Previous
Chapter 37
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Growing Up
Trust
Truth, Love, and Safety
Logic vs. Emotion
Perspective and the Absurdity of the World
Summary
Analysis
In the car on the way home, Christopher apologizes for making his father come to the police station, and tells him he didn’t kill Wellington. Ed tells Christopher to stay out of other people’s business, but Christopher insists that a murder has occurred, and someone must be punished, even if was only a dog that was killed. Ed gets angry at Christopher’s persistence.
Christopher wants to find the truth of Wellington’s death and see justice served. It makes no difference to him that the murder victim was a dog. Ed’s anger makes it clear from the beginning that he has a passionate feeling surrounding Wellington’s death and Christopher’s investigation of it, though it’s not yet entirely clear why.
Themes
At home, Christopher feeds his pet rat, Toby, and plays computer games, only missing his record time by three seconds. He eventually goes downstairs for a drink and finds Ed crying. Christopher assumes he’s sad about Wellington’s death and decides to let him grieve alone.
Christopher can’t be terribly upset about his recent ordeal with the police, if he’s able to almost match his record game time. The reader can assume that Ed, however, is upset about something more than Wellington’s death, no matter what Christopher might think.
Themes
