had an affair with Roger Shears and ran off with him; and we find out that in the present day, Ed Boone has been hiding from Christopher that his mother is indeed alive, a lie which shatters the trust between father and son. Christopher goes on to seek a new stability with a reconstituted family: another dyad, this of mother-son in London instead of father-son in Swindon. Unfortunately, there is also a potential father figure in Roger Shears who stands in the way of this new dyad; motherhood finally usurps misguided romance, however, as Mr. Shears is quickly jettisoned by Judy Boone.

All these permutations of family are exposed as being unbalanced, either by a lack of patience or deception. But from here, an uneasy but ultimately productive equilibrium is reached in the family structure. Christopher and his mother return to Swindon from London, which is itself a return to stability. Judy becomes the main caretaker for Christopher, but Ed Boone begins a project to re-establish trust with his son. Christopher has both parents again: a mother who has re-asserted her claim to her son and the responsibilities involved; and a father whose patience will allow a new trust to develop.

The theme of mathematics and science as a source of order and stability in Christopher's life. They provide a framework not only to simplify aspects of his life, but also to safely consider how complex life is, as seen by his view of how prime numbers are like life and the example of the Monty Hall Problem. As another example, Christopher is reading James Gleick's best-selling popular science book Chaos at one point in the novel: far from being about disorder, the book deals with chaos theory and how seemingly random events are actually ordered in a highly complex but logical manner. Chaos is thus tamed by Chaos, an irony Christopher can appreciate.

Throughout the novel, Christopher uses math to explain things which could otherwise prove frustrating or difficult; it also gives him something to focus on when he is under extreme stress, such as during his trip to London or when his parents argue. In this sense this theme doesn't change from start to finish - this is a fixed part of his personality, and one that he stakes his future upon. In that light, the most obvious development in this theme is Christopher's success in taking A-level maths and his plans to become a scientist.

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As the story is narrated from the perspective of a mathematically-gifted autistic teenager, the style reflects this experience. The descriptions are often straightforward and factual, though when he becomes involved in a particular idea or is describing a stressful experience the writing becomes more convoluted, with long run-on sentences to indicate the excess of sensory or intellectual stimuli that he cannot fully process. To help keep his ideas clear, Christopher makes certain orthographic decisions - bolds, italics, capitalizations - to make a particular word or phrase stand out, thus making their importance more apparent to the reader.

To help convey the unique perspective of Christopher, the novel is often unbalanced in how it presents details of the world. Expectations of what belongs in a narrative are often re-prioritized to fit his understanding of the world. Sometimes this is done by omission: for example, Christopher is not able to always gauge a person's emotion (including his own), so sometimes he will not mention this and thus the dramatic effect of a moment is underplayed.

Other times the unexpected comes through the addition of elements that seem outside of the narrative: details that seem superfluous to the reader but which are deemed worth mentioning by Christopher. Some of it reflect the immediate concerns of any student, while others are elaborate mathematical or scientific ideas, or even word meanings and narrative definitions. There are whole chapters devoted to a specific mathematical problem or some other cultural reference, such as the plot of The Hound of the Baskervilles. These help create a sense of how Christopher understands the world, the way he uses maths and logic and mystery novels to better cope with the difficulties of coping with life's complexities.

The nature of Christopher's seemingly tangential details is best contrasted to passages where Christopher purposefully includes "descriptions" as per Siobhan's suggestions. Told that such details would be of interest to readers, they actually do not particularly concern Christopher the way his maths and Holmes does. Thus, these descriptions in particular seem out of place and disrupt the feel story, more so than Christopher's chosen tangents, precisely because they don't accurately reflect his own concerns.

Diagrams and drawings appear throughout the narrative - sometimes to illustrate a scientific observation, other times just to see what a picture is like. This shows the limitations of written language for Christopher, and his need to convey ideas in as full a manner as possible.

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