Charles By Shirley Jackson Conflict Essay

663 Words2 Pages

Shirley Jackson created the phenomenal story “Charles”, in which details a young boy going off to kindergarten and the troubling events he faced due to lack of attention. Laurie was a rude and violent child. He was “deprived of black-board privileges because he threw chalk” (Jackson, 346) representing his impolite manner. Laurie “bounced a see-saw on to the head of a little girl and made her head bleed” (346) showing his vicious personality. “Charles” takes place in the 1950’s and at Laurie’s house and kindergarten school. The overall main conflict is that Laurie did not adjust well to kindergarten. Throughout the story, many events occur leading to the resolution. In the beginning, Laurie “forgot to stop at the corner and wave good-bye” (345) …show more content…

Once again, Laurie did not state that he did the crime but made up that Charlie did it. The following week, Laurie “yelled so in the school they sent a boy in from first grade to tell the teacher she had to make Charles keep quiet” (347) using Charles as his cover up. Laurie also refabricated that everyone stayed to watch Charles as he had to stay after school, explaining why he was late to come home. After that, Laurie’s mother was about to attend the PTA meeting as “only the fact that the baby had a cold” (347) kept her from going. His mother was eager to detect Charles mother if she would of went to the meeting. Laurie was an intelligent and clever boy because he was able to fool and deceive his parents into believing Charles was guilty of his behaviors. Laurie “shrugged elaborately” as he suggested Charlies could get kicked out of school, lying cunningly to his parents once again. In additional, several events came afterwards as …show more content…

Laurie was a jealous child throughout the passage because at school when others received any attention, he felt envious and acted disrespectful to get attention from the teacher. Laurie “yelled during story hour” (347) supporting that he was a jealous child and needed notice from others to feel unique. During the second week, Charles or truly Laurie “hit a boy in the stomach and made him cry” (347). However, all of the cruel actions performed by Laurie were never repeated

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