In Shirley Jackson's short story "Charles," Laurie's mother is the first-person narrator, who tells the story of her son's eventful first year of kindergarten in retrospect. In the story, Laurie's mother describes her son's changing behavior as he develops into a disobedient child, who continually talks about one of his classmates named Charles. According to Laurie, Charles is an extremely disruptive, disrespectful child who continually gets into trouble and upsets the teacher. Laurie's stories about Charles worry his mother and she desperately wishes to meet the child's mother. At the end of the story, Laurie's mother has a meeting with the teacher and discovers that there is nobody named Charles in her son's class, which means that the child is Laurie's alias and he has been narrating his daily transgressions. By making Laurie's mother the first-person narrator, Jackson is able to withhold information regarding Charles's identity and surprise the reader. If Laurie were the narrator, the audience would know that he is fooling his mother and that Charles is his alias. Also, there would be no surprise ending and significantly diminish the story's appeal.