's narrator in
"" is apparently a deluded mother. Her thinking that her child has transformed on the
day he goes off to school, before ever entering the kindergarten classroom, is unfounded at
best.
According to the mother, who narrates, on the first day of school, her
"sweet-voiced" tot suddenly transform into a "long-trousered, swaggering
character" who walks with an older girl and forgets to turn and wave goodbye to his mother.
Then, in the afternoon, he returns and announces his arrival by flinging open the front door.
Curiously, the mother never scolds her son when he exhibits inappropriate behavior. The father
makes a feeble attempt at disciplining Laurie but does not follow through with sufficient
parental effort when the boy ignores him. For instance, after Laurie tells his parents that a
boy named Charles was rude at school, and the teacher spanked him and ordered him to stand in a
corner, he takes a cookie and walks off despite the fact that his father is telling him to stay
put.
Ironically, the mother narrates that "Charles was an institution in
our family." She adds, "Laurie did a Charles when he filled his wagon full of mud and
pulled it through the kitchen." The husband is equally obtuse as he comments about
something Laurie has done, describing it with the words "[L]ooks like
Charles."
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