The Charmer Response

How are people transformed through their relationships with others?

In the short story "The Charmer", the older brother Zach creates total chaos within the family. At first the family loves Zach with his charm and postive atmosphere towards the whole family, as said by Winnefred; "He was athletic, won races, amassed trophies. He got lead parts in school plays. He won class elections. And he was beautiful. His face was rugged and laughing; his body was muscular and golden, even in January. He moved with the grace of a tiger. He dazzeld. He shone". Sadly, this love never lasted. It slowly faded away to what was truly underneath this amazing person. It showed that he always has been and will be, a lazy, lying, and decieving person, who is simply living off of and taking advantage of his family. At first, no one notices or sees through these clever lies, and his parents always accept his appologies. Then one day, his parents wised up and took him up on the offer to "be no longer worthy to be called thy son" and make him " one of thy hired servants". But instead, Zach simply packed up all his stuff and left for ever. This then caused the entire family to fall into utter chaos and everyone slowly loses themselves to the pressure. With the exception to Winnifred who at the end of the story had learned how to treat her kids, and instead of simply accepting the appologie, would make her kids fix what they did wrong.

The Charmer *Now with Pictures!*

This is a picture that I found that could connect with the short story "The Charmer".

I think that this picture connects well because at a point in the story, Zachery's parents (mostly his father) yell at him. Zach then proceeds to say that he is "no longer worthy to be called thy son" and should be "one of thy hired servants" which was his usual excuse to tear up his parents and make them forgive him. This time was different though, with his dad giving him the options to live up to his words, and actually help around the house, or to just leave.Without even thinking twice, he leaves and hitches rides on trains taking him to small towns where he tries to start a new life, and (as far as we know) fails.