Shirley Jackson’s realistic fiction story, “Charles”, takes place in a house where a child is experiencing his first few weeks of school. Laurie, the narrator's son is going to kindergarten during the day and coming back home to tell his experiences. He tells his parents wild stories about a boy in class. In the story the parents are being gullible and believing everything that Laurie says to them. By using the mother’s perspective, the author limits the things experienced by the main character showing the lesson that listening and being gullible can affect everyone.
Being gullible is shown throughout the story as a central problem impacting the whole family. For example, Charles's mother discusses the action done by her family, “Charles was an institution in our family; the baby was being a Charles even my husband, when he caught his elbow in the telephone cord and pulled telephone, …show more content…
Point of view is shown in the following sentence, “All that toughness and bad grammar and this boy Charles sounds like such a bad influence.”(71) This shows that the mother is believing every word that comes from Laurie. The author wants the reader to believe that this is really happening so that he can lead up to the cliff hanger at the end of the story so that you do not know what is coming and how being gullible limits the mother because she does not really know what is true from Laurie. Point of view is not the only craft move that is used. The author ends the story with a significant cliffhanger. By reading the story you would know that the possibilities that could happen after are endless. The last sentence states,“We don't have any Charles in the kindergarten.”(77) This shows that clouding the vision of the mother allows Laurie to get away with things. In the end being gullible does not benefit the mother because she does not know the
Being gullible is shown throughout the story as a central problem impacting the whole family. For example, Charles's mother discusses the action done by her family, “Charles was an institution in our family; the baby was being a Charles even my husband, when he caught his elbow in the telephone cord and pulled telephone, …show more content…
Point of view is shown in the following sentence, “All that toughness and bad grammar and this boy Charles sounds like such a bad influence.”(71) This shows that the mother is believing every word that comes from Laurie. The author wants the reader to believe that this is really happening so that he can lead up to the cliff hanger at the end of the story so that you do not know what is coming and how being gullible limits the mother because she does not really know what is true from Laurie. Point of view is not the only craft move that is used. The author ends the story with a significant cliffhanger. By reading the story you would know that the possibilities that could happen after are endless. The last sentence states,“We don't have any Charles in the kindergarten.”(77) This shows that clouding the vision of the mother allows Laurie to get away with things. In the end being gullible does not benefit the mother because she does not know the