How did Laurie change when he started kindergarten, according to the narrator?
At the beginning of the story, Laurie's mother mentions that the day her son attended his first day of kindergarten was the day he changed from being her sweet-voiced tot to a confident, swaggering little boy. As Laurie's mother sends her son off to school, he renounces his corduroy overalls with bibs in favor of wearing blue jeans with a belt.
In addition to his appearance and clothing, Laurie's character also changes. As he heads to school with the older neighbor girl, Laurie forgets to turn around at the corner and wave goodbye to his mother.
Laurie's mother also mentions that he came home the same way, by slamming open the front door and raising his voice. During dinner, Laurie speaks insolently to his father, takes a cookie without permission, and excuses himself from the table. As the story progresses, Laurie becomes increasingly disrespectful to his parents and refuses to...
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comply with their rules.
Overall, Laurie changes into an independent, confident little boy who behaves disrespectfully and acts arrogantly once he starts kindergarten, which is a dramatic change from his former sweet-voiced, innocent personality.
When Shirley Jackson's "Charles" begins, the narrator's son Laurie is "my sweet-voiced nursery-school tot" (Jackson 1). Even as he turns the corner on his way to school, he begins his transformation to a "swaggering character" (1). From a sweet and compliant child, he morphs into a noisy and rude character who slams the door, speaks to his father "insolently" (1) and loses his ability to speak proper English, now saying "I didn't learn nothing" (1).
Laurie begins to come home with stories of Charles, a classmate he says gets in trouble all the time. He has hit the teacher, yells during story time, injures a little girl on the playground, and makes so much noise that he disrupts other classes. After some time passes, Laurie reports Charles has settled down and is rewarded for better behavior. He has a few lapses, and then seems to settle in well.
After weeks of Laurie reporting on Charles's bad behavior to his parents, his mother, who has missed the parent-teacher conference, attends the PTA meeting, hoping to hear about Charles. This is when she learns from Laurie's teacher that there is no Charles in Laurie's class. She also learns Laurie had a difficult time adjusting to school, but seems to be doing better now.
Laurie's transformation in school is from sweet toddler to his new alter ego, Charles. Charles is the vehicle by which Laurie reports to his parents his own bad behavior, or at the very least, behavior he wished to engage in while in school. Once he acclimates to school, Laurie reports Charles is behaving better, too. School is truly a transformational process, but it is often a bumpy road!
What changes does Laurie's mother notice in him on his first day of kindergarten?
Laurie's mother notices that her son becomes bolder. Laurie is no longer the timid "sweet-voiced nursery-school tot" of a year ago. In his place is a loud and often brash character whom Laurie's mother does not recognize.
At the end of the first day of kindergarten, Laurie slams the front door after entering the house. Then, he loudly asks whether anyone is home. At lunch, Laurie speaks rudely to his father and spills his baby sister's milk. In short, Laurie seems to have morphed overnight into a loud, sarcastic character who delights in shocking his parents.
Laurie's mother notices that her son particularly likes talking about Charles, a seemingly recalcitrant classmate. During their conversations, Laurie blames Charles for every disruption endured by his kindergarten class. To Laurie, Charles is a larger-than-life character. He never needs to wear a jacket, and he even has the temerity to kick the teacher's friend.
It is only when Laurie's mother attends the P.T.A. meeting that she makes an important discovery: there is no Charles in Laurie's classroom. This means that Charles is Laurie's alter ego; he is a character crafted to help him navigate the strange new world of kindergarten.
On the day that Laurie starts kindergarten, his mother notices a lot of big changes in her son. First of all, Laurie exhibits physical changes; this is shown by the way he dresses. He is no longer interested in wearing "corduroy overalls," for example, and instead chooses jeans and a belt.
In addition, his demeanor changes. Laurie's mother describes him as "swaggering," for instance, a word which suggests confidence and maturity.
We can also see changes in Laurie's relationship with his mother. Instead of being accompanied by her, Laurie goes to kindergarten in the company of an older child. He also forgets to say goodbye to his mother.
On Laurie's first day, then, he experiences a number of changes which suggest that he is quickly maturing from a dependent infant to a very confident child.
In "Charles" by Shirley Jackson, the narrator, Laurie's mother, notices some changes in her son on the first day of school. He seems much more grown up than the little boy he was just the day before. No longer does he wear his "little boy clothes," but he's dressed, ready to go to school like all of the other children.
"He started wearing blue jeans with a belt. I watched him go off that first morning with the older girl next door. He looked as though he were going off to a fight." (Jackson 1)
Maybe that last thought should have been a clue to Laurie's mom that school was going to be a challenge for her little boy. Day after day, Laurie came home with stories about a mischievous boy named Charles, who was always getting into some kind of trouble. Of course, we eventually find out that Laurie IS Charles, and that when he left that first day for kindergarten, he really was "going off to a fight"!