Charles Story Analysis by

Latreche Anfel

1-Setting: (place and time)

*Place: the kitchen table at home and in kindergarten classroom.
*Time: a daily life of the character, most of it at lunch time and days of school.
*Mood: the story creates a darkly humorous atmosphere. It starts with Laurie's
mother reciting how her son has changed and then narrating Charles stories
Laurie keeps on blabbering about non-stop which sounds amusing and not out of
control at first, but later on, the humour takes a dark turn when Laurie starts
showing characteristics of Charles personality.
2-Narrator or POV:
* First point of view: Laurie's mother narrates the story from her perspective
using the pronoun I.
3-Characters:
Laurie, Charles, Laurie's mother, the father kindergarten teacher, the little sister,
the older girl, the little boy, the little girl, the boy from first grade.

Classification:
*Flat characters:
kindergarten teacher, the little sister, the older girl, the little boy, the little girl, the
boy from 1st grade.
*Dynamic character: Laurie and Charles.
*Static characters: mother and the father.
4-Plot:
The story follows a conventional plot
*Exposition:
The mother tells the reader that Laurie is no longer a toddler, and his actions has
changed.
*Rising action:
-The mother narrates Laurie's stories of Charles -Laurie being rude at home and
towards his father.
-Parents think it's the influence of Charles. -Parents curious about this child and
want to know everything about him.
-Laurie tells them every bad thing Charles makes at school.
-Charles becomes an institution in the house.
*Climax:
-The mother attends parents' meeting.
*Falling action: Laurie's Mum meets his kindergarten teacher and asks about
Charles.
*Resolution:
-Teacher tells the mother there is no Charles .
-The mum realises that Lori is Charles.
5-Conflict:
there are two types of conflict presented in the story.
* Internal conflict in which Laurie is struggling internally; his fear to tell his
parents that he is not a calm or disciplined child as they think lead him to create
another identity, Charles, to convey everything through it.
*Another internal conflict is that of Laurie's mother being very anxious and
worried that Charles is going to affect her son with his actions.
* The external conflict in the story lies between Laurie and others. Laurie's
inability to cope with his classmates and teacher in kindergarten resulted in him
acting in a bad manner and forging problems with them.

6-Theme:
The story encompasses two themes. The first one is that of parents blindness to
their children's behaviours because though the signs Laurie was showing
throughout the whole story, his parents refused to even think that it's their child
who causes problems, and instead, they directly put the blame on Charles. The
second theme is the need for attention; Laurie created Charles to tell his parents,
indirectly, about what he is doing in kindergarten in order to gain their attention.