ipl-logo

Brief Summary Of The Book 'Charles' By Shirley Jackson

584 Words3 Pages

The book “Charles” is written by Shirley Jackson and is about a young boy named Laurie who is starting kindergarten. In the story, Laurie is just starting kindergarten and comes home everyday and tells about how bad this kid named Charles behaves in class. His parents assume that he is being badly influenced by a student Charles. Take responsibility for your actions in the first place, if you don’t it will result in bad consequences. Laurie comes home everyday telling his parents the bad decisions a peer of his named “Charles” is making. “The teacher spanked a boy, though” Laurie remarked after his parents asked how his day went. This is important because instead of Laurie talking about his first day of kindergarten all he wanted to do was talk about the way Charles acted in class. Which also showed that Laurie doesn’t care about anything that they learned in class. Laurie repeatedly comes home and talks about Charles bad behavior throughout the story. “Today, Charles hit the teacher.” This represents the way that Charles was acting towards the teacher and …show more content…

“Gee, you’re dumb” stated Charles. Talking to his dad. This shows that Laurie’s behavior has changed since he started kindergarten with this class. This shows that his class may affect his attitude at home as well as at school. “Hi, Pop y’old dust mop.” This represents that Laurie’s language was changing. His parents assume that he is hearing these statements at school and it is influencing him to do bad things at home. His parents question his place in kindergarden and if it was healthy for him to be in the class. They decided that he will end up coming across people like this throughout his entire life. Why not now? Laurie seemed different and he had been acting up more than usual, his parents noticed but didn’t seem to take any action. They had just assumed it was because of

Show More
Related
419 Words | 2 Pages

Dennis’s mother is used to having a hard time finding a babysitter because she states that they “never come back.” But when Laurie’s mom is talking to the teacher at Laurie’s school, she says “Laurie usually adjusts very quickly. I suppose this time it’s Charles's influence.” Another example of how these stories are different is when it comes to bad behavior

Read More
963 Words | 4 Pages

Through these poems, the reader can also see that Richard is smiling and positive, showing his kind heart. Though portrayed as a cruel kid through the media’s eyes, Richard has many traits that show that he’s actually a very sweet kid. The media views him one way, but through the poems we are able to see the real Richard. During Slater’s interview with Richard’s school friends, everyone shares their experiences with Richard, which proves that he isn’t the bad kid the news makes him out to be. At the school, many of Richard’s friends came together to share their experiences they had with Richard.

Read More
443 Words | 2 Pages

He asks her why she is not in school. In her response, she points out something very important: “Do you notice how people hurt each other nowadays?... I'm afraid of children my own age. They kill each other. Did it always used to be that way?

Read More
124 Words | 1 Pages

Charles is a short story written by Shirley Jackson first published in 1948. Being a great example of dramatic irony, it tells the story of Laurie and his first few weeks of Kindergarten. Upon coming home from school on his first day, he recounts the tales of a poorly behaved boy named Charles who yelled at teachers and got spanked as a result. Every day, Laurie will recount similar tales to his parents of the misbehaving boy named Charles. At the PTA meeting however Laurie’s parents are surprised to not hear a single utterance of this Charles boy.

Read More
416 Words | 2 Pages

How’s school?” (p. 70-71). Within the flashback the reader get an insight of the severity of Catharine fathers’ illness and the actual truth on who wrote Proof. The flashback also shows the relationship between Catharine and

Read More
1112 Words | 5 Pages

As discussed above the mother refuses to believe that her son is growing up and in turn, believes the stories of Charles which causes the narrator to be deemed unreliable. The first sign that the narrator is unreliable appears when the narrator compares Laurie to a well-behaved kid and then when the narrator describes Laurie’s behavior after school as disruptive and insolent. At this point, it is apparent that Laurie is not as well-behaved as his mother believes him to be. However, it is not apparent that Laurie has made up Charles even though he is displaying the same freshness as Charles was at school as it appears to be semi-normal behavior. For the rest of the first week, Laurie keeps displaying this insolent behavior at home and Charles keeps acting out at school.

Read More
533 Words | 3 Pages

The boy’s father does not like the teacher, and he basically does not want his son to join any activity in the school so he strongly refused the teacher’s advice. Later that night, Josh’s father asked his mother what she bought from town. She told Josh’s father that she bought Josh some crayons and Josh’s father got

Read More
812 Words | 4 Pages

While attempting to not scare the children with the real events in history, Collins uses sarcasm and a somewhat humorous tone throughout the poem to explain the historical context. An example

Read More
284 Words | 2 Pages

Throughout part two of the novel 1984 written by George Orwell, the author incorporated the psychological lens. Orwell was able to do this by psychologically manipulating the characters by not only the use of Big Brother but also by the cameras that have been placed everywhere, and the Thought Police reporting thoughtcrime. George Orwell conveyed this lens by mentioning “This was, that the message did not come from the Thought Police at all, but from some kind of underground organization” (Orwell 107). An analyzation of this quote is that the author is keeping his readers thinking, but also having Winston’s mind running knowing that he has been with this girl named Julia who could be a part of the police. The purpose of this lens is so that

Read More
742 Words | 3 Pages

The speaker surfaces to reality in the last stanza when he speaks of how he spends his days now. The student who “knocks on the door with a term paper fifteen years late or a question about Yeats or double-spacing,” is not a procrastinating student, but a student who comes by to visit his former teacher. However, the student who “will appear in a window pane,” is really just watching him. Although this poem seemed to be just for humor, the reader could tell how delusional the speaker is when he shares that he is caught “lecturing the wall paper, quizzing the chandelier, and reprimanding the air,” (Collins 535). The teacher is still living in his teaching ways and has imagined a fantasy town with true descriptions of former

Read More
671 Words | 3 Pages

“Charles” Essay Shirley Jackson’s enticing story called “Charles” was filled with a plot twist and unforeseen outcomes. The story fixated on Laurie, a kindergartener and older sibling to his new infant sister. The setting took place in the 1950’s in Laurie’s home, school and kindergarten classroom. Laurie was extremely misbehaved during the beginning of his Kindergarten year.

Read More
508 Words | 3 Pages

“Charles” by Shirley Jackson is a realistic fiction cliffhanger about Laurie, his adjustment to kindergarten, and a kid Charles, who seems to be a dreadful influence on the kindergarteners. The story is set in Laurie 's home and at his school. Laurie, his mother, his father, and Charles are the characters in the story. The lesson in the story is that lying leads to more problems than it solves and the author uses foreshadowing and word choice to show the lesson.

Read More
395 Words | 2 Pages

This piece of literature is called “Charles” this short story is written by Shirley Jackson. Charles acted out and misbehaved due to not being shown attention. Charles other known as Louise was a mischievous kindergartener who had a young infant sibling. This piece was in 1950’s and was a Louise’s Home and school. Charles did not adjust well to kindergarten causing him to act out and misbehave.

Read More
570 Words | 3 Pages

It shows how the school did not want the kids to stray from their school work, but also shows that Charlie had strayed and tried to dream about the outside world before and was punished. The entire time Charlie was there he wanted to stray from his work and in the end he did. The outdoors is repeatedly mentioned, the animals and mostly snow. It represents the freedom that Charlie is begging for.

Read More
556 Words | 3 Pages

“Charles had to stand in the corner during story time because he kept pounding his feet on the floor” (Jackson 74). As every teacher would say reading and

Read More

More about Brief Summary Of The Book 'Charles' By Shirley Jackson

Related Topics

Open Document