First Impressions In The Short Story 'Charles' By Shirley Jackson

This is Never that In the short story, “Charles” by Shirley Jackson takes place with a child by the name of Laurie, who is a newcomer to kindergarten. Things don’t go so smoothly for his first day in kindergarten. In fact, a child by the name of Charles gets him talking about all the inappropriate actions that were made. His parent’s soon get the negative idea about Charles and don’t suspect a thing from Laurie. One lesson that the story mentions, is, this is never that. Or in other words, even though you may be told something, it may not always be true. To start off the short story, “Charles,” we are introduced to who Charles with a negative impression. One example in the text that shows how it gave off an iffy feeling was when Laurie said,

“He was fresh. The teacher spanked him and made him stand in the corner. He was awfully fresh.’ ” That quote shows how the first impression was made by Charles, was not such an okay start. Laurie’s parent were a bit puzzled and that was the beginning of Charles. Usually, kids don’t get in trouble on the first day of school, especially when it’s kindergarten, but things happen. But they don’t just stop happening there, it continues. On the next day of school for Laurie, he came home with a new set of news about Charles. Instead of the teacher spanking him, Charles had hit her. Laruie’s mother is surprised by the action that Charles had committed, and that is when she began to believe the white lie that Laurie had made. In a line that Laurie’s mother had said, “ ‘Why did Charles hit the teacher?” I asked quickly.’ ” That shows how she had responded to what Laurie had said in a quick manner. She didn’t think twice about suspecting Laurie in anyway. As the days past, Laurie comes home constantly talking about the things that Charles