Story analysis Charles is a short story written by an American author; Shirley Jackson (December 14, 1916 August 8, 1965)

) a popular author and novelist of her time. Charles was firstly published in 1948. The title clearly shows us that the story is going to tell us about some boy or man named Charles. Laurie, the protagonist of the story changes his behavior, once he starts to attend kindergarten. After school he behave insolently and shares with his parents stories about his kindergarten mate Charles, who is constantly spanked by the teacher for being fresh, however is respected by other children. The parents consider that the bad behavior of their son is influenced by Charles, and look forward to go to PTA and meet Charless mother. The main topic of Charles is the sudden change of behavior of a child, who used to be very obedient to his parents. The parent problem however isnt less important in this story. Lauries parents are the one who tend to be perfect parents. They dont see that Laurie is having some crucial period in his life, and blame his behavior on bad influence of Charles. Laurie is going through some psychological changes that he couldnt control. Still having respect toward his parents he didnt dare to say, that all the bad deeds are his doings, and Charles in nothing but a foil for these sudden misbehavior. When he came home and talked about Charles in awe, he was trying to defend his current personality. Because she tried to make him color with red crayons, Charles wanted to color with green crayons so he hit the teacher and she spanked him and said nobody play with Charles but everybody did. Defending Charles he tried to defend himself. Laurie was going through dual feelings. On one hand his new behavior at kindergarten, his rebellion, that came from his inner side and the knowledge of his parents that he wanted to have, but was afraid they wont accept it. This particular thing pushed him to lie. Lauries parents tried to be loyal and show that they know their child very well. We can not blame the parents (neither Lauries, neither our) because they dont notice some changes in the behaving of their children. Their actions are reasoned by the feeling of security they try to give us. You dont know whats going on with you? What, if parents show that they too dont know whats happening. Wont they look hopeless and helpless in front of their children? A parent cant prevent the fact that he doesnt know what to do. However, in this situation, Lauries parents decided to close the eyes on the changed behavior of their child, for the sake of being the perfect parents.

This story is not the one, where you can easily point this is the bad characters and this is the good. Here we have a protagonist, but barely can we point the antagonist. Since Laurie had a duel, contradictory character, we could say that he was both the protagonist and the antagonist. On the on hand he tried not to fall from grace in front of his parents and on the other he tried to protect the Charles inside himself, giving the explanation for all his deeds. The story is surely the type that would catch my attention just based on title. Stories about kids told by their parents, who play both roles of the character and the narrator are like stories told by your grannies about the childhood of your mom or dad. Charles on the other hand, is more than an ironical story with an unusual and unexpected final, is a topic that will keep you musing upon this little kid Laurie, who lies to his parents, involuntary or conscious? No matter what the motive is there are so many variants of why would he as he did? This story reveals us the topic of parents who use to think that they know their kids well, that they know each step and action, often forgetting that the children though they are the blood and flesh of their parents, still are independent and free personalities. Finally this story, is the one with a deeper meaning and to read some analysis about it, wont be enough to appreciate its value.