In the
opening paragraph of the short story "," Jackson utilizes
by writing,
"The day my
son Laurie started kindergarten he renounced corduroy overalls with bibs and began wearing blue
jeans with a belt..." (1).
Imagery uses words to
captivate the reader's senses and allows the audience to create a mental picture of the events
taking place in the narrative. Jackson's use of imagery conjures the mental picture of a
confident young boy, strutting around in blue jeans and acting like he is grown.
Jackson also utilizes by portraying a mother who believes
that there is a disobedient boy in Laurie's class, threatening his education and acting as a bad
influence on her son. The irony takes place at the end of the story when Laurie's mother
discovers that Charles is actually Laurie's alias.
Jackson also utilizes a
, which is when an author portrays a person, place, or thing as
being something else and makes an implicit or hidden comparison between two seemingly different
things. Jackson uses Charles as a metaphor by writing,
"With the third week of kindergarten Charles was an institution in our family; the
baby was being a Charles when she cried all afternoon; Laurie did a Charles when he filled his
wagon full of mud and pulled it through the kitchen..." (3).
In Laurie's household, Charles has become a metaphor for
any disobedient or disruptive behavior, which Laurie continually compares to his unruly alias.
When the baby is crying, Laurie calls her a Charles, which is another way of identifying her
disruptive, annoying behavior.
Jackson also utilizes
repetition throughout the story by continually repeating the name
"Charles." Through repetition, Jackson creates a leitmotif and underscores the
significant effect Charles has had on Laurie's family.
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