One of Tara’s friends from town and her first “boyfriend,” though Tara struggles to behave intimately or romantically with Charles. She and Charles become close when Tara, whose beautiful voice moves Gene and many others at their church, is allowed to begin auditioning for local plays and musicals. Charles becomes important to Tara, and she nurses feelings of attractions to him—but her desire to grow closer to him is impacted by her father’s belief that Charles, and all secular people, are immoral, doomed “gentiles.” Charles is determined to be Tara’s friend and to help her understand that innocuous things such as ibuprofen and holding hands will not damn Tara or render her impure. Tara and Charles’s friendship cools when Tara shuts Charles out amidst worsening abuse at the hands of Shawn—she doesn’t want him to see what her life with her family is really like. When Charles and Tara reconnect via the internet years later, Tara learns that he works on an oil rig in Wyoming to support his wife and children. Charles remains of the belief that Tara needs to sever herself from her family in order to grow, and is amazed that she still sounds “the same as when [they] were seventeen.” Charles is empathetic, generous, and does all he can to be there for Tara. While his friendship makes her feel supported and seen, she ultimately cannot accept the kind of help he tries to give her.
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Charles Character Timeline in Educated
The timeline below shows where the character Charles appears in Educated. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 9: Perfect in His Generations
...has many friends who are. Tara is immediately entranced by the boy, whose name is Charles, and he is similarly taken with her. He tells Tara that her singing is the...
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The next night at rehearsal, Tara flirts with Charles, and he urges her to come to his school’s choir practices, even though she isn’t...
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Chapter 12: Fish Eyes
...day when she’s moving between buildings to watch her. When he sees her walking with Charles one day, he starts ignoring her phone calls until Sadie becomes desperate and promises she...
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Chapter 13: Silence in the Churches
...lot of time together at rehearsals down in town. When Shawn notices Tara talking to Charles, he reprimands her for being “that kind of girl,” and “just like the rest.” He...
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Shawn dumps Sadie and starts seeing an old girlfriend named Erin. When Charles and Sadie start going out, Shawn becomes irate. He takes Tara on a drive through...
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...screams at her for “pretend[ing] to be saintly and churchish” while secretly “pranc[ing] around with Charles like a prostitute.”
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Chapter 19: In the Beginning
...to obtain his GED. When Tara and Shawn attend a play at the local theater, Charles is there, and he asks Tara to go to the movies. She agrees. After their...
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...them. Nevertheless, that night, she puts the clothes on in preparation for her date with Charles. They go out every night that week for burgers and ice cream, but never have...
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One night, driving to his house to watch a movie, Charles—at last, for the first time—reaches for Tara’s hand. She longs to hold his hand, but...
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Chapter 20: Recitals of the Fathers
Charles is Tara’s first real, true friend from “that other world”—the world her father has been...
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Chapter 21: Skullcap
...leaves to return to BYU is a Sunday, and she decides to spend it with Charles rather than going to church. She has an earache, and Charles asks what she’s taken...
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Tara has designed her fall schedule with Charles’s help. She finds herself enjoying her music and religion classes but struggling greatly with algebra....
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...class, regardless of their previous grades. Up for the challenge, Tara goes home and calls Charles—she tells him that she is coming home for Thanksgiving and needs his help with algebra.
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Chapter 22: What We Whispered and What We Screamed
When Tara arrives back home, Mother is already cooking the Thanksgiving meal. Charles is coming for dinner—and Shawn is in a mood about it. As Tara lays out...
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Charles comes over for dinner, and Shawn continues behaving badly. He brags about his gun collection...
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Charles leaves. Several hours later, he calls Tara and asks her to meet him at church....
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...Shawn drive to the grocery store for a snack. In the parking lot, Tara spots Charles’s Jeep. Embarrassed by her filthy work clothes and dirty hair and face, Tara tells Shawn...
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Chapter 36: Four Long Arms, Whirling
...in Tara’s dorm with her. She also receives an instant message from her old friend Charles, and they briefly catch up. When she tells him that she’s still struggling with her...
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