In the show Dennis the Menace, Dennis had used his friend Joey to sneak to the film he wanted to see. Just like how in the story Charles, Laurie makes up a kid named Charles so he can get in trouble without his parents knowing. Those are just some of the many similarities; now let’s move on to the differences in these stories. Dennis’s parents already know that Dennis is a misbehaving child, while Laurie’s parents ignore it.
Virginia Hamilton’s The House of Dies Drier is set in the 1950’s and placed in an aged house that was once an Underground Railroad station. A boy named Thomas has just moved into this strange house and is getting accustomed to the environment. Throughout the book Hamilton uses a literary element called foreshadowing. The House of Dies Drier uses foreshadowing to help one have a better understanding of the book, to cause one to think of how the story will unfold, and to add suspense.
When they ask Laurie’s teacher, she informs them that there is no such child as Charles, implying that Laurie and Charles are one and the
. In “Charles,” foreshadowing convinces us that Laurie is Charles. For example, every day when Laurie arrives home from school, he tells his parents about a troublemaker who causes chaos in class. When Laurie’s mom asks for the boy’s name, her son thinks before he speaks.
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.
In “Charles” foreshadowing convinces us that Laurie is Charles. An example of this is, When Laurie has to think before he tells his mom about his first day of kindergarten. A quote in the story to show this is when, Laurie’s mom states “Laurie thought. ‘It was Charles’... ”(11).This quote shows a little proof that Laurie is Charles, because he has to thinks for a second,since he has to think up a name that isn’t his own.
Foreshadowing in “Charles” In the short story “Charles,” foreshadowing helps us realize that Charles is actually Laurie. For instance, everyday when Laurie came home from school he always had a terrible story to tell his parents about Charles. When Laurie tells his parents Charles hit the teacher his mother is concerned and asks for the child's name. In the text it states “Laurie thought. ‘It was Charles.”
Both stories use the writing technique to hint at an unknown fact in the story. In the case of “Charles”, the author hints that Laurie is Charles with some of Laurie's behavior towards Charles. Laurie paused briefly before talking to Charles and as the passage says, “Laurie thought. ‘It was Charles,’ he said.”. Laurie also “spoke insolently to his father” and expressed happiness at Charles’s cruel actions, demonstrated when Laurie “whispered joyfully” to his father the bad word that Charles had said.
This discussion was the turning point of the story. The discovery by Laurie’s mother that Laurie was actually “Charles” was the unanticipated climax of the story. The comprehension by Laurie’s mother was additional evidence that Laurie was pursuing negative attention from his teacher and any type of attention from his
This sets a stage for when the readers finally figure out there was no charles and laurie must confess up to his wrong-doings and start to be good in kindergarten
“Charles” Writing Prompt Laurie was a devious little boy. Shirley Jackson, in her short story “Charles” wrote about a kindergarten boy named Laurie. Laurie is an older brother to an infant sibling; consequently, he misbehaved at school because he wanted more attention from his parents. The story took place during the 1950s in a kindergartener’s home and school.
She adds details in the story about Laurie acting just like Charles. Jackson writes, “Laurie did a Charles when he filled his wagon full of mud and pulled it through the kitchen.(75)” This shows that Laurie's parents are not communicating about Laurie's terrible actions and putting two and two together to see Laurie is Charles. Another thing the author makes clear is how unaware Laurie's parents are. Along with word choices, foreshadowing helps get across the theme of lack of communication
One way that this story shows lying has no good result at the end is when Laurie was telling his parents about Charles and all the awful things he did he was making himself seem like a perfect child while charles is the exact opposite. When telling his parents this and making Charles actions worse and worse each day he is really hurting himself because when his parents find out he was the one doing these things he will ultimately be the one getting in trouble and taking all the punishment. Jackson writes, “Charles was bad again” . By saying this it is setting him up to get more punishment in the end because really the one doing these things is Laurie, not imaginary Charles. When Laurie comes home everyday he continues to tell his parents everything Charles does, so when Laurie comes home all this parents want to hear about is how charles acts that day and what he did.
In the short story, ‘’Charles,’’ many readers believe it is too easy to see the twist at the end. I agree with the statement because Laurie’s parents never gave him enough attention, he talked about Charles oddly, and also did not treat his parents nicely. To begin with, Laurie’s parents never gave him enough attention. This is why he creates Charles and his head and acts the way he does. He also acts terribly in school and that gives him attention from the other kids, and this gives him another reason.
One day, Laurie came home with the story that Charles behaved so well in class that he even received a gift from the teacher but then, another day he talked about Charles behaving badly again. Laurie's parents were shocked by the sudden change and wanted to meet Charles's parents due
