Laurie was a troublesome child. In “Charles”, written by Shirley Jackson, Laurie was a kindergarten student and was the older brother of an infant sibling. This story takes place in the 1950’s at Laurie’s house and school. The problem in this story is that Laurie did not adapt very nicely to kindergarten. He was misbehaving in class. Laurie believes that causing mischief will help him become popular; moreover, he created a fake student to make his parents believe it was not him. At the beginning of the school year, Charles sees that disobeying the instructors is the quickest road to favorability from the students. One day, Charles, after being told to color in red, “hit the teacher”(Jackson 346) and received a spanking from them. The
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Charles pounded his feet on the floor during story-time. As a result, he had to stand in a corner. On Friday, “Charles was deprived of blackboard privileges because he threw chalk”(346). These events proved that Charles is individualistic. Over the next week, Charles continued to behave poorly.
As Charles continues to transgress, his fame continues to grow. On Monday, Charles “yelled in school”(347), and therefore, had to stay after school. All the children stayed to watch him. On Tuesday, he kicked his teacher’s friend because he tried to make Charles exercise. These events show that Charles is crowd-pleasing. When he had to stay after school, all the other children stayed to be with him. On the third and fourth weeks of kindergarten, Charles’ actions took an unforeseen turn. When Laurie began kindergarten, he was unsure whether he was going to fit in or not. He then resorted to causing trouble in the classroom. As a result of trying to fit in, Charles made a girl bleed by hitting her with a see-saw, threw chalk, and kicked his teacher’s friend. Therefore, he made poor decisions while attempting to fit in. To fix this problem, he became the teacher’s helper for two weeks. After those weeks, Laurie’s mother attended a PTA meeting to meet Charles’ mother. To her surprise, she could not locate Charles’ mother since her own son was
Charles pounded his feet on the floor during story-time. As a result, he had to stand in a corner. On Friday, “Charles was deprived of blackboard privileges because he threw chalk”(346). These events proved that Charles is individualistic. Over the next week, Charles continued to behave poorly.
As Charles continues to transgress, his fame continues to grow. On Monday, Charles “yelled in school”(347), and therefore, had to stay after school. All the children stayed to watch him. On Tuesday, he kicked his teacher’s friend because he tried to make Charles exercise. These events show that Charles is crowd-pleasing. When he had to stay after school, all the other children stayed to be with him. On the third and fourth weeks of kindergarten, Charles’ actions took an unforeseen turn. When Laurie began kindergarten, he was unsure whether he was going to fit in or not. He then resorted to causing trouble in the classroom. As a result of trying to fit in, Charles made a girl bleed by hitting her with a see-saw, threw chalk, and kicked his teacher’s friend. Therefore, he made poor decisions while attempting to fit in. To fix this problem, he became the teacher’s helper for two weeks. After those weeks, Laurie’s mother attended a PTA meeting to meet Charles’ mother. To her surprise, she could not locate Charles’ mother since her own son was