Characters There are two types of characters that I choose to be elaborate on.

That is, major character and minor character. The major character in this story is Laurie. Laurie, the five-year-old boy in Charles speaks as a typical child of his age would. He exaggerates, he shouts, he tells his father nonsense jokes, and he swears to get attention. He strings his sentences together: Charles wanted to colour with green crayons so he hit the teacher and she spanked him and said nobody play with Charles but everybody did. By the time you have finished the story, you have probably realized that Laurie is Charles. If we are to believe everything Laurie says, or even half of it, then this little boy seems to have a split personality. He is capable of behaving, but when he misbehaves, he does it with style! We can speculate that he acts up to get attention, or because he is having trouble adjusting to his new life in kindergarten. The minor character in this story are Lauries parent and his teacher. Lauries teacher may be the only one who sees both sides of his personality : the little helper and the little devil. Lauries parents only see their darling boy. They are shocked by the stories of Charles behaviour, and theyre even afraid that Charles may be a bad influence on Laurie. It is humourous to observe their shocked reactions, because they are so innocent of the truth. Theme The theme of this story is the naughtiness of a kindergarten boy whose name is Laurie. He is also really good at lying people including with his parents.

His naughtiness in the kindergarten is being express as a boy whose name was Charles. He always told his parents about what have Charles done all days long in the kindergarten. One of his naughty action can be proven by this extract, He was fresh. The teacher spanked him and made him stand in a corner. He was awfully fresh.From this extract, we know that Laurie is really good at making story or in other word lying.

Besides naughtiness, the other theme is a family who trust and loves their son very much.

His parents are really care about Laurie and his baby sisters but Laurie wont let his parents to pay more attention to his baby sisters. Instead being a good boy, he turns up to be a bad boy in the kindergarten as well as home. When he comes home from the kindergarten, he will be a boy whose name was Laurie, a quite naughty boy instead of Charles who is a really meant during the school time. In this way, he can makes his parents to pay more attention to him by being another boy whose name is Charles. Yes, he managed to get their attention. They are really worry about Charles who will give a bad influence to their child, Laurie. This shows that his parents are really care about him. This statement can be prove by this extract, The P.T.A meetings next week again, I told my husband one evening. Im going to find Charles mother there. Analysis This humorous story demonstrates how even individuals living under the same roof may not fully realize the extent of each other's true behaviors or the nature of each other's true identities. The narrator is naively unaware of her own son's bad behavior in school and is too willing to believe his descriptions of some other misbehaving child. Even though her own son's behavior changes when he enters kindergarten, she chalks this up to Charles's influence. "Charles" demonstrates how unaware people may be of each other's inner motivations and desires or at least how purposefully blind people choose to be of these motivations and desires (such as when they concern negative information about ones children). Jackson injects enough hints regarding Laurie's behavior at home to give the reader the sense that the boy's descriptions of Charles are actually of himself. For example, Laurie begins to exhibit disrespectful behavior towards his parents, such as calling his father an "old dust mop" or stomping through the house when he arrives from school. In addition, when the narrator asks the name of the misbehaving child, Laurie stops to think before answering. The reader can assume that he must take a moment to make up the name of his alter ego. However, the narrator is ignorant of this, though she may be subconsciously rejecting the notion that her own son could be so badly misbehaved. Charles is indeed Laurie's alter ego; Laurie creates him to serve as a foil to Laurie's supposedly angelic countenance at home with his parents. Through Charles, Laurie can tell his parents all about his misbehavior at school without receiving punishment. In addition, his parents will still consider him their lovable and well-behaved son. Perhaps in his attempts to adjust to school socialization and also maintain his parents' affection, Laurie resorts to Charles as an alternate identity through which

he can express himself, entertain his parents, and receive attention at school. Jackson employs dramatic irony in "Charles" because the discerning reader realizes before the narrator does that Laurie's gleeful description of Charles's exploits are in actuality his own doings. The kindergarten teacher's statement at the end of the story confirms this suspicion. When the teacher states that she has no student named Charles, the logical conclusion is that Laurie made up his existence and has in fact been describing himself and his own misbehavior to his unsuspecting parents. Another example of dramatic irony in "Charles" can be found in the narrators and her husbands avid desire to meet Charless mother. They do not know, as does the reader, that Charles's mother is in the narrator herself. Therefore, they already know Charles's motherthey just do not know she is the narrator herself. Summary "Charles", a short story written by Shirley Jackson. She takes a typical family and shows that behind what is visible to us, could be something no one expected. In this story, a mother refuses to look at what is right under her nose, for fear of discovering something that she doesn't want to see her precious innocent little boy causing serious trouble. Instead, she would rather believe that it is another little boy named Charles. The narrator and her husband are greatly amused when Laurie returns home every day from kindergarten with outlandish stories about a classmate named Charles, who constantly misbehaves in school. Charless escapades become so notorious that his name becomes a legend in their family. The narrator looks forward to meeting Charless mother at the PTA meeting. However, at the meeting, the narrator cannot pinpoint which parent is Charless. She purposefully corners Lauries kindergarten teacher, whose diplomatic report on Laurie sounds like Lauries description of Charless behavior, but the narrator does not notice. Instead, she cites Charless influence on Lauries behavior. Finally the teacher says that she does not have any student named Charles.

CONCLUSION
Based on the story that I have studied, I can conclude that Laurie is a boy who really want to have attention from his parents. By being another person whose name was Charles, he told all the bad things that Charles have done at kindergarten without being guilty towards his parents. Besides, I can conclude that, we must learn how to respect others. This is the most important value for a person to be respect for. Laurie either not respect his parents nor his teachers. He always create a problem that always disturb his teachers at the kindergarten by being another character whose name was Charles. Sometimes, he also can be a respectful towards his kindergarten teacher but just for one weeks only for the sake of his mother when he know that his mother want to attending the PTA meetings and meets Lauries teacher and also Charles mother.

REFERENCE
1. Internet

http://www.enotes.com/charles. Accessed on 28 September

2010.

http://www.horton.ednet.ns.ca/staff/scottbennett/web/charles.htm. Accessed on 26 September 2010.