A recognize American novelist and short story writer, Shirley Jackson, who is the author

of over 200 short stories, is well known for writing stories in the genres of horror,
mystery and supernatural events. But alongside that, she also created an exception
Charles a humorous story published in 1948.

Jackson tells us in the short story about a little kid named Laurie how his behavior
changed since the first day he goes to kindergarten and tells his parents about the
mischief of a naughty classmate named Charles. His mother is worried about the
influence of Charles over her innocent son and even her family. So she wants to talk with
Charles’ mother at the PTA. She meets Laurie‘s teacher and finds out that his son was the
real Charles.

“Charles” is a short story that hooks you from the beginning. It shows us how hard and
difficult it is for a kid to adapt in a new stage of life. The example of Laurie’s lies remind
us that most of the children like to brag about their mischief. It is interesting to notice
that at some point of the story there are some foreshadowing clues that makes us
imagine that maybe Laurie is the famous Charles of his anecdotes. And at the same time,
the denouement ends up being ironic when the mother finds out the truth. However,
due to the fact that “Charles” is the exception from the other horror stories that Jackson
writes, in this one the author maintains a humoristic tone throughout the story,
sometimes using euphemism to describe Charles e.g.: When the teacher says: “We had a
little trouble adjusting…”. And there is also a symbolism in the bad actions that Laurie
starts to do at home since the first day of kindergarten, because it represents his other
identity, the naughty one.

I find that the language used by the author is precise to capture the reader's attention.
and it seems that it’s not difficult to achieve that goal because what the author narrates
in the story is based on real situations that help the reader to identify with these
common family problems. And as a consequence the reader wants to know the end of
the story, “Who was Charles?”, etc., I really enjoy the way Jackson develops the ending
and leaves it open to the reader's deduction.

On the whole, “Charles” fulfills the characteristic of being a humorous story…