Analysis of the Perks of Being a Wallflower

Despite the amount of traumatising murders Charlie comes across, he is determined to understand people that are different from himself, providing him with a sympathetic and compassionate personality. Charlie's efforts to understand the minds of others does not go to waste as he successfully learns in-depth details about Jack Lionel "I don't know who this man is, but he didn't kill anybody. I've done everything wrong. Mad Jack Lionel isn't a criminal. He's probably not even mad. He's just old and sad and poor and lonely" (Charlie Bucktin p234). Through the sympathetic side of Charlie, a softer and more vulnerable component has been added to the novel, expressing Charlie's curiosity towards understanding Jack. A transition between Charlie regarding someone as dangerous and cruel compared to a harmless and nostalgic man is clear throughout chapter seven of the novel as Charlie begins to develop a further and deeper understanding of Jack's personality traits and motives. Instinct is a powerful aspect of the novel as it begins to delve into the innocence of the mind of Charlie when he originally assumes the worst of Jack before having a moment of realisation where Jack is no longer the criminal but instead a lonely, old man. After evaluating the multiple aesthetic features that constructed this particular novel, the innocence, understanding and sympathetic components are highlighted and contributed to the description of Charlie as a typical

Charlie’s friendship with Jasper Jones, his parents, and witnessing the intolerance of Corrigan are the three biggest factors in Charlie's development from innocence to experience. Jasper Jones exposed him to fear and forced him to be brave and face his fears, the rampant intolerance in Corrigan, both racial and otherwise, exposed him to the injustices of the real world, and his relationship with his parents taught him to be diplomatic and control his

The relation between the two motifs are almost nonplussing, Charlie’s determination to never understand what could lead someone to suicide seems to be exactly what draws him to grasp that concept; and in the epilogue of the story, one of the very last lines is, “please believe that things are good with me, and even when they’re not, they will be soon enough,” at this point he’s finally grown enough to be okay with the fact that he not always going to be okay. That his understanding of depression has helped his growth, and vice versa, so much so that Michael is no longer an avoided reference point, but learned-from memory.

Charlie is very far from what most people call normal: he is shy, introverted, awkward, independent, paranoid, confused, respectable and kind; showing many examples of this throughout the book. He keeps to himself for the most part and is constantly in his own head. Aside from the many negative traits he also has many attributes: he is a loyal friend and listens to the people he talks to, he is a caring person and comforts those in need. However he has his flaws as well: Charlie can get very angry and upset at others which causes him to lash out with violence or sadness, he is extremely sensitive, crying frequently and constantly questioning himself. Several of his peers labeled him as nerd or a weirdo, which damaged

The character of Charlie (being the protagonist) is who the readers are directly linked too, as we are taken on a journey with him through his actions, feeling, ideas and perspectives. His journey also includes his maturation/ coming of age as he does not escape from his issues and problems however he faces them head on. “I have no idea where we’re going. The further we move, the keener my apprehension grows. Still, there is something emboldening about being awake when the rest of the world is sleeping. Like I know something they don’t.” The passage has shifted from the description of late-night Corrigan to the thoughts/feeling of Charlie. He has been called to a mysterious place by a peculiar figure called Jasper Jones. As they travel further and further away from Corrigan the more Charlie’s worry and doubt comes to him about where they are travelling, what they might be doing and why did Japer choose him over everyone else? The readers are unaware of why Charlie is following Jasper blindly and so is Charlie. This is a stage in the narrative where Charlie’s progression as a character starts. The mood is created here from the events that are happening and from the readers attachment to the protagonist. The thoughts of the characters are reflected as the feeling from the readers. In some ways we already understand what might happen based on different reading from

This entire book highlights both the high and low points in Charlie’s life, and how he changed and has not changed all from his constant value of friendship to his many realizations, based on the one experimental surgery that gave him insight on what life would be like if he was “normal”.

To escape the daily struggles and to cope with how his life is going, Charlie begins smoking outside of his friend group. His sister catches him smoking and is amazed because of how innocent he seemed. This ignorance on her behalf just shows how much Charlie is changing for the worse. After numerous times of smoking, he starts going to parties and getting high. Most readers would expect him to react different to these situations but he welcomes them and makes small notes about other people at the parties. At one of his last parties, he’s on LSD and this just brought his whole emotional well-being to the ground. Even when he’s not under the influence of drugs, he’s still disconnected from what’s going on around him. By the end of the book, Charlie is stealing liquor from his parents and drinking it excessively to escape the realities of the

     The book also focuses on Charlie’s home life. Charlie has two siblings that make him feel invisible. There’s a hidden resentment in the tone that is used by Charlie to explain his sister and brother. But by the end they have managed to form a certain bond that Charlie has always wanted.

At the beginning, Charlie is without friends and is rather alone. He is very gifted and quite an overthinker which expels him from the usual teenage social groups. This changes, however, when he meets Sam and Patrick at a football game. They expose him to all new experiences. Resulting from his new friendships, is his relationship with Mary Elizabeth, his experimentations with drugs, and new knowledge of being a person. During this time, he is increasingly happy because Charlie was finally living.

Charlie Kelmeckis is described as a “wallflower.” He is socially awkward and likes to keep to himself. He also really enjoys reading and writing. Charlie cares deeply for others, but has a lot of guilt about past events. For example, Charlie believes that the death of his Aunt Helen is his fault, because she was killed in a car accident on an errand to get Charlie a birthday gift. Charlie has Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, Anxiety, and Depression. His mental instability was mostly caused by being sexually abused by his Aunt Helen before the age of seven. Charlie experiences flashbacks of his Aunt over the course of the movie, but all are portrayed in a positive light.

I absolutely adored Stephen Chbosky's (Beauty and the Beast, Allegiant) ‘The Perks of Being a Wallflower’ for its captivating and emotionally driven storyline that will intensely connect with all. The movie is filled with teen angst and struggles we can all relate to and discusses topics our society shuns from. This is captivating to an audience and makes them think about mental health and trauma in a way they haven’t before.

Fear strikes in his eyes, but he seems more courageous than in the fifty years he has existed. Charlie always looked paranoid, like he was waiting for something terrible to happen. Charlie spent his days attempting to become the man he always desired to be. He wanted to be brave, he wanted to be strong, but he never saw himself as these traits. Everyone in town was aware that Charlie and Beau had constant feuds, but it was unexpected that Beau was found dead and covered in blood.

He feels lonely, blames himself for his aunt’s death, abuses substances at parties, and has thoughts of suicide. Before he returns to the mental hospital, the camera shows him reaching for a knife. This moment suggests he would have committed suicide if his sister had not sent the police to his house. His depression could have been caused from his PTSD and feelings of loneliness. He was lonely on the first day of highschool because his best friend had also committed suicide the May before. He even describes to his new friends, “I didn’t think that anyone noticed me” (Perks of Being a Wallflower). He describes himself as “getting bad again” when his best friend dies, when he has not seen his friends for two weeks, and when his friend group leaves for college. These are all times when he may have been feeling lonely. He reveals his PTSD and depression through his relationships as well. Charlie is close to his family and reveals he has not spoken to anyone outside his family since the school year, but he meets seniors who help him find his way. He is loving, caring, and thankful for his friends and is sad when they leave, and he even stands up for them after they had asked Charlie to stay

The Perks of Being a Wallflower is a novel about coming of age that is seen through the perspective of Charlie, a young ‘wallflower’ that is starting high school and experiences the troublesome teenage life filled with drugs, sexuality and love. Charlie writes this book in a series of letters to an anonymous person. Charlie is the main protagonist of the story who is apprehensive and a kind-hearted boy however he has many problems happening in his life that he doesn’t like to concern others with “I just don’t want you to worry about me, or think you’ve met me, or waste your time anymore”. I admire Charlie because he is very considerate of others and although he is shy he overcomes this fear when he tries to find friends and step out of his comfort zone” Normally I am very shy, but (Patrick) seemed like the kind of guy you could just walk up to at a football game even though you were three years younger and not popular”. In return Charlie is rewarded with his first real friend at high school. I also admire Charlie for his mature attitude towards finding new friends and moving on from the death of his friend Michael. Charlie really needed to start interacting more with people, during the story we find out that Charlie misses having a friend and that being alone can be difficult and cause negative effects “It would be very nice to have a friend again. I would like that even more than a date”. I think

2. How does Charlie change through the course of the novel? How different is he from the person he is at the beginning of the novel to how he is at the end? Do you consider the novel’s ending to be tragic or inspiring? How so?