8th Grade Book Club
• Who: All 8th graders
• Where: Library
• When: Friday, October
1st during lunch
• What: discuss the book
& eat a free lunch!
Charles
by Shirley Jackson
Charles
Insolently
Renounced
Raucous
Incredulously
Cynically
Laurie
Kindergarten
Shocked
Teacher
Charles
Hit
Behavior
Bad words
Exercises
PTA Meeting
Kicked
Insolently– (adv.) rude or disrespectful
Incredulously (adj.)- unbelievable, doubtful
Renounced (v.)-- to give up
Raucous- (adj.) rowdy, disorderly
Cynically (adj.) characteristic of a cynic—
distrusting other people
*Who is Charles?
Irony
• A difference between what is expected and what
actually happens.
– When Laurie’s mother attends the PTA Meeting, she is
expecting to meet Charles’s mother. When the teacher says
they don’t have a Charles in kindergarten, this is ironic
because she doesn’t expect that her son has been bad.
– The flowers were blossoming profusely and the grass is
richly green. This is ironic because no one would expect
something awful to happen on a day like this! This imagery
sets the reader up to expect happy events.
– Usually winning a lottery would be amazing, but in Shirley
Jackson’s story, the person chosen is killed.
Foreshadowing
• A literary technique used by authors to
provide clues/hints for the reader to predict
what might occur later on in the text.
– This makes reading more fun and keeps us
engaged and interested.
• The Lottery-Tessie arrives late and she is the
one to die.
• Charles- Laurie acts insolently toward his
father which makes us wonder if it is him that
is acting up at school.
Point-of-View
• The perspective from which the story is told.
– First Person Point of View- A character in the story
is telling it from his or her perspective.
• Look for I, we, me, us
– Third Person Point of View- the narrator does not
participate in the events of the story, but we learn
about how they feel from their descriptions.
• Look for she, he, they.
What is the Point of View?
• Soon the men began to gather, surveying their
own children, speaking of planting and rain,
tractors, and taxes. They stood together, away
from the pile of stones in the corner, and their
jokes were quiet and they smiled rather than
laughed.
• The day my son Laurie started kindergarten he
renounced corduroy overalls with bibs and began
wearing blue jeans with a belt; I watched him go
off the first morning with the older girl next
door…
Charles & The Lottery
• Charles is told from the first-person point of view of Laurie’s
mother. It is through her eyes that the story unfolds; we learn
information only as Laurie’s mother learns it. How does the point
of view from which “Charles” is told contribute to the surprise
ending? How would “Charles” be different if it were told from
Laurie’s point of view?
• Why did Shirley Jackson write “The Lottery” in 3rd person point of
view? Does the narrator seem detached? Why or Why not?
• Identify several examples of foreshadowing from “Charles” and
“The Lottery”. Why do you suppose Shirley Jackson chose to hide
these clues? How does this contribute to the surprise endings?
• Identify examples of irony from “Charles” and “The Lottery”. Why
do you suppose Shirley Jackson included these “surprises” for us?
Is this one reason these stories are so memorable?