The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

Use these essay questions as writing and critical thinking exercises for all levels of writers, and to build their literary analysis skills by requiring textual references throughout the essay.

Differentiation Suggestion: For English learners or struggling writers, strategies that work well include graphic organizers, sentence frames or starters, group work, or oral responses.

Scaffolded Essay Questions

Student Prompt: Write a short (1-3 paragraph) response using one of the bulleted outlines below. Cite details from the text over the course of your response that serve as examples and support.

In some ways, Christopher’s trip to London is like humans going to the moon.

• How is Christopher’s journey to London like space exploration? (topic sentence)
• What are some of the specific similarities between Christopher’s expedition to London and NASA’s first moon mission? What skills and character traits does Christopher share with astronauts?    
• In your concluding sentences, summarize the significance of Christopher’s journey, both to him personally and to a wider community.

2. Christopher’s ability to find connections between very different things enables him to understand fundamental truths about human behavior.

• For Christopher, what is the moral of the story of the Cottingley Fairies? (topic sentence)
• How does Christopher connect Arthur Conan Doyle with the Cottingley Fairies? How does he regard people who believed the fairies were real?
• In your concluding sentences, evaluate the extent to which Christopher’s reasoning about Doyle’s beliefs and the fairy hoax help advance his investigation into Wellington’s death.

Full Essay Assignments

Student Prompt: Write a structured and well-developed essay. Include a thesis statement, at least three main points supported by textual details, and a conclusion.

1. Christopher considers constellations silly. As he points out, it’s possible to connect the dots (stars) in unlimited ways to make them represent anything you want—even “a lady with an umbrella who is waving” (Chapter 173). Christopher knows that the constellation Orion is not really a hunter but rather a collection of “nuclear explosions billions of miles away” (Chapter 173). Compare Christopher’s inability to enjoy imaginative flights of fancy to his ability to understand the truth in a way that many minds cannot comprehend. Does the novel indicate that one way of understanding the world is more valuable than the other? Explain your rationale.

2.  Many neurodivergent individuals face stigmatization and discrimination from others, leading to social exclusion, harassment, and even systemic barriers to achieving their goals. What are some examples of stigma and discrimination affecting Christopher’s ability to achieve his goals? How do other characters provide support that helps Christopher deal with stigmatization? What are some examples of other characters failing to recognize Christopher’s challenges and missing opportunities to help him achieve his goals?