What happened to Christophers Mother in The Curious Incident?

The book “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time” talks about a curious boy with autism whose name is Christopher John Francis Boone. Christopher tries to solve a case of Mrs. Shears,his neighbor, dogs skeptical death. Christopher lives only with his father. His father tells him that his mother died in the hospital, but she really didn't die. She is still alive and is living with Mrs. Shears ex-husband. The reason why Christopher’s mother isn’t living with him anymore is because she cheated on her husband with Mr. Shears. Christopher starts to slowly understand what was happening then he goes out trying to find his mom in London.

Christopher John Francis Boone is the main character in the story. His father, mother, Mr. Shears,

We only hear Judy's name once, when Christopher first arrives in London. Otherwise, we mainly know her as "Mother." For the first half of the book, we think she's dead, since that's what Christopher has been told by his father. In reality, she ran away with the next-door neighbor, Mr. Shears.

So we don't really know much about her until Christopher discovers the letters she's been writing him every week for two years, but that his father has been hiding from him. In the letters, she describes her new life in London and apologizes for leaving him, but also provides some intense self-analysis. She bluntly says, "I was not a very good mother," describing herself as impatient, and admitting she often was really angry with her son. Quite the confession.

When she and Christopher reunite, she's overjoyed to see him again (although horrified that her ex-husband told their son she was dead this whole time). But, despite her best efforts, once tasked with caring for Christopher again, she all-too-quickly shows the same traits she lamented in her letters.

It's through Judy that we get a glimpse of just how challenging it is to care for someone with a social disorder, like when Christopher starts smashing things in a store, or refuses to step onto a bus and insists that they walk miles home. We admire Judy's awareness of her limitations, and her attempts at being a better mother, despite all the difficulties she faces and the craziness spinning around her.

And then she made a loud wailing noise like an animal on a nature program on television. And I didn’t like her doing this because it was a loud noise, and I said, “Why are you doing that?” And she didn’t say anything for a while, and then she said, “Oh, Christopher, I’m so sorry.” And I said, “It’s not your fault.” And then she said, “Bastard. The bastard.” And then, after a while, she said, “Christopher, let me hold your hand. Just for once. Just for me. Will you? I won’t hold it hard,” and she held out her hand.

And I said, “I don’t like people holding my hand.”

For the majority of the novel, our only view of Christopher’s mother comes through Christopher’s memories. He remembers her as loving but impatient, and prone to breakdowns in the face of his tantrums. She also comes across as a dreamer who is unable to cope with the harsh realities of Christopher’s condition. But she receives a momentary turn as the narrator—the only instance in the novel when see a first-person point of view other than Christopher’s—when Christopher includes in his book a series of her letters in full. In these letters, she exhibits the patience that she lacked in her face-to-face interactions with him, writing forty-three letters over the course of two years, despite getting no response. Although she tells Christopher in the letters that she left him and his father because she thought they would be happier without her, this explanation is clearly only part of her reasoning. We also see in the letters the intense frustration she felt with Christopher and her inability to deal with his behavior, as when Christopher threw a tantrum in a department store while he and his mother were Christmas shopping. She felt unable to cope with these fits of Christopher’s, possibly because of her depression, which Christopher mentions at one point in passing. When we finally meet her in person, however, Christopher’s mother turns out to be strong-willed and independent. Even so, she evidently still finds dealing with Christopher extremely difficult because of his rigid needs and sometimes inappropriate behavior. She clearly loves Christopher but also has doubts about her ability to take care of him.

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