Lack Of Communication In Shirley Jackson's Charles

444 Words2 Pages

Shirley Jackson’s realistic fiction story, “Charles,” takes place in Laurie's house and kindergarten class. Laurie is starting kindergarten and he thinks they have a bad kid in class with the name Charles. He comes home every day and tells his parents that Charles did something bad again. By using word choice and foreshadow, Jackson creates the theme that Communication can solve problems. Lack of communication is a problem in the story “Charles”. Because Laurie does not tell his parents a lot about Charles, they do not realize who Charles actually is. For example, Laurie avoids giving a lot of information about Charles. He does not tell them Charles is made up to cover up his bad behavior. Jackson writes, “We don’t have any Charles …show more content…

Jackson writes, “Laurie thought,” shows that Laurie is just imaging Charles (73). Laurie's parents worry about Charles behavior instead of figuring out and talking about Charles. This short sentence written by Jackson shows that Laurie's parents are not communicating enough to find out Charles is actually Laurie. Jacksons word choice is not the only craft move she uses. Jackson also includes some foreshadowing that shows Laurie is actually Charles. 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 At first, the theme seemed to be lying makes problems worse, but looking more closely, the message developed into a lack of communication. Jackson used a lot of word choices and foreshadow to get this theme across. When looking at these author crafts a reader will see that the parents are not talking enough. The author shows the reader that Laurie and his parents are not communicating, and this leads to them looking like fools when they talk to the