In the realistic fiction tale by Shirley Jackson known as “Charles”, Laurie comes home from school everyday and tells the tale of a kid named Charles who does terrible things ranging from hitting the teacher to throwing chalk. Eager to meet the mother of this bad kid, Laurie’s mother goes to a P.T.A. meeting only to learn that there was never a Charles and that really it was Laurie doing those horrible things at school. This brings up a question: How could Laurie get away with something like that in the first place? This all shows signs of a lack of parental insight for Laurie. Shirley Jackson creates this theme of parental myopia by sprinkling in irony and foreshadowing throughout the story.
The main theme prevalent throughout the story is …show more content…
These moves sprinkle in clues to the main twist of the story and to the overall theme. In the story Laurie’s parents are worried about this Charles character that Laurie keeps informing them about, ironic since he does not actually exist in the first place. This irony is shown when Laurie’s mother addresses “Do you think kindergarten is too unsettling for Laurie? All this toughness, and bad grammar, and this Charles boy sounds like a bad influence”(74). Seeing as how Laurie really is the one responsible for this and Charles does not exist, this would in a way make out Laurie to be a bad influence and Laurie making kindergarten unsettling for the other children. Furthermore, there is an abundance of foreshadowing for the main plot twist of Charles and more importantly its theme. Like when Laurie’s mother finally goes to a P.T.A. meeting and undoubtedly, awaits the reveal of Charles’s mother, and to no prevail: “At the meeting I sat restlessly, scanning each comfortable matronly face, trying to determine which one hid the secret of Charles. None of them looked to me haggard enough. No one stood up in the meeting and apologized for the way her son had been acting. No one mentioned Charles”(77). Specifically, when Laurie’s mother mentions that no one mentioned Charles, this prefigures the fact that there has never been a Charles and Laurie’s mother is finally revealed to Laurie’s true
The main theme prevalent throughout the story is …show more content…
These moves sprinkle in clues to the main twist of the story and to the overall theme. In the story Laurie’s parents are worried about this Charles character that Laurie keeps informing them about, ironic since he does not actually exist in the first place. This irony is shown when Laurie’s mother addresses “Do you think kindergarten is too unsettling for Laurie? All this toughness, and bad grammar, and this Charles boy sounds like a bad influence”(74). Seeing as how Laurie really is the one responsible for this and Charles does not exist, this would in a way make out Laurie to be a bad influence and Laurie making kindergarten unsettling for the other children. Furthermore, there is an abundance of foreshadowing for the main plot twist of Charles and more importantly its theme. Like when Laurie’s mother finally goes to a P.T.A. meeting and undoubtedly, awaits the reveal of Charles’s mother, and to no prevail: “At the meeting I sat restlessly, scanning each comfortable matronly face, trying to determine which one hid the secret of Charles. None of them looked to me haggard enough. No one stood up in the meeting and apologized for the way her son had been acting. No one mentioned Charles”(77). Specifically, when Laurie’s mother mentions that no one mentioned Charles, this prefigures the fact that there has never been a Charles and Laurie’s mother is finally revealed to Laurie’s true