Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time Study Guide
End of Unit Quiz 2012
Directions: Fill out this review sheet to help you study for your quiz.
This review sheet is intended to help guide your preparation and studies for the quiz. It does not cover every topic on the quiz. Make sure you write about the characters, conflicts, themes, etc. in depth.
Review Questions:
1. Who is Siobhan and what effect does she have on Christopher’s life?
2. Comedy that uses satire to lighten unpleasant or taboo subjects is called black (or dark) humor. Give an example of where this is seen in the novel and explain its significance.
3. Christopher is proud of the fact that he can identify Red Herrings in Sherlock Holmes’ novels. What is a Red Herring in Curious that Christopher unintentionally falls for and thus distracts him from the real murderer? How does the detective story frame help to build a story about emotions, people, and relationships?
4. What is the purpose of the Monty Hall problem? Think about character development here.
What do we learn about Christopher? Go beyond that he is good at math/logic.
5. What role do policemen play in this novel?
6. What conflicts does Christopher experience in London with his mother? How does the reader, if not Christopher, realize that things are not always what they appear to be?
7. At the end of the novel, how would you characterize the relationship between Christopher and his father?
8. Why can we describe Christopher as an unreliable narrator?
9. How much empathy does the reader come to feel for Christopher? How much understanding does he have of his own emotions? What is the effect, for instance, of the scenes in which Christopher’s mother doesn’t act ot make sure he can take his A-levels? Do these scenes show how little his mother understands Christopher’s deepest needs?
Quotes: Read each quote from the novel and explain its significance. When you explain the significance, think about how the quote connects with a theme, motif, and character/conflict development.
1. “And I know I can do this because I went to London on my own, and because I solved the mystery of Who Killed Wellington? And I found my mother and I was brave and I wrote a book and that mean I can do anything.”
Significance:
2. “Mr. Jeavons said that I liked maths because it was safe. He said I liked maths because it meant solving problems, and these problems were difficult and interesting but there was always a straightforward answer at the end. And what he meant was that maths wasn’t like life because in life there are no straightforward answers at the end.”
Significance:
3. “The world is full of obvious things which nobody by any chance ever observes.”
Significance:
4. Mark Haddon states, “It’s not just a book about disability. Obviously, on some level it is, but on another level… it’s a book about books, about what you can do with words and what it means to communicate with someone in a book. Here’s a character who if you met him in real life you’d never, ever get inside his head. Yet something magical happens when you write a novel about him. You slip inside his head, and its seems like the most natural thing in the world.”
Significance:
Literary Terms: Define the following terms. Be able to identify them in an example from the text.
1. Allusion
2. Comic Relief
3. Digression
4. Foreshadowing
5. Coming of Age novel
6. Irony – dramatic, verbal, situational
7. Metaphor
8. Simile
9. Elements of Plot
10. Red Herring
11. Unreliable Narrator
12. Theme
13. Motif
Stylistic Devices: Describe the purpose or role of each of the following stylistic devices in the novel. Give an example to prove your point.
1. Humor (intentional and unintentional humor)
2. Digressions
3. Allusions
4. Point of View
5. Details/Pictures
“Big” Ideas: Describe the importance of each of the following “Big” ideas and how it relates to the novel.
1. Asperger Syndrome
2. Logic & Math
3. Truth vs. Lies (partial truth or white lies)
4. Family dynamics
5. Emotions and our emotional limitations (think beyond Christopher)
6. Animals and our connections to them
Characterization: Describe how these characters develop (change) over the course of the novel. Highlight their strengths and weaknesses.
Father:
Christopher:
Mother: