Attention And Disobedience In Shirley Jackson's 'Charles'

Maya Mylott

Mrs. Zierk

ELA

8/31

Attention and Disobedience Have you ever met a kid that you thought looked like an angel, but turns out he was evil? In the story “Charles” by Shirley Jackson, Laurie, who is a young kindergartner, is off to school and tells about a child named Charles who is in trouble almost everyday. Laurie is obsessed with him and it ends up he is Charles. Some words to describe Laurie would be arrogant and disobedient. In “Charles” Laurie is very Arrogant. To be arrogant roughly means to be having a sense of importance over one's own accomplishments. This applies to Laurie because whenever he came home from school he wanted to tell his parents what he did, without getting caught! In the text Jackson wrote, “‘The teacher spanked a boy, though,’ Laurie said, addressing

‘t was Charles,’ he said. ‘He was fresh. The teacher spanked him and made him stand in a corner. He was awfully fresh.’” This shows that Laurie wanted to tell them that some person (himself), had done something and he was proud he did it. Another word that describes Laurie is disobedient. Even when the teacher tells him “no” and gives him discipline, he continues to have horrible behavior. In the text it states, “‘He kicked the teacher’s friend,’ Laurie said. ‘The teacher’s friend told Charles to touch his toes like I just did and Charles kicked him.’” Since we know that Laurie is Charles, he was being disobedient because he kicked the teacher's friend! Kicking someone is not a good thing, so we know he was being disobedient. He not only does it once, he does it on a regular basis! In a story, the theme is an important thing. The theme for “Charles” is pay attention to your children and don’t assume them to be what you believe them to be. Because in this short story, the mom assumes that her son is a perfect angel, when he is more like a monster. Laurie is a disobedient and arrogant child, it was hard for the mom to see that, even though she was his