Shirley Jackson's classic short story "Charles" first appeared in Mademoiselle in 1948 and contains many examples of foreshadowing.
The story is told in the first person point of view of the mother of a boy named Laurie, who is just beginning kindergarten. Laurie comes home from kindergarten every day with stories of the awful things his classmate, Charles, has done. His parents are appalled by the influence of Charles and worry that it will affect Laurie negatively. The irony is that at the end of the story, Laurie's parents discover there is no boy named Charles in Laurie's kindergarten class. A close look at the foreshadowing in this story reveals that Charles was invented by Laurie as a scapegoat for his own heinous actions.
The first example of foreshadowing is the manner in which Laurie returns from his first day of kindergarten. Jackson describes the scene when Laurie comes home from his first day of kindergarten, slams the door, throws his cap on the floor, and shouts "Isn't anybody here?" Laurie proceeds to speak rudely to his father and spill his sister's milk. This suggests that Laurie has changed from the sweet preschooler his mother describes in the first paragraph.
The next example of foreshadowing is when Laurie, after telling the story of Charles' spanking, slides off his chair, takes a cookie and walks off when his father is still talking to him.
Another example of foreshadowing occurs when Laurie comes home with another story about Charles and tell his father: "Look up....look down, look at my thumb, gee you're dumb." He then laughs "insanely."
After this, Laurie once again comes home with a story about Charles and says to his father "Hi, Pop, y'old dust mop." By this time, Laurie's parents are so involved in the stories about Charles they appear not to notice the insolent behavior of their son.
When the mother describes a confusing positive change in Charles' behavior, the father tells her to wait and see if there is really a change, saying "When you've got a Charles to deal with, this may mean he's only plotting." This foreshadows the pinnacle of Charles' deviant behavior, who tells a girl to say a naughty word, and a few days later, says the naughty word in class himself.
Monday, April 20, 2015
What are some examples of foreshadowing in the story "Charles"?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Summarize the major research findings of "Toward an experimental ecology of human development."
Based on findings of prior research, the author, Bronfenbrenner proposes that methods for natural observation research have been applied in ...
-
The Awakening is told from a third-person omniscient point of view. It is tempting to say that it is limited omniscient because the narrator...
-
Roger is referred to as the "dark boy." He is a natural sadist who becomes the "official" torturer and executioner of Ja...
-
One way to support this thesis is to explain how these great men changed the world. Indeed, Alexander the Great (356–323 BC) was the quintes...
-
After the inciting incident, where Daniel meets his childhood acquaintance Joel in the mountains outside the village, the rising action begi...
-
The major difference that presented itself between American and British Romantic works was their treatment of the nation and its history. Th...
-
The Southern economy was heavily dependent upon slave labor. The Southern economy was agrarian; agriculture was its lifeblood, and being abl...
-
The first step in answering the question is to note that it conflates two different issues, sensation-seeking behavior and risk. One good ap...
No comments:
Post a Comment