The story “Charles” by Shirley Jackson is about a young boy, Laurie who is misbehaving in his kindergarten class but covering it up by saying it was another boy, Charles who isn’t real. His parents kept believing him until they realized it was him who was misbehaving during school. Middle schoolers should read “Charles” because it is interesting to see all the bad things the boy does and it is weird to find out at the end how Laurie has been misleading his parents. Some people say the story is boring because it is about a boy in kindergarten.But, it is not because it shows a lot of foreshadowing during the story to see if charles is really charles. Middle schoolers should read the short story “Charles”. One reason middle schoolers should read “Charles” is because when the reader finds out …show more content…
At the beginning Laurie started acting different when he first went to kindergarten. “...replaced by a long swaggering character who forgot to say goodbye to me. He came home the same way, the front door slamming open” (Jackson). His parents started noticing more and more bad behavior and thought it was Charles making an impact on Laurie. “...When he caught his elbow in the telephone cord and pulled telephone, ashtray, and a bowl of flowers off the table, said after a minute, Looks like Charles”(Jackson). What the parents don’t see is Laurie might be the one misbehaving during school. The mom finally went to a meeting with the teacher and found out there was o Charles in the class. “Charles? She said. We don't have any Charles in the kindergarten”(Jackson). These pieces of evidence show that throughout the story even though Laurie started acting worse and worse the parents thought it was Charles who was influencing Laurie and it wasn’t aurie who was doing all the misbehaving. So when the mother found out it was nice for her to know the truth and was cool for the reader to find out
Sometimes the way people act around you isn’t the way they act around other people. A good example of this is Shirley Jackson’s, “The Possibility of Evil”. The main character, Miss Strangeworth, isn’t as nice as she may seem. Miss Strangeworth’s character can be analyzed by considering what she does, what the narrator says about her, and how other characters interact with her.
He comes home with stories of a boy named Charles, who is supposedly in his class and has terrible behavior. Some of Charles’s infamous feats are hitting the teacher, yelling in class, and saying bad words. Laurie also starts to exhibit these behaviors at home, and his parents are worried that Charles is a significant influence. As in turns out, after Laurie's mom goes to a PTA meeting, she finds out that there is no such student as Charles and that Laurie is Charles. Jackson plants a handful amount of clues throughout the story to hint the reader that Laurie is making up Charles and that it’s actually him. At the beginning of the story Laurie’s mom thinks,”my sweet-voiced nursery school tot replaced by a long-trousered, swaggering character who forgot to stop at the corner and wave good-bye to me.” This quote shows that Laurie is exhibiting impolite and “I’m just too cool” kind of behavior, similar to Charles behavior. This is foreshadowing because the author hinted the reader that Laurie is lying without actually revealing it.
After hearing a brief description of the story you might think that there aren’t many good things about they story. However, this is false, there are many good things in this book that makes it a good read. First being that it is a very intriguing book. This is good for teenage readers because often times they don’t willingly want to read, and this story will force the teenage or any reader to continue the book and continue reading the series. Secondly, this is a “good” book because it has a good balance of violence. This is a good thing because it provides readers with an exciting read. We hear and even see violence in our everyday life and I believe that it is something teenagers should be exposed to. This book gives children an insig...
Senick, Gerard J., and Hedblad, Alan. Children’s Literature Review: Excerpts from Reviews, and Commentary on Books for Children and Young People (Volumes 14, 34, 35). Detroit, Michigan: Gale Research, 1995..
Children have often been viewed as innocent and innocent may be a nicer way to call children naive. Since children’s lives are so worry free they lack the knowledge of how to transition from being a child to becoming an adolescent. Their lack of knowledge may be a large part of their difficulties growing up, which could be a few rough years for many. In books like the boy in the striped pajamas the story is told from the point of view of a little boy, this way we get a full view of how innocent he is. In this book the writer shows the reader first hand how a child viewed the holocaust and how his innocence cost him his life. Then in books like the perks of being a wallflower Charlie is a teen whom is struggling with the transition from being a child to becoming an adolescent. In this book the writer gives a first hand look at how difficult it can be to transition into an adolescent. Charlie has many difficulties in this book; he is in search of his identity and how to fit in.
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.
In A Wron Path by Eudora Welty the main character Pheonix Jackson is a hero to her grandson. The qualities of a hero can be wisdom, caring, patience and chivalris. The qualitites of Pheonix Jackson are caring, mysterious, and tough. She has to make a trip to the doctors office to get medicine for her grandson. The only way to get there is through the path in the woods. The trip is gonna take all day and she already is old and has trouble walking long distances.
box. We do not always enjoy change, even if it might prove beneficial to us.
Usually, the little old lady who lives down the street is always a sweet old woman who bakes cookies and knits all day, but in the case of Miss Adela Strangeworth she had developed a very evil hobby. In Shirley Jackson’s short story “The Possibility Of Evil” Miss Strangeworth may seem like a nice old lady but she is really a proud, cruel, and secretive woman, who enjoys making everyone in the town she lived in feel terrible without even knowing she was doing it.
The song is more emotional than we thought it was. The reason being is that in the song he indicts how caring he is to people who are worse off than most. Also, he shows that he is connected to the society not only with an example: “As I, turn up the collar on, My favorite winter coat, This wind is blowing my mind, I see the kids in the streets, With not enough to eat”, but through the language of the song which is simple English. Also, Jackson start by making a winter type environment by using imagery by first wearing his “favorite winter coat”, turning “up the collar” as he leaves his home. Next, he uses personification in “This wind is blowing my mind”. This personification also serves as an image to depict his perspective by letting us
... reader. Throughout the book, Charlie unfolds secrets and truths about the world and the society that he lives in; secrets and truths that cause him to grow up and transition into adulthood. He also makes a life changing decision and rebelled against was he thought was the right thing. This reflects his maturity and bravery throughout the journey he travels that summer. Charlie eyes suddenly become open to the injustice that the town of Corrigan demonstrates. He also comes to face the issue of racism; not only shown towards his best friend Jeffrey and the Lu family but to Jasper Jones as well. He realises the town of Corrigan is unwilling to accept outsiders. Charlie not only finds out things that summer about the people that surround him, but he also finds out who he is personally.
"The Lottery," a short story written by Shirley Jackson, is a tale about a disturbing social practice. The setting takes place in a small village consisting of about three hundred denizens. On June twenty-seventh of every year, the members of this traditional community hold a village-wide lottery in which everyone is expected to participate. Throughout the story, the reader gets an odd feeling regarding the residents and their annual practice. Not until the end does he or she gets to know what the lottery is about. Thus, from the beginning of the story until almost the end, there is an overwhelming sense that something terrible is about to happen due to the Jackson's effective use of foreshadowing through the depiction of characters and setting. Effective foreshadowing builds anticipation for the climax and ultimately the main theme of the story - the pointless nature of humanity regarding tradition and cruelty.
In conclusion, Laurie, who really has become Charles completely, has too much pride in himself and his actions which makes him arrogant. He is creative because he is bursting with different and colorful ideas although they may not all be benevolent and he loves attention; he always finds a way to take the attention and does not realize how much others mind his behaviour making him flamboyant. He demonstrates all these attributes throughout this story as he is telling his parents about Charles. Laurie’s parents do not see this about Laurie until the end of the story which up until that point; they believe that he is a quick adjuster, a wearer of bibs and corduroy overalls, when in fact, the son they are raising is now Charles.
The fictional life and death of a twelve year old little boy named Robert is vividly articulated in this moving tale by Thomas Wolfe. The reader learns of the boy’s life through four well developed points of view. The reader’s first glimpse into Robert’s character is expressed through a third person narrative. This section takes place on a particularly important afternoon in the boy’s life. The second and third views are memories of the child, through the eyes of his mother and sister. His mother paints the picture of an extraordinary child whom she loved dearly and his sister illustrates the love that the boy had for others. Finally, an account from the narrator is given in the ending. It is in the last section of this work that the narrator attempts to regain his own memories of his lost brother.
Years passed and Laurie was returned to her parents on that fateful day in front of the school. Ever since she was taken away Laurie was taught to forget whom her parents and family were. She had a lot of rehabilitation to deal with but her parents decided to not go through with psychological treatment.