This is an extract from 《The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time》 by Mark Haddon. It is found in the middle of the book when Christopher Boone had found the letters from his mother and had read it.
In the first paragraph, as Christopher’s dad discovered that Christopher was reading the letters he said this. He had hid those letters in his cupboard with the intention of not letting his son of knowing that his mom had run away with another man. He wanted to protect his son from getting hurt. From reading the book we have already known that the father told Christopher that his mom was died from heart attack from the hospital had now she was writing letters to him, which is quite strange to us. We can see from his words that he was a rough man and had got frustrated by his son’s discovery.
“Then he said nothing for a while.” Christopher’s father probably took the time to realize what just had happened because apparently it was unexpected that Christopher would find these letters. Or he might take the time to think about how to explain the letters to his son.
“Then he put his hand on my shoulder and moved me onto my side and he said, ‘Oh, Christ’.” The father chose to comfort his son by putting his hand on Christopher’s shoulder and then called his name. The dad’s words “Oh, Christ” may have two meanings. One is that he was worried about his son of being terrified from the truth. Another meaning is that it could be his relief as he had been struggling with managing the secret for such a long time. What the dad had just done to his son has shown his love and care.
“But it didn’t hurt when he touched me, like it normally does. I could see him touching me, like I was watching a film of what was happening in the room, but I could hardly feel his hand at all. It was just