Julianne Berry-Stoelzle

Ms. Basile
English 9/9H
18 December 2017

Prose/Poetry Project Script

The Curious Incident of The Dog In The Night-Time

Father was silent for a bit.

Then he said, ‘I’m sorry, Christopher. I promise you, I never meant for it to turn
out like this.’
And then I knew that it wasn’t a joke and I was really frightened.
Father said, ‘We all make mistakes, Christopher. You, me, your mum, everyone.
And sometimes they’re really big mistakes. We’re only human.’
Then he held up his right hand and spread his fingers out into a fan.
But I screamed and pushed him backwards so that he fell off the bed and onto
the floor.
He sat up and said, ‘OK. Look. Christopher. I’m sorry. Let’s leave it for tonight,
OK? I’m going to go downstairs and you get some sleep and we’ll talk in the morning.’
Then he said, ‘It’s going to be all right. Honestly. Trust me.’
Then he stood up and took a deep breath and went out of the room.
I sat on the bed for a long time looking at the floor. Then I heard Toby scratching
in his cage. I looked up and saw him staring through the bars at me.
I had to get out of the house. Father had murdered Wellington. That meant he
could murder me, because I couldn’t trust him, even though he had said, ‘Trust me,’
because he has told a lie about a big thing.

Introduction

Christopher Bone and his father have always had their differences but they have
managed to settle them in the past. Christopher's mother left a long time ago, so they
have just been living together, just the two of them, ever since. In Mark Haddon’s ​The
Curious Incident of The Dog In The Night-Time​, Christopher's father kills their
neighbor’s dog in a blinding flash of anger and lied about it. This is not something that
Christopher can forgive. He pulls back from his father and refusing to have anything to
do with him, decides to go live with his mother in London. Sir Thomas Wyatt‘s poem ​I
Find No Peace​, Joseph Bruchac’s poem ​Prints​ and Emily Dickinson's poem ​Forgiveness
describe the hardships of coming to terms with the past and trying to understand one’s
self.

 
I Find No Peace  
 
I find no peace, and all my war is done.
I fear and hope. I burn and freeze like ice.
I fly above the wind, yet can I not arise;
And nought I have, and all the world I season.
That loseth nor locketh holdeth me in prison
And holdeth me not—yet can I scape no wise—
Nor letteth me live nor die at my device,
And yet of death it giveth me occasion.
Without eyen I see, and without tongue I plain.
I desire to perish, and yet I ask health.
I love another, and thus I hate myself.
I feed me in sorrow and laugh in all my pain;
Likewise displeaseth me both life and death,
And my delight is causer of this strife.  
 

And them Father came into my room . But I was holding my Swiss Army Knife
with the saw blade out in case he grabbed me. And Mother came into the room as well,
and she said, ‘It’s OK. Christopher. I won’t let him do anything. You’re all right.’
And Father bent down on his knees near the bed and he said, ‘Christopher?’
But I didn’t say anything.
And he said, ‘Christopher, I’m really, really sorry. About everything. About
Wellington. About the letters. About making you run away. I never meant… I promise I
will never do anything like that again. Hey. Come, on kiddo.’
 And then he held up his right hand and spread his fingers out in a fan so that I
could touch his fingers, but I didn’t because I was frightened.
And Father said, ‘Shit. Christopher, please.’
And there were tears dripping off his face.
And no one said anything for a while.
And then Mother said, ‘I think you should go now,’ but she was talking to Father,
not me.

Prints 
 
Seeing photos
of ancestors
a century past

is like looking
at your own
fingerprints—

circles
and lines
you can't
recognize

until someone else

with a stranger's eye
looks close and says
that's you.
 

[Father] said, ‘Let’s call it… let’s call it a project. A project we have to do together.
You have have to spend more time with me. And I… I have to show you that you can
trust me. And it will be difficult at first because… because it’s a difficult project. But it will
get better. I promise.’
Them he rubbed the sides of his forehead with his fingertips, and he said, ‘You don’t
have to say anything, not right now. You just have to think about it. And, um… I’ve got
you a present. To show you that I really mean what I say. And to say sorry. And
because… well, you’ll see what I mean.’
 Then he got out of the armchair and he walked over to the kitchen door and
opened it and there was a big cardboard box on the floor and there was a blanket in it
and he bent down and put his hands inside the box and he took a little sandy-colored
dog out.

Forgiveness

My heart was heavy, for its trust had been

Abused, its kindness answered with foul wrong;
So, turning gloomily from my fellow-men,
One summer Sabbath day I strolled among
The green mounds of the village burial-place;
Where, pondering how all human love and hate
Find one sad level; and how, soon or late,
Wronged and wrongdoer, each with meekened face,
And cold hands folded over a still heart,
Pass the green threshold of our common grave,
Whither all footsteps tend, whence none depart,
Awed for myself, and pitying my race,
Our common sorrow, like a mighty wave,
Swept all my pride away, and trembling I forgave!
 

And Father said, ‘I love you very much, Christopher. Don’t ever forget that. And I
know I lose my rag occasionally. I know I shout. And I know I shouldn’t. But I only do it
because I worry about you, because I don’t want to see you getting into trouble,
because I don’t want you to get hurt. Do you understand?’
I didn’t know whether I understood. So I said, ‘I don’t know.’
And Father said, ‘Christopher, do you understand that I love you?’
And I said, ‘Yes,’ because loving someone is helping them when they get into
trouble, and looking after them, and telling them the truth, and Father looks after me
when I get into trouble, like coming to the police station, and he looks after me by
cooking meals for me, and he tells me the truth, which means he loves me.
And then he held up his right hand and spread his fingers out in a fan, and I held
up my left hand and spread my fingers out in a fan and we made our fingers and
thumbs touch each other.