Charles

In many ways, Shirley Jackson’s story “Charles” seems like a humorous sitcom about a naughty child. The mother’s voice in telling this story about the experiences of her little boy, Laurie (a rather unusual name for a boy), in kindergarten could be that of any mother. Children often come home with tales about the “bad kid” at school who always gets into trouble, and Laurie is no exception. Dayafter day, he reports the naughty things a boy named Charles does—from hitting the teacher, to bouncing a seesaw off a girl’s head, to saying bad words. Laurie’s parents are mildly concerned about their son learning in such an environment, but they do not intervene at all. Rather, Laurie’s stories about Charles become part of the household lore. Because they love their son, his parents believe allhe has to say, and this belief prevents them from noticing that what he says is not the full truth. When the mother learns at the end of the story that there is no child named Charles in the class and that it is Laurie who has had difficulty adjusting to kindergarten and has done all the bad things he attributed to Charles, the reader no less than the mother is very surprised. This lightheartedstory, which seems to merely depict a typical boy’s early days at school, more significantly suggests the ways children invent shadow figures as a means of confronting problematic feelings while forming their identities. Laurie invents an alter ego to do “bad” so that he might stay good in the eyes of his parents. Loving but myopic, the parents do not intervene. By eliminating any real resolution tothe story, Jackson leaves an ominous message concerning children, human behavior, and family relationships.
Summary and Analysis
Fill in the missing words:
adjusting - denouement - Eventually - exaggeration - expense - harasses – lapses - mischief -
reverts - sublimation - twist - yells -
Little Laurie, who has just started kindergarten, keeps his parents in suspense with more or
lessshocking stories about his fellow-pupil Charles, who ________________ his teacher and
classmates with his aggressive behaviour. Charles, for instance, hits the teacher, keeps
pounding his feet on the floor during storytime, or _____________________ in class during
story hour. Punishment obviously has little effect on him. Fearing that "all this toughness"
may have a "bad influence" (3112-13) onLaurie, his mother "passionately" wishes to contact
Charles' mother at the first Parent-Teachers meeting (3134-36), but her plan comes to nothing
because her baby's cold keeps her from going. __________________, Laurie's daily reports
about Charles begin to dominate both parents' consciousness. By the third week of
kindergarten "Charles" has become a synonym for any kind of _________________ ordamage done within the family (32 16-20). After what seems a time of reformation in Charles
when his teacher calls him her "helper" (32 34), Charles ____________________ to his usual
misbehaviour. Among other things, he makes a little girl say an evil word (33 3) and later says
it himself "three or four times" (33 14). Anxiously, Laurie's mother attends the second Parent-
Teachers meeting whereno one, however, mentions Charles. When she approaches the
teacher after the meeting and introduces herself as Laurie's mother, she is informed primly
that her little son had "a little trouble _________________________, the first week or so" (33
35), but now has become "a fine little helper. With occasional lapses, of course". Innocently
Laurie's mother tries to attribute herson's______________________ to "Charles' influence",
but the teacher informs her that they "don't have any Charles in the kindergarten". It is only at
this point that she realizes that Laurie — give or take an _______________________ or two
— has been describing his own behaviour at school. One can only imagine her shock on
realizing that she herself is "Charles' mother".
The action of the story covers a...