Major Cultural References

Sherlock Holmes - Famous detective character created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Christopher's role model.

Doctor Watson – Companion to Sherlock Holmes and narrator of his stories.

Hound, James Mortimer's spaniel – Dogs that die in the Sherlock Holmes story The Hound of the Baskervilles.

Sir Charles Baskerville – Murder victim in the Sherlock Holmes story The Hound of the Baskervilles.

Sir Hugo Baskerville, Mrs. Stapleton, Mr. James Mortimer, Sir Henry Baskerville, Selden – Other characters in the Sherlock Holmes story The Hound of the Baskervilles.

Craig F. Whitaker – Submits the Monty Hall Problem to Marilyn Vos Savant's column.

Marilyn Vos Savant – Person with the highest I.Q. in the world, according to the Guinness Book of World Records, she has a column in Parade magazine.

Robert Sachs, Scott Smith, Kent Ford, W. Robert Smith, E. Ray Bobo, Everett Harman – Scientists and mathematicians who wrongly disagreed with Vos Savant's answer to the Monty Hall Problem.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle – The creator of Sherlock Holmes who believed in the Cottingley Fairies Hoax and wrote of it for The Strand.

Frances Griffiths – One of the perpetrators of the Cottingley Fairies Hoax.

Elsie Wright – The other perpetrator of the Cottingley Fairies Hoax and cousin to Frances Griffiths.

Harold Snelling – Expert in fake photography who states the photograph of the Cottingley Fairies were real.

Joe Cooper – Interviewed Elsie Wright and Frances Griffiths in 1981, when they admitted the photos were faked.

Arthur Shepperson – Author of Princess Mary's Gift Book, used as the basis for the fairies drawn in the Cottingley Fairies Hoax.

Robert May, George Oster, Jim Yorke – Discovered a mathematical explanation for chaotic animal population fluctuations.

James Gleick – The author of Chaos, a popular science book about chaos theory.

Conflict

Protagonist

The protagonist of a story is the main character, who traditionally, undergoes some sort of change. He or She must usually overcome some opposing force. In this story, the protagonist and main character is the narrator Christopher Boone, who wishes to solve the murder of Wellington and finds another mystery as a result.

Antagonist

The antagonist of a story is the character that provides an obstacle for the protagonist. In this novel, the antagonist is the world removed from his routine: that is, the everyday world of chaos, disorder, absence. The initiator of chaos is the murderer of Wellington, a mystery Christopher chooses to solve. This turns out to be Christopher's father, Ed Boone, who brings further turmoil with his deception regarding the death of Christopher's mother.

Climax

The climax of a story is the major turning point that determines the outcome of the plot. It is the point to which the rising action leads. Sometimes, as in this case, the author will create a n explosive and attention grabbing scene for the climax. Christopher discovers his mother isn't dead, as his father claimed, and that he killed Wellington.

Outcome

The outcome is also known as the resolution or denouement, this is the place in the plot where the action is resolved or clarified. The outcome of this novel is unusual. Typically, the protagonist prevails and the antagonist suffers: the good guy wins and the bad guy loses. Christopher goes to London to be with his mother and they return to Swindon, where his father slowly regains the trust of his son.