This book has many different themes it touches on. Themes such as: never give up, lies and deceit, truth, etc. Although these themes played a part in the book, the major theme is everybody sees the world differently.
Christopher sees the world from a different angle. Even though the book did not state it, it is implied he has a type of autism. For example, Christopher saw the Malaysia billboard and did not understand; so he made an analogy to filling glasses with different amounts of water and playing different notes by running your finger along the cup.
Judy, Christopher’s mother, felt she would be better off out of the picture because of how Christopher connected with his father versus her. In reality, when Christopher found out about the affair he was so concerned with the case of the dead dog to care. When Ed, Christopher’s father, learns Judy and Mr. Shears go away together, he becomes angry and tries to get with Mrs. Shears.
However, Mrs. Shears does not feel the same way about Ed and reveals she loves the dog more than Roger anyway. Ed feels the only way to help his chances is to kill the dog. At the train station, Christopher was overwhelmed and felt sick due to the commotion of everybody else around him. The new surroundings cause his mind to freeze up because unlike a person without this condition Christopher memorizes way more in a scenery than somebody else.
Christopher is good at math and problem solving, hence the reason the book is a murder mystery. Christopher does not like stuff to be out of order. For example, when his family took a trip and they did not have anything in order which bothered Christopher a lot.
Christopher is shaped in a major way by the theme. Throughout the book, it is a hidden value of Christopher wanting to be independent. By the end of the book, Christopher is happily talking about what his future will look like. When Ed told Christopher he killed the dog, Christopher’s reaction hurt his father in a way that he started to think differently in order to gain Christopher’s trust back.
The moment Christopher came to his mother house was a realization for her to leave Roger, who could have been abusing her and to move back in town closer to Christopher. Christopher’s teacher, Slobhan was one of the trusted people of Christopher. She taught Christopher ways to help with his social development.
One of the personal takeaways is just because you are different doesn't mean you are incapable. Christopher reminds me of my brother because my brother has ADHD and people tend to put labels on him saying what he could and could not do. So this story is inspiring to know no matter the condition if you set your mind to it, you can do it. Another personal takeaway is love can be shown in many different ways.
The fact that Christopher kneed down to hug the dead dog because of his strong feelings for animals is crazy. Love is a strong word which in today’s world is complicated. Final personal takeaway is never giving up no matter how hard it is.
Ed told Christopher to stop his investigation, but Christopher did not give up. Not only did he solve the case of who killed the dog, he found his mother in London, and he passed his A-test. If that is not motivating, then what is?
