The movie begins with a boy named Charlie, a new coming freshman to high school with burdens from the past, but is just trying to live through it. Charlie is shy, he does not open up to people easily, but as took the courage to befriend with Patrick, he quickly starts to fit in with Patrick’s friend group, the “Misfit toys”. As Charlie spends time with his soon to graduate friends, he discovers the excitement and joy of being in high school and falling in love for the first time. But as drama stirs up, Charlies struggles through finding where he belongs and past memories and events are brought to surface. Charlie is introverted; according to the Five-Factor Model, he would score low on the Extroversion category because he is a loner, prefers being alone rather in social groups; he is quiet, he does not like to participate in answering questions in class even though he knew all the answers; he is reserved, he does not drink or party like his other …show more content…
Erik Erikson’s eight stages of psychosocial development of identity versus role confusion explains the position that Charlie is in. In the beginning of the movie, Charlie is this shy, introverted boy, but as he meet new friends, he starts to open up to them and becoming more comfortable in social situations, he has developed a change of who he is. Charlie even stood up for Patrick by punching the two boys, which is something that is very out of the ordinary, and not like what the old Charlie would do. Charlie has been terrified ever since the cafeteria incident, and wonders what kind of person he is. As Charlie turn to Sam for comfort, he develops a sense of connectedness and intimacy with her--intimacy versus isolation. Charlie confides with Sam and asks her if what he did was wrong, and Sam told Charlie that he is a hero for saving Patrick, but Charlie still feels somewhat disrupted from his blackout
Also Charlie is one of the most menial kids around he would never go with Jasper if he didn’t have courage. All of the choices Charlie makes impact his life in some way for example; if he didn’t go with Jasper his life would be normal, but because of one simple decision his life changed forever with the fact that he hid a body hovering over him at all times.
The relationship with charlie and how he treats him as a person and how he helps him get through tough times is important because it shows he is always there for him. One supporting quote is. “I saw Patrick. The best thing about Patrick is that even when you’re in a hospital, he doesn’t change. He just cracks jokes to make you feel better instead of asking you questions about feeling worse" (Chbosky, August 23, 1992). That shows that Patrick cares because It shows that he is always there for Charlie and that Patrick wants Charlie to feel better. The second supporting quote is. “You see things. You keep quiet about them. And you understand.” Patrick can trust Charlie and how there relationship is growing to be able to tell each other thinks and secrets about themselves. Patrick
It follows a girl named Sam on her 16 birthday. The first major event in the movie is that Sam’s parents are so focused on her sisters upcoming wedding that they forget about Sam’s birthday. It then moves to the school setting where we meet the awkward geek, who they call Geek, and the hot jock, named Jake Ryan, who Sam is secretly in love with. Next comes the school dance, where Sam is faced with many different scenarios and obstacles throughout the night. She is faced with the fact that only the geek wants to dance with her and the boy she is in love with is dancing with the pretty popular girl. She is also faced with being propositioned into sex during the dance by the geek. There is a party everyone attends after the event and everyone is drinking and the geek tells Jake that Sam is in love with him. The show ends at Sam’s sisters wedding where Jake shows up to confess his love towards Sam’s and finally has a cake with 16 candles for her to blow out ending the
As stated above, this humiliation that he has been experiencing has caused him to lose his confidence in himself. This is proved when Charlie writes about his conversation with Miss Kinnian. He writes: “I tried to make a conversation with Miss Kinnian but no matter how much I tried to talk at the same level as her I always brought up psychology in the process. I am having great difficulty in making friends.” This quote proves that after the surgery that Charlie took to triple his intelligence made him find it difficult to make friends after he became aware of this humiliation that he has been experiencing. It
He feels as if Charlie is a different person following him around. He says, “Charlie may not interfere if I wanted to make love to Fay. He would probably stand in the doorway and watch. But the moment I came close to Alice, he panicked.” (Keyes 203) This shows that he doesn’t feel like the person he was before the surgery. He feels as though he is two different people and the old Charlie is stuck in the back of his mind. He has trouble getting close to people. He feels a panic as soon as he gets close to a woman. He feels as if old Charlie is prohibiting him and watching his every move. He says, “But then I think Charlie is waiting at the window. His life is not mine to throw away. I’ve just borrowed it for a while, and now I’m being asked to return it.” (Keys 278) After the surgery Charlie can’t sleep, “I know I should sleep, but I begrudge every second of waking time. It’s not just because of the nightmares; it’s because I’m afraid of letting go.”(Keys 278) This shows that Charlie is afraid to sleep. He has nightmares, he feels like he will lose his high IQ because he’s now so dependent of
As stated, developing a personality trait is a very important aspect of coming of age in the state of mind. In Charlie‘s case it can be shown that he had no companions at the beginning of his freshman year in high school.
Eric Chessen, a personal trainer, runs a Manhatten physical education program called Autism Fitness. His athletes (as he calls them), who range in age from six to 56, all have some form of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). More than half of them are non-verbal. Working with those with autism requires Chessen to do a few things that are not typical of a personal training session.
Charlie “grows emotionally and feels as if he’s
Earlier in the novel, Charlie was friendly and didn’t know what was going around him. He had friends in the bakery, who made fun of him because of his condition. Charlie is also afraid of interacting or sharing intimacy with a woman because of his mother, and old self. Over the course of the novel, Charlie begins to change. Memories flashed back, he becomes so intelligent that he exceeded the doctors who operated on him. Towards the end, he got over his woman issues by sharing intimacy with Fay for the first time. He discovers the problem in Professor Nemur experiment, and called it the “Algernon-Gordan effect.” Charlie knew he was going to eventually go back to his old self or even worse, so he forgives his family for what they did to him. Charlie changed a lot through the course of the novel, especially towards the end. From being an innocent adult working at a bakery, to the most intelligent man in the world. When he ran away from the convention and got an apartment was when he became an independent person for the first time. The novel’s ending was very sad. Seeing how much Charlie improved since the surgery, and in the end he was even in a worse state than when he started. When charlie finally got a hold on his life, he discovered that he doesn’t have a lot of time until he transforms back to being mentally disabled again. The end was very
However, he tries to listen to his father, but it results in him acting impulsively and temporarily ruining his relationships with others (p. 135). With the help of his friends, he eventually learns that it is okay to feel the way he does and think the way he does. Patrick’s stepsister, Sam, is instrumental in teaching Charlie to be honest with himself and others, including recognizing, expressing, and even acting on his emotions (p.
Conformity is a dominating theme from start to finish and seen in several of the characters, but Charlie falls victim to this often. Beginning with him meeting Sam and Patrick, it can be said that he never says no to anything, he just goes along with it to stay friends. Two prime examples of this are: the drugs/drinking and the relationship that Mary Elizabeth forced onto Charlie. The first example is the drugs and the drinking; perceived as conformity, since they did not force either of the items down his throat. Identification is changing personal beliefs to be like the influencer, which is a primary motivator for Charlie’s actions. Charlie is compliant when Mary Elizabeth forces a relationship onto him, which is another example of conformity. Compliance motivates by either a reward or a punishment and in this case, both motivate Charlie. He states in the movie that he just accepted being her boyfriend
Though he is not old, he has had a lot of horrible things happen in his life. He is an outcast at school, his best friend, Michael, committed suicide, and his Aunt Helen died in a car accident. In addition, Charlie is also very intelligent and loves books, he is selfless, and caring. This causes Charlie to forget to love himself, and fail to comprehend how love actually works, so they accept what they think they deserve. Not only does this happen to Charlie but to some of the people around him. Charlie's sister for example, she accepts the fact that her boyfriend hit her, and continues to pursue a relationship with him. This may be something she acquired from their mom, whose father was abusive and she had nothing to do except accept it. Another example of this comes from Patrick’s relationship with Brad. Their relationship is not only hidden from everyone but it's unhealthy. Brad treats Patrick as if he is nothing. And Patrick accepts it because he believes that Brad should be able to take his time, and announces their relationship when he is ready; however when they are alone, he and Patrick fine. On the other hand, Brad is being beaten by his father, who hates the fact that he is
He became irritable and edgy around people at the university. He grew into a short-tempered person and would yell at them. Most people stayed away from him because he was becoming a madman and they were afraid of what he was capable of. Because of this, Charlie became lonely. In essence, Charlie struggled with basic social skills, which means he did not know how to deal with his peers and decisions. Therefore, after the operation, Charlie may have become a very intelligent human being but he had to pay the price for it. He went through psychological traumas, which lead to his worst fear of
Erik Erikson was a well-known 20th century psychologist who made various contributions to the field of psychology. He was born on June 15, 1902 in Frankfurt, Germany. His unnamed Danish biological father abandoned Erik’s mother before he was born. Erik was raised by his mother, Karla Abrahamsen, for the first three years and she married Dr. Theodor Homberger in 1905. His mother and stepfather raised him and Erik took his stepfather’s name, Erik Abrahamsen. Erik had blond hair, blue eyes, and Nordic looks. Thus, he was teased for having Nordic looks in the community. On the other hand, he was teased at the grammar school for being a Jewish. Erik struggled with his identity and had difficulties not fitting in with either culture. In this
Throughout the film, Charlie was an interesting character whom faced many challenges and scenarios, that were believed to be difficult for him as an individual to process and go through. Early in the film, Charlie showed signs of deviant behaviour as he was socially awkward and had difficulty in engaging in conversations within the class when the teacher asked questions. It was also difficult for Charlie to maintain conversations, speak publicly and do so to authority figures. In addition, Charlie showed signs of nervousness when being invited and attending social gatherings/parties. Charlie also sat alone in the cafeteria and avoided social contact. These feared social situations evidently show a prime example of Social Anxiety Disorder. Symptoms including trembling, nausea, dizziness, blackouts and turning red are signified. It is clearly shown within Charlie’s character that he avoids social scenarios and is extremely introverted (American Psychiatric Association 2016).