The Misbehaviors of “Charles”

By Alec Rodriguez

In the story “Charles,” by Shirley Jackson, a kindergartener is nervous about starting school and
misbehaves. The main character, Laurie, comes home each day, from school, informing his parents
about the mischievous behaviors of a fellow student, named Charles. However, as the story progresses,
it shows how many actions Laurie and Charles have in common. One wonders why Laurie’s parents
didn’t catch on earlier, in the story, that he was Charles at school.

At home, Laurie’s behavior started to become rude and disrespectful. Once, for example,
instead of addressing his father politely, he called to him with the blunt phrase, “Hi, Pop, y’old dust
mop.” Another time, he rudely told his father to “Look up…Look down…Look at my thumb. Gee, you’re
dumb.” These behaviors show that Laurie was acting similarly to Charles, at school, and this helps
support the claim that they are one and the same. In addition, when Charles “told a little girl to say a
word and the teacher washed her mouth out with soap and Charles laughed,” Laurie also repeated the
word to his father with great joy. This shows that both Laurie and “Charles” enjoy breaking the rules and
being naughty.

Like Laurie’s misbehavior at home, Charles acted badly at school. Once, he “wanted to color
with green crayons [instead of red] so he hit the teacher.” In addition, Charles “Kicked the teacher’s
friend… [when he] …told Charles to touch his toes.” These actions show Charles having a similar
antagonistic attitude as Laurie does toward adults. Also, whenever Charles stayed after school, Laurie
did the same, which should have made his parents skeptical. They should have questioned why he
would stay late if he hadn’t gotten in trouble.

With all the evidence, Laurie’s parents should have figured out that “Charles” was, in fact,
nothing more than a figment of Laurie’s imagination. In addition, that meant that all of “Charles’”
actions were really Laurie’s behaviors, at school. This shows how important it is that parents pay
attention to their own children more then their children’s peers. However, when his parents finally did
figure out the truth, they surely would have gotten angry with Laurie, but they probably also were
asking themselves why they didn’t catch the truth earlier on.