Shirley Jackson's Short Story 'Charles'

Words: 322
Pages: 2

Shirley Jackson’s short story “Charles” is about the mother of a little boy named Laurie who is starting kindergarten and creates a fake person ,Charles, to cover up what he’s done at school. One lesson in the story is that if you love someone enough then that love for them can blind you from the truth. Even in the beginning Laurie has lied to his mom and she bought it to the point that she even thought as conferences were coming up “I wanted passionately to meet Charles’ mother”. This line is significant because it shows that she is truly believing that there is actually a Charles in the kindergarten by trying to meet “his” mother.
During the story you see Laurie start to act differently, behavior wise any, like his mother say “All this