Awareness versus Ignorance

Throughout the history of mankind there have been numerous cases in which people were victims of oppression or hate. Among these cases the sole reasoning behind this oppression or hate being based on the perception of others. History has shown that society is responsible for labeling groups of people, generally these labels are misleading.

Children are common group of people who are generally mislabeled by society. In the short story “Charles’’ by Shirley Jackson and ‘’The Open Window” by Saki showed examples of the labeling of children. In “Charles” the concept of parents labeling their children as being pure and sincere was shown. As in “The Open Window” by Saki “used the notion that girls were the most truthful sex and gives her a name that suggests truthfulness to make her tale less suspect.”(Wilson 178). According to Welsh “Because the fantasy is so bizarre and inventive and totally unexpected from a fifteen-year-old girl, the reader is momentarily duped.”(03). This showed that even we as the readers were a victim of misleading labels of society.

As shown in the two short stories children are seen to be innocent and “precious” incapable of deception (Wilson 178). The two pieces of literature clearly invalidates that belief that children are incapable of deception. In “The Open Window” Vera showed deception when she lied to her aunt why Framton Nuttel had left the house by saying “He told me he had a horror of dogs. He was once hunted into a cemetery somewhere on the banks of the Ganges by a pack of pariah dogs, and had to spend the night in a newly dug grave with the creatures snarling and grinning and foaming just above him. Enough to make anyone lose their nerve.”(Saki 254). Likewise in “Charles” Laurie showed deceptio...

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...se us to fall victim to mislabeling. Not everything that is seen is actually there.

Works Cited

Bloom, Harold. Bloom’s Major Short Story Writers: Shirley Jackson. Broomall, Pa : Chelsea

House, 2001. 18-23. Print.

Heller, Terry.”Charles.” Masterplots II . Revised. England: Salem Press, 2004. Web. 18 Oct

2011.

Jackson Shirley.”Charles.” Student Book of College English. David Skwire and Harvey

Wiener. New York: Longmen, 2004. 248-251. Print

Saki.”The Open Window.”Student Book of College English. David Skwire and Harvey

Wiener. New york: Longmen, 2004. 252-254. Print

Welsh, James M. Master Plots II. Revised. England: Salem Press,2004. Web. 18 Oct 2011.

Wilson, Kathleen. Ed.” Short Story for Students. Detroit: Gale, 1997. 170-182. Print.