How did your knowledge affect your enjoyment of the story?

While I am very familiar with Shirley Jackson's work, when
reading "Charles" I was completely thrown off guard. While I certainly should have
expected something to be brewing under the surface, I was completely at ease when
reading.

Curiously, while your question was posed a while
ago, I found it very intriguing. Why was I so relaxed when reading the
story?

After some thought, I decided that the story simply
seemed too familiar to me. I have heard about children acting up when first beginning
school. I found no threat that the story would end up being so twisted and surprising.
The fact that Laurie, the boy with a girl's name, created a very masculine alter ego
simply made sense after reading the story. I simply did not read into it until after
finishing.

Therefore, while very familiar with Jackson's
texts, the story (unlike other works of hers) put me at ease. Too much at ease for the
end. Therefore, it was not really my knowledge which helped me enjoy the story. Jackson
simply put me too at ease for me to suspect anything. In reality, I should have known
better.