Shirley Jackson's Short Story 'Charles'

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“Charles”
Short along with sweet; those two words could have been used to describe Laurie a preschooler, however, faster than a speeding passenger train, those two characteristics changed when Laurie started kindergarten. The short story of “Charles” was written by Shirley Jackson. The misbehavior of Laurie was influenced by his lack of attention from his parents due to the presence of another child. Laurie just happens to be the older sibling of the older brother of an infant sister, with no other known siblings. Throughout the story of “Charles”, Laurie is attending kindergarten. Laurie travels between school as well as home in this story taking place during the 1950s. The story circulates around the fact Laurie is not adjusting to attending kindergarten. Following the progress of Laurie in both dialogue along with the text in the story “Charles”, the reader is able to learn about his personality along with the impact of not …show more content…

Within the first few lines of the short story, we learn about the changes of Laurie in the bridge from preschool to kindergarten. The reader was able to learn Laurie was quick to pick up the groove of kindergarten when the text states, “my sweet-voiced nursery-school tot replaced by a long-trousered, swaggering character who forgot to stop at the corner and wave good-bye to me” (Jackson 345). Laurie hurriedly adapted, or changed to accommodate the characteristics of a kindergarteners; therefore, changing is a character trait that follows Laurie throughout the tale of “Charles”. Laurie soon began to refer to a classmate with the name of Charles. Supposedly, Charles was a troublemaker who could not seem to figure out the way teachers were to be treated. No one other than Laurie was aware of who Charles was, yet the figure of Charles was significantly impacting the way Laurie adapted to

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