In the book, The Curious Incident of the Dog in The Nighttime and the catcher in the rye many underlying themes greatly contribute to the story. However, the theme that stuck out the most to me was lying and deceit. Lying and deceit are two very controversial traits that can thoroughly mess with people and relationships. A small college study out of the University of Massachusetts showed that 60 percent of people lied at least once during a 0-minute conversation and told an average of two to three lies. In The Curious Incident of the Dog in The Nighttime this trait of lying was never used by our main character Christopher, However lying was used by the people around us. Christopher was a young boy with a complex mind and had a strange way of emotions. A leading example of this was stated, I did it for your good Christopher. Honestly, I never meant to lie. (Haddon.4). This was after Christopher had read letters from his mom proving sheΒs not dead that his dad had hidden from him all these years. This quote pro
ved how upset Christopher was after this confrontation and how it affected his and the dadΒs relationship. Christopher was just unable to lie simply because he thought it was morally wrong leading him to just not do it. On the other hand in the book Catcher in the Rye Holden was the main character living his day to day life by lies and deceitful comments towards others to receive a certain outcome. However, the outcome he wants never comes are simply because everyone believes his lies and he proceeds to be exceedingly angry about that. (find the quote at the beginning of the book at the dance floor with the three ladies and how he lied and use that in this essay.) Both Characters seem to react to lying similarly even if they arent the ones lying. They both seem to have mental breakdowns and react quite poorly to the situation when to most it would be not a big deal. Overall lying and deceit have seriously impacted each one of these characters day to day circumstances causing brand new conflicts to both novels.