The Perks of Being a Wallflower

I was one of the ones who watched the movie before I read the book, and since I loved the movie so much, I decided to give the book a try. The events of the story are narrated in letters written by Charlie, the main character, to an unnamed friend. Charlie is beginning his freshman year in high school, and his best friend, Michael, committed suicide last year. This leaves Charlie friendless for the most part since all of his former friends changed and stopped hanging out with him.

At a football game, Charlie meets two seniors, Sam and Patrick, who are stepsister and stepbrother. Through them, Charlie is exposed to things such as drugs, sex, homosexuality, love, and the Rocky Horror Picture Show. Charlie spends a lot of time with Sam, Patrick, and their friends. The most important lesson Charlie learns from his friends in my opinion is love. In this small group of friends, Charlie witnesses a lot of different types of love. Early on, he falls in love with Sam, but she loves Craig, a college student who doesn't really love Sam for who she really is, instead. Patrick is homosexual, and has a secret relationship with the football quarterback, Brad, until Brad's father effectively ends it. Charlie has his first relationship with Mary Elizabeth, an opinionated senior who loves Charlie, but Charlie doesn't really love her. Seeing these different relationships really opened Charlie's eyes to the ways of the world.

Another catalyst in Charlie's life is his English teacher, Bill. Charlie showed an aptitude for English early on in the story, and Bill decided to have Charlie write essays about books that Bill would assign. Some of the books that Charlie was assigned included To Kill a Mockingbird (the first one), Catcher in the Rye, and The Fountainhead. As Charlie wrote more essays for his English teacher, I noticed that his writing style in the letters to his friend improved.

A person who really influenced Charlie's early development in his life was his Aunt Helen. Aunt Helen came to live with Charlie's family when he was a child after she was molested. Although the author doesn't state this clearly in the book, it's assumed that this is what led to Aunt Helen molesting Charlie and keeping this from his parents until she died in a car accident getting his birthday present. For years, Charlie suppressed the negative memories of his aunt, which is why she was his favorite person in the world until meeting Sam and Patrick. Later on in Charlie's life, Aunt Helen's actions would come back to the surface.

Overall, I loved The Perks of Being a Wallflower. In my opinion at least, everyone has that period where they come into their own as a person, whether it's socially, emotionally, or both. I found it very relatable, because I used to be a very reserved person until I met a group of people in middle school who were very different from people that I had normally hung out with in elementary school. Obviously not everyone has an identical experience to what Charlie's was (I sure didn't), but the overall theme of finding yourself is relatable for anyone, especially high schoolers. I recommend this book for all high school students, especially freshmen. ( )

The perks of being a wallflower by Stephen Chbosky is an amazIng book. No matter who you are, boy, girl, old, young, you can relate to this book. It makes you think. Its a story written through Charlie’s letters in his freshman year. He learns things about himself and life and you’ll learn about yourself too. He meets step siblings- Sam and Patrick and they take him under their wing. They take him to parties, show him music, and make him realize, even if you think they would be happier without you, they’re not. It’s a really meaningful book and i think everyone should read it.

Q5P4

This book is very sweet, sensitive and well written. The story is a first-person POV and the character is someone who seems like an A-Typical narrator. He seems like he may have some form of Autism or emotional delay, and the story tone is very much like that of "The Curious Incident of the Dog in Nighttime. " This book will appeal to kids who are looking for a narrator who isn't very classically cool- someone who, like the title implies, is more of a Wallflower. I personally liked that the main character is a boy who admittedly cries a lot and describes himself as overly emotional- this can help deconstruct stigma around boys having and displaying emotions. ( )

If I had read The Perks of Being a Wallflower in the midst of my high school years, I would have likely adored it and adopted it as my bible. Chbosky presents several universal hardships for American teens--finding friends, pursuing first romantic relationships, and trying to fit in--and makes them seem domitable. With a few years post-high school under my belt, though, I found this book to be rather inauthentic.

My biggest issue arises with the narrator, Charlie, a freshman boy who lacks basic social skills and a single iota of intelligence. Written in an epistolary format, The Perks of Being a Wallflower allows the reader to feel closer to Charlie, however, since Charlie's writing is so abecedarian I could not believe his voice, the epistolary format removed me from the story. At times I laughed at how unrealistic a narrator Charlie was. Despite being 15 and the youngest child of three, Charlie had no idea how the world worked. Now I once was an overprotected, oldest child with zero teenage savoir, but even I knew about pot brownies, sex, and dating. No 15 year old kid who watches movies, has two older siblings, and goes to public school lacks the type of basic knowledge Charlie lacks. Chbosky clearly either misremembers or (fallaciously and harmfully) misrepresents the high school experience (because this book was intended to read as very realistic contemporary fiction). Charlie's incredible naivete, though aggravating and unrealistic, gave me many laughs, especially in an early scene where he gets high. For those who have finished the book who may find my assessment inconsiderate considering the discovery that Charlie was messed up from being molested as a boy, I would say that it does not matter. Although this incident likely would have affected his development, he forgot about it and lived his life as a normal kid, meaning he would at least have the knowledge possessed by a normal kid.

Similar to Charlie's inauthenticity is the plot's inauthenticity. I typically stray away from contemporary YA novels because they read too much like "issue" books. My favorite contemporary YA depicts everyday, realistic events that I know would not have been crazily out of place if they happened to me as a teen. The Perks of Being a Wallflower does not fit into this type of contemporary YA. What happens in this novel is so removed from my realm of experience and that of my high school peers that I simply find it over the top. I went to a school rather like Charlie's and grew up in a family like Charlie's. The things that happen in the course of a year for Charlie and his family and friends are nothing that happened to me, my family, and friends in a seemingly similar situation. Inside this tiny book, there is marijuana, LSD, alcohol, hidden homosexual hook ups, sex, abortion, molestation, domestic violence, tragic car accidents, and many more "hot topics". Seriously, most teens don't live like this (unless I somehow lived under a rock without knowing it). Sure, there's drinking and sex and occasional drug use, but for all this to occur around the same unremarkable boy??? It's just ridiculous if Chbosky expects us to believe that! At one point during the novel, I thought, "the only issue left to include is an HIV positive diagnosis, and with 50 pages left in the book, it is not infeasible." Alas, there was no HIV, but it would not have surprised me one bit if there were because EVERYTHING else happened.

In conclusion, I enjoyed The Perks of Being a Wallflower. It is a short read, and there are some important ideas here. But Chbosky seemed to be aiming for the ultimate depiction of American teenagehood, and in that effort, he falls woefully short.

Below are some of my favorite quotes:
Nice deconstruction of the MPDG "I just think it's bad when a boy looks at a girl and thinks that the way he sees the girl is better than the girl actually is."

I like his assessment of what is considered a good movie (or good book, good music, etc): "The movie itself was very interesting, but I didn't think it was very good because I didn't really feel different when it was over."

The ultimate theme of the novel: "I was crying because I was suddenly very aware of the fact that it was me standing up in that tunnel with the wind over my face. Not caring if I saw downtown. Not even thinking about it. Because I was standing in the tunnel. And I was really there. And that was enough to make me feel infinite."
( )

I've heard wonderful things about this book. Lots of people have raved about it. I found I liked it well enough but it wasn't anything phenomenal. I thought there was a little too much in the book for one year of high school; it had every teenage issue present: drugs, sex, pregnancy, homosexuality, depression, suicide, bullying, abusive relationships, etc. I ended up being halfway invested in the characters; never made it fully to totally invested. I am excited to find the movie and watch it after reading this, just to see how it differed from a different perspective. This format was letters; maybe it could have come off more powerful if it had been written as a first person or third person perspective? Who knows. It was an 'ehh' book for me. ( )