"Louisa, Please Come Home" is a short story written by Shirley Jackson.
- The setting of the story is a city during the 1950s.
- Louisa's real home is in Rockville.
- She took a train to Crain, but did not stay there.
- She took a train to Chandler, where she stayed in a room in Mrs. Peacock's house.
- Louisa's real home is in Rockville.
- The characters in the story include:
- the main character, Louisa Tether, 19 years old
- The Tethers-
- Mr. Tether, Louisa's father
- Mrs. Tether, Louisa's mother
- Carol, Louisa's sister
- Paul, Louisa's neighbor
- Mrs. Peacock, the owner of the room Louisa rents
- The plot is the events that happen in the story:
- The story begins three years after Louisa has run away from home, when she hears her mother make her yearly announcement "Louisa, please come home."
- Then there is a flashback- we go back in time as Louisa tells how she ran away.
- She planned to run away on June 20th, the day before Carol's wedding. While everyone was preparing for the wedding, she walked out the door.
- Paul saw her on the way to the bus, but she lied to him and ran from him.
- She took a bus to the downtown area and then walked to the train station.
- She bought a round-trip ticket (a ticket to go to one place, and then come back) to Crain. But she was sneaky, because she never planned on coming back!
- In Crain, she bought a tan raincoat so she would look like every other girl her age.
- She then went to Chandler on a train, where she planned to stay.
- In Chandler, she bought a suitcase, stockings, and a little clock- things she could not bring with her from home, or everyone would have known she was running away!
- She changed her identity by changing her name to Lois Taylor and making up a story about saving enough money to come to Chandler. When the summer was over, she was planning to go to business school.
- She went to a drugstore to buy breakfast and a newspaper. She found an advertisement for a furnished room in a house owned by Mrs. Peacock.
- She met Mrs. Peacock and told her a made-up story:
- her mother was a widow (a widow is a woman whose husband has died- this is not true, since Louisa's father was still living)
- her sister had just been married (well, this was really true)
- she had a younger brother Paul (he was actually the neighbor, not her brother)
- Louisa started working at a stationery store.
- Louisa saw Paul on the street and yelled out to him. He recognized her and threatened her if she did not go home with him. He wanted to get reward money for bringing her home.
- Louisa and Paul went back to Rockville so Louisa could go back home.
- (The twist ending happens).
- Then the flashback ends as Louisa talks about hearing her mother on the radio on the anniversary of her running away.
- The themes of the story are "People often don't appreciate what they have until they have lost it" and "Though people might know you, they don't always see the real you."