Throughout the Novel, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, Mark Haddon explores the relationship between a father and his autistic son. Ed Boone, the father of an autistic boy Christopher juggles single-parenting along with dealing with his son’s disability. However, Ed’s good parenting becomes questionable when Christopher finds out the dark truth. Throughout the book, Ed Boone proves to be a patient, dedicated, and compassionate father. In the novel, Ed boone’s actions reflect his unconditional love towards his son.
Due to his son’s disability. Christopher’s autism effects Ed bone a lot. For Ed boone Christopher’s disability is a huge struggle due to his odd behavior and resistance to change, Asperger’s creates a difficulty establishing relationships. However Ed Boone still loves his son and expresses how proud he is.
“Just… thank you. Then he said, “I’m very proud of you, Christopher. Very proud.” However it should be highlighted to mention that he has never hit or touched Christopher inappropriately before his wife had left; he actually was calm and collected . Christopher himself describes him as a “level-headed person” . it is evident in this book that Being a single parent has taken a huge toll on Ed Seems to have an Unaffectionate relationship with Christopher and has a very limited personal contact with Ed.
“he held up his right hand and spread his fingers out in a fan” ,This justifies Ed’s loving personality as it reveals his patience and understanding towards his son’s disability. . Ed possesses a lot of patience to deal with his son’s special needs and is there for christopher unlike his ex-wife (judy) .Ed boone also takes care of Christopher as much as he can while also busy running his own business . In the Novel Christopher seems to be getting closer to finding out about the truth .
After Ed’s wife (Judy) had left them since she couldn’t take the burden she was holding against Christopher anymore, Ed is the one who lies to him. He pretends that Christopher’s mother was in hospital and died of a heart attack. but it turns out she is alive and had moved to London with her new partner Mr. Shears.
Ed seems to be getting anxious about Christopher finding out the truth about all the lies and secrets which he tries to hide from his son, Ed doesn’t want Christopher to ask too many questions especially about Wellington’s murder. “You are to stop this ridiculous bloody detective game right now.” He is very afraid of Christopher getting to know that he is the dog’s murderer. Obviously he doesn’t want to lose his only child Ed cares about his son. That’s why he wants to protect him from the big bad truth.
Ed appears to be upset about the overall situation: being alone with the child, being left by his wife ,raising his mentally disabled son on his very own and not knowing how to tell christopher the truth this seems to cause Ed Boone to feel overstrained.There is situation when he sits on the sofa drinking whisky after he discovered his son doing this detective game. “There were tears coming out of his eyes.” . It reveals that he is quite emotional but most of the time he hides his feelings away from his son.
