Point Of View In Shirley Jackson's 'Charles'

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Shirley Jackson, the author of “Charles” once said,” No live organism can continue for long to exist under sanely conditions of absolute reality.” This quote connects to her short story “Charles” because this quote shows that without made up stories, a person can’t hear everything they hear. Laurie, a kindergartener, tells his parents stories all about Charles, a kid who is very bad at school. The author uses dialogue and character's perspective to convey the theme of not everybody is who they say they are. The author uses dialogue spoken by Laurie, a character that claims there is a bad student named Charles, to show the theme of the story. For instance, Laurie, sitting at the dinner table telling his parents about how Charles made a girl say a bad word went over to his father. Laurie, the main character said,”’I’ll have to whisper it to you, it’s so bad’”, he got off the chair and went to his father. His father bent his head down and Laurie whispered joyfully. His father’s eyes widened” (Jackson 3). This example shows that Laurie …show more content…

Laurie said to his father,”’Hi, Pop, y’old dust mop’,”(Jackson 2). But mother said,”’Charles had to stay after school today. Everyone stayed with him,’”(Jackson 2). The text also says,” Laurie did a Charles when he filled his wagon full of mud and pulled the wagon all through the kitchen,”(Jackson 3). This text evidence shows that the mother and father were being blind to the rude comments that Laurie said. When Laurie called his father a “dust mop” mother completely ignored what Laurie had said, and started talking all about Charles again. She didn’t even question the fact that her son stayed after school with Charles. All of the bad comments and tasks that Laurie did was just blamed on the influence of Charles. This shows that mother is turning a blind eye to all of the hints that Charles is actually Laurie. To conclude, this comparison helps show the

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