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Shirley Jackson's Charles Versus The Open Window

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Shirley Jackson was a popular American writer born in San Francisco, California. She was known famously for plenty of her short stories. One of her most famous surprisingly ending is “Charles”. Hector Hugh Munro better known as Saki was a British writer. His writing used social pretension, unkindness, and stupidity to create an atmosphere of horror. One of his interesting yet surprising short stories is “The Open Window”. “Charles” is superior to “The Open Window” because of how relatable it is to society. Jackson’s Charles is a story that many people can relate to. Charles is based off a kid who is starting his kindergarten year of school. Laurie comes home daily from school telling his parents about a bad kid named Charles. Laurie faithfully …show more content…

It more of an old folk tale than many people can’t relate to. It takes place in the home of a lady and her niece. Mr.Nuttel was giving introduction letters from his sister to visit certain people. Upon arrival at Mrs. Sappleton’s house, he was greeted by her niece Vera. Vera is a fifteen year old teenage girl, but not your average teenager. She decided to scare Mr.Nuttel by telling him a false horror story about her aunt husband and children. She questioned him to see if he know her aunt personally and then she proceeds to say, “You may wonder why we keep that window wide open on an October afternoon.” Nuttel then responds saying it was quite warm around that time of year, but what does that window has to do with a tragedy. Vera goes on to tell him about a hunting trip Mrs. Sappleton’s husband and kids had taken telling that they didn’t return. Shortly after telling the story, Mrs.Sappleton comes in apologizing for being late. She said, “I hope Vera has been amusing you.” Framton tells her she’s been very interesting. Sappleton goes on to tell him about open window not knowing her niece had already mentioned it. After listening to both stories and seeing what actually happened Framton became uneasy. The different tales about the window confuses and scares Framton causing him to flee

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