Question

However, instead of meeting Charles’s mother at the back-to-school night, Laurie’s teacher tells his mom that they “don’t have a Charles in the class” (Jackson 3).


how does them treating it as a joke and lightly surprise them

Answer 1

The teacher’s offhand, joking line (“we don’t have a Charles in the class”) works on a few levels:

- Tone and surprise: Saying it as a joke makes the revelation feel light and casual rather than accusatory, so the mother — and the reader — are caught off guard. We expect a teacher to confirm a troublemaker; instead she deflates the whole idea with a wry, matter-of-fact comment. That small, amused surprise contrasts sharply with the mother’s earlier alarm about Laurie’s stories.

- Irony and reversal: The joking delivery intensifies the twist. Because the teacher treats “Charles” as a non-entity, the mother’s vivid, anxious accounts suddenly look naive or foolish. The humor makes the reversal sting more: what had been presented as concrete misbehavior now seems invented.

- Character and theme: The teacher’s light tone highlights parental blindness and self-deception. Jackson uses the joking remark to expose how quickly the mother has accepted a simple narrative (her son vs. “Charles”) and to underline how easily adults can be misled by a child’s performance. The casualness of the teacher’s response also makes the final revelation about Laurie more disturbing — it’s delivered without melodrama, which sharpens the story’s ironic bite.