Susan Hill I'm The King of The Castle Essay Topic #1
Gabriela Gonzalez
Mrs. Forjan
10/24/14
Kingshaw has several irrational fears (eg. the dead moths and swimming pools). How do these fears enhance your understanding of his character?
Susan Hill who studied at a college in London, which she loved, wrote the novel I'm the King of the Castle. Her style of writing is very serious and she only writes details that matter to the story. The novel takes place in the nineteenth century but nowhere is there a specific date or time mentioned in the story. I believe it takes place around the seventies because at that time the book was written and the story is told in chronological order. In the novel the character Charles Kingshaw goes with his mom Helena Kingshaw to a big house called Warnings in the English countryside for the summer. The owner of that house is Joseph Hooper and he lives with his son Edmund Hooper. As the novel develops we find out that Kingshaw has several irrational fears. Three of his fears are the crows, moths and the swimming pools. Throughout the novel these fears affect the interactions he has with Edmund Hooper and the way he acts in certain situations in the novel.
To begin with, the first fear we get to see in the novel that Kingshaw has is the crows. Kingshaw was tired of hanging around in the house and being watched by Hooper so he went for a walk. In the novel it says, "He went through the yew trees and hesitated by the copse. Great black shadows lay across the entrance, and he could not see for more than a few yards inside. Keck and stinging needles grew up as high as his chest, obscuring the...