12/7/10
Charles Story by Shirley Jackson, response by Jonathan Guzman
The story Charles is about a little boy, his teacher, his classmates, and Laurie. Laurie, a little boy is doing something really slick and is telling on his classmate for doing misdeeds (one wouldn’t expect from a child). In the story, Charles hits the teacher because she insists that he uses a marker of her choice. The theme of the story is how a child can use his or her imagination to attract attention. In this case Charles, is an imaginary friend who is influencing Laurie to hit teachers and classmates and also to scream bad and insulting words at people.
Charles who is supposedly a bad student in school is causing many parents to be concerned that his behavior might influence their children. “It was Charles”, he said. “The teacher spanked him and made him stand in the corner. He was really fresh”. This quote was on the first page and represents the event that could have influenced Laurie to think that hitting people is the correct thing to do. This quote also shows that Laurie is inventing an imaginary friend to attract attention from her parents.
“I could hardly wait for the first Parent-Teachers meeting. I wanted very much to meet Charles’ mother. The meeting was still a week away”. This quote was on the second page and it is spoken by Laurie’s mother with great concern. She is upset about Charles’ bad influence over Laurie and wants to discuss it with his mother. “Charles?” she said. “We don’t have a Charles in kindergarten”. The teacher quotes these words at the end of the story on page two, when she states to the mother that there is no Charles in the Kindergarten. Laurie’s mother was shocked to hear that Charles was not an actual classmate of Laurie’s and that she lied.
Basically, the overall thesis is that of a child looking for attention. To get attention Laurie uses his imagination and creates little white lies.
