Charles By Shirley Jackson Summary

The short story, “Charles” is written by Shirley Jackson. The main character, Laurie is a little boy who starts his first year of school. On the first day of school, Laurie changes his dress style and forgets to wave his mom goodbye while leaving for school. After he comes back from school, his parents inquire about what he learnt and how is day was. Laurie then talks about a boy named Charles who is in his class and is spanked by his teacher for being fresh. His parents get interested about Charles. Laurie starts behaving badly to his father and mother. Each day, he comes from school and tells how badly Charles behaved and the punishment he received. One day Charles hits his teacher because she asked him to use red crayons while he wanted to use green. Other day he hits a girl against seesawy who starts bleeding. Charles is spanked for hitting his teacher, misses recess and is asked to stay after school. By now, Charles has become an institution at Laurie’s home. Whenever someone behaves bad, that person is called “Charles.” Laurie 's parents think that Charles is a bad influence and wants to meet Charles’ parents. They decide to do that during the PTA meeting. During the first PTA meeting, Laurie’s baby brother falls sick and they have to skip it. One day, Laurie comes home and tells his parents that Charles did something good. He has become a helper for the teacher. But in a few days, he starts to do bad things again. He makes a girl say bad words and himself says the