Initiation in About a boy by Nick Hornby and The curious incident of the dog in the night-time by Mark Haddon

In Haddon's universe this boy not tolerating when he is touched by strangers is not drawn in the 'Man against society' conflict. His family lives in a tiny British town, Swindon. His working class father Ed with occasional temper tantrums and hesitant mother Judy both care about him in the best way they can do, despite the difficult family situation. Christopher does not experience problems at school; the people in the street, neighbours are generally helpful and supportive.

Christopher unlike Marcus is emotionally blind. Not being able to decode feelings and sentiments of human beings he superbly communicates with animals, muses about their behaviour and takes good care of his rat Toby, Mrs. Shears' poodle Wellington. Christopher understands the literal meaning of whatever's said to him though explains professionally what a metaphor and simile are, while Marcus not being able to give precise definitions of these terms understands metaphorical meaning of people's words and actions. Marcus is emotionally aware, having the inborn delicacy and tact, the ability to sympathize even with a stranger he unmistakably reads people's needs and senses, though he is deprived of Christopher's genuine talent in science and academic mindset. What makes The Curious Incident unique and fresh is the mixture of the abundant visual precise information (drawings, graphs, tables, equations, formulas, lists, emoticon symbols, etc), ubiquitous presence of math, astronomy, physical, logical pieces and philosophical, literature study passages alongside with infant ideas (desire to become an astronaut) interweaving the literature text. Even the chapters are enumerated not with the cardinal numbers, but with the prime ones. This seemingly oxymoron combination together with the first-person narration serves as a vivid representation of the genuine and original way Christopher thinks and percepts this world. Vivienne Muller defined the style as 'the digressive stream-of-connectedness-and-disconnectedness way in which Christopher writes and thinks', paying special attention to the protagonist's obsessive focus on minutiae' [Muller 2006: 118].

Being completely normal, able to resort to white lies and make jokes Marcus is turned into an extrovert outsider suffering because he misfits his new life in London. A humourless introvert meticulous about the truth, Christopher, suffers physical pain when he encounters unknown people, is in a crowd, goes to unknown places, though he is admitted in case he wishes to interact socially.

So as to overcome the inner conflicts causing external problems the adolescents are made to survive an initiation' experience. In the climaxes of both novels the protagonists collide with the death connected events abruptly and unexpectedly.

The climax of About a Boy is Fiona's attempt of suicide. The suicide scare is preceded with the bleakly comic and ironic 'Dead Duck' episode in which Marcus accidentally kills a duck in the park with a loaf of home bread made by Fiona. This episode betokens the gloomier events to follow:

Then he put the key in the door and opened it, and a new part of his life began, bang, without any warning at all. His mum was half on and half off the sofa: her head was lolling towards the floor. She was white, and there was a pool of sick on the carpet. He couldn't speak. He didn't know what to say. He didn't cry either. It was much too serious for that. So he just stood there. Fiona! How could you do this? Suzie screamed. You've got a kid. How could you do this?

It was only then it occurred to Marcus that all this reflected badly on him. OK, he hadn't seen many things in real life, but up until now he hadn't thought it mattered: shocks are shocks, wherever you find them. What got him about this was that there wasn't even anything very shocking, just some puke and some shouting, and he could see his mum wasn't dead or anything. But this was the scariest thing he'd ever seen, by a million miles, and he knew the moment he walked in that it was something he'd have to think about forever [Hornby 2000: 57-58].

At this moment Marcus faces death in reality for the first time, the fear of it has to be conquered. Surviving it Marcus assumes the responsibility of being truly humane and reveals anew the deep meaning of existence. Moreover, he comes to understanding that 'two isn't enough', adjusting to the society and hence participation in the social culture are necessary. From this moment on, Marcus takes a decision to change himself by broadening his own island into an archipelago through making friends with new people whatever it takes.

The climax in The Curious Incident occurs when in search of his detective book confiscated by father Christopher discovers in his father's drawer the letters from his considered to be late mother and learns that his father has been lying to him for two years and that it is his father who killed the neighbour's black poodle Wellington:

Then I stopped reading the letter because I felt sick.

Mother had not had a heart attack. Mother had not died. Mother had been alive all the time. And Father had lied about this.

I tried really hard to think if there was any other explanation but I couldn't think of one. And then I couldn't think of anything at all because my brain wasn't working properly.

I felt giddy. It was like the room was swinging from side to side, as if it was at the top of a really tall building and the building was swinging backward and forward in a strong wind (this is a simile, too). But I knew that the room couldn't be swinging backward and forward, so it must have been something which was happening inside my head.

I rolled onto the bed and curled up in a ball.

My stomach hurt.

I don't know what happened then because there is a gap in my memory, like a bit of the tape had been erased. But I know that a lot of time must have passed because later on, when I opened my eyes again, I could see that it was dark outside the window. And I had been sick because there was sick all over the bed and on my hands and arms and face.

But before this I heard Father coming into the house and calling out my name, which is another reason why I know a lot of time had passed [Haddon 2004: 143-142].

In this novel the protagonist experiences a kind of moral death himself which results in the acute physical weakness (vomiting and faint) because the revealed truth turned his world outlook paradigm upside down. From these moments on, the conflict 'Man against self in both cases starts being solved.

In the denouement the readers find its positive resolutions for both Marcus and Christopher. Marcus becomes real friends with Will and Ellie, refuses to live according to the beliefs and tastes of his mother and works out his own views, so that out of a misfit he becomes an ordinary society member:

Will couldn't resist it: he had a theory he wanted to test out. Hey, Fiona. Why don't you get your sheet music out, and we can murder "Both Sides Now"?

Would you like to?

Yeah. Sure. But he was watching Marcus, whose expression was that of a boy who had been asked to dance naked before a mixed audience of supermodels and cousins.

Please, Mum. Don't.'

Don't be silly. You love singing. You love Joni Mitchell.'

I don't. Not any more. I bloody hate Joni Mitchell.'

Will knew then, beyond any shadow of a doubt, that Marcus would be OK [Hornby 2000: 278].

In The Curious Incident Christopher whose behaviour is undeniably quirky manages to develop the ability to participate in the culture of the society where he lives by overcoming his fear of strangers, crowds and new places and undertaking a trip to London alone. He also assumes the responsibility, thus, smoothes the family crisis solving it to some extent. And he transits from childhood to adolescence by the revelation of the truth about his family (similar to the revelation of the sacred information in traditional societies) which due to his above average intellectual abilities enables him to categorize and make sense of the chaotic world existence even better than before. After this there is nothing that can be scary or impossible for him:

And then I will get a First Class Honours degree and I will become a scientist.

And I know I can do this because I went to London on my own, and because I solved the mystery of Who Killed Wellington? and I found my mother and I was brave and I wrote a book and that means I can do anything [Haddon 2004: 268]

To some extent the readers also undergo the initiation rite together with Christopher as they witness 'the way consciousness orders the world, even when the world doesn't want to be ordered', which Haddon so brilliantly depicted in his novel [Matthews 2003].

So, the acute situations connected with the immediate experience and understanding of death uncover visceral and outer conflicts of the protagonists and show the barest necessity to change the status quo for the continuation of the main characters' lives. After such crucial experiences Marcus and Christopher cope with their internal and external contradictions successfully, change their existential condition and are initiated into adulthood.