Shirley Jackson Research Paper

Shirley Jackson was a queen of gothic fiction. Jackson’s style of writing appears very barebones, without any openly shown emotion. Shirley Jackson’s writing tends to lead the readers to use their own imagination as to what the outcome of the stories are. The characters in Jackson’s stories often trick the reader’s mind as to who the characters really are on the inside. The theme that appearances are deceiving is evident throughout Shirley Jackson’s short stories “One Ordinary Day, with Peanuts,” “The Lottery,” and “Charles.”

In the beginning of “One Ordinary Day, with Peanuts,” the main character, Mr. Johnson, is displayed as a “responsible and truthful and respectable” human being (Jackson 99). Mr. Johnson is the typical neighborhood-friendly

Laurie’s parents began to worry once Charles became an everyday discussion with the family. They were more worried about a little boy in Laurie’s kindergarten class, than they were about their own son. Laurie’s parents do not want Laurie to turn mischievous like Charles. The traits that the parents fear of Charles influencing on Laurie, are located in their own son. The parents are “so focused on locating any disturbing behavior outside their own family, in the shape of Charles, that they utterly overlook the growing anarchy within their own household” (Robinson 80). At the end of the story, it is revealed that Laurie is Charles. Charles does not exist. Charles is Laurie’s scapegoat, he made him up the entire time. It is revealed that Charles is made up when Laurie’s mother attends the P.T.A. meeting. Laurie’s mother meets her son’s teacher, who then proceeds to tell her that there is not, and never has been a student by the name of Charles in her kindergarten class.

When it is revealed that Laurie is Charles, it proves that appearances can be deceiving. Laurie is an innocent, sweet-loving son at home, but in the classroom he is the complete opposite person. Laurie seems to be “simply a rather rude child with little power to fascinate, up until it is revealed that Laurie is Charles” (“Charles” 72). The parents and the readers are led to believe that Laurie is an innocent child, when in reality he is not. The revealing of Laurie being Charles shows how little people may know about another person or their mind, even if that person is your own