Jodi Lockwood's Perks Of Being A Wallflower

All things considered, a book of three-hundred pages is not going to change a high school student’s mind completely. . In “Sherman Alexie young-adult book banned in Idaho schools,” Alison Flood, writing for The Guardian, quotes a spokesperson Acacia O’Conner who states that “[l]ately there’s been a lot of talk in American school districts about choice and it centers almost exclusively on parents […]” Parents are the ones questioning the book not the students. The book isn’t intended for the parents. The lessons being taught are for high school students. They can find guidance in them and learn from Junior’s uplifting story. Of course the book doesn’t contain the best language, but it’s relatable in most cases. The book The Absolutely True Diary

The film I chose to write about is Perks of Being a Wallflower. The story starts with Charlie the main character feeling depressed and lonely.1 His best friend committed suicide and he is about to start high school without any friends. The story is told in he perspective of Charlie because he writes letters about what is happening in his life. Charlie is an avid reader and immediately connects with his English teacher Mr. Anderson.1 Although Charlie is timid, he meets Sam and Patrick at a football game that he was attending alone. Charlie seems happier throughout the movie as Patrick and Sam invite him out with them. They become good supporting friends that he has not had since the death of his friend.

Her first non-children’s book was Fever 1793, although she took a yearlong break from that book to write Speak (Lew 23-25), her first true young adult novel. As she began writing for teens instead of children, she also began writing about more controversial issues, such as the rape and depression in Speak. Anderson has become “knownfor writing realistic books about controversial subjects for teens” (Deutsch). Not only does she write about these difficult topics, she approaches them with “humor and sensitivity” and “her work has earned numerous national and state awards, as well as international recognition” (“Laurie”). Speak itself was a National Book Award finalist and is a Pritz honor book the year it first came out (Lew 34). Despite this recognition, Wesley Scroggins, a Missouri State University professor, called the book “soft pornography,” and demanded that it be taken out of school curriculum (qtd. in Lew 35). Judy Blume, Anderson’s favorite author, backed Anderson in this situation, calling the claim “outrageous” (Lew 35). Clearly, Blume and Anderson won the battle because “[Speak has] been used in schools in order to not only teach literary analysis but also to teach and give students tools against sexual harassment” (“Voice”). The response to Speak can be better understood by learning about the time it was written.

Reason one; books should not be banned on the grounds of “they’re a bad influence”. The world is a bad influence and the people that inhabit the world are worse. In the cases of some books, some children have already lived through what has been banned. In other cases, it is just the parents being too over-proctective. They have already lived through some of the events, and do not want their kids to experience the same thing, which can also slow down how the child learns. In addition, if the students are desperate to find ideas for things because they don’t get the help from their parents, it means the parents are ignoring their kids

The main argument for why certain books are banned in schools is because the students need to be protected from the content within the books. For example, 13 Reasons Why, a novel about a teenager who commits suicide and leaves behind thirteen tapes containing her reasons has been banned from schools such as the Colorado School District, and some Canadian schools. The book was deemed as “negative portrayals of helping professionals.” and according to Lora Strum writer of the article “Banning books like ’13 Reasons Why’ makes it harder for teens to open up to adults, the author says”, “the book glamorized suicide”. As a whole, the school districts either took

According to the American Library Association (ALA), young adult novels are challenged with the best intentions. In most cases a parent will read a book that their child might be reading in class to find out if the book is hazardous to their child’s well-being. If the novel seems problematic, the parent then challenges the book. Even though the purpose of challenging a novel is to keep children from reading about issues that may not be seen as appropriate for their age group, censoring children from difficult subject matter is not always the solution. There is always controversy when difficult issues arise in adolescent geared novels. Even though there are many concerns with Lois Lowry’s The Giver,

The school district feels these students are unable to use the books because the teachers think the students will destroy them. This brings up one of many claims, which happens to be that education is falling the students. The school pays very little attention to these students, and this is one of the reasons why they drop out and don’t graduate. The students’ know that no one cares about their education so they don’t try to do well in school. If the system were to appreciate the kids, they would have a different view on learning how to gain education. Another claim would be, hardships at home are affecting the lifestyle of these students. Some of these students aren’t appreciated by their family members, and face horrible tragedies, which causes violence within each student.

In one particular instance, a bill was passed in Tennessee stating that teachers cannot encourage “gateway sexual activity” (Nazaryan). This bill resulted in Sumner County officials banning Looking for Alaska from the curriculums of all schools due to the book’s single, brief oral sex scene. The Tennessean covered the news of the ban in their newspaper and quoted parents who agreed with the ban, stating that the school board was right in banning the book from the young and impressionable minds of children, who could possibly be so influenced by this blip of a scene in a book, that they might go and immediately engage in the same, or worse, sexual behavior. The newspaper, did however point out that there were alternate ways to address concerns regarding the book, such as offering alternate books to students whose parents were against it. John Green’s YouTube channel, “vlogbrothers”, features a video, “I Am Not A Pornographer”. In it, Green, referring to the ban, states that “there is one frank sex scene. It is awkward, unfun, and wholly unerotic.” (Green). Green goes on to say that the only reason for the existence of that scene is show a contrast between a very physical scene that contains no emotional intimacy and a very non-physical scene that is full of emotion. In another video, “On the Banning of Looking for Alaska”, Green says “text is meaningless without context” (Green) . Green is speaking to his opinion that books are banned most of the time because a parent decides to show a school principal or administrator a single excerpt or page of a book. Without proper context, that excerpt or page can appear to represent a very inappropriate book. Alternatively, if a reader were to assess a book in its entirety, while keeping an opening mind, they could glean important and valuable lessons from

It is reasonable for a book to be banned if it is just not suitable for children as in its mature content. But if a book is being banned because of a parent who does not like the book or thinks it is a touchy subject, then it is just not reasonable and there should not even be a discussion about banning it. “Parents who don't like specific books can have their kids "opt out" of an assignment without infringing on the rights of others.” (www.procon.org/headline.php?headlineID=005365). There is no reason for a parent to try to have a book banned because they do not like the content in the book.’’ Also, the parent can choose to have their child not read the book without having it banned from the whole school. Parents should censor their own child and not the entire

proper for our students to read” (Hollins). There is conflict between children and their elders

Schools are meant to be a safe environment full of books and learning opportunities. If this is impaired by books that should be banned, students may feel displaced or uncomfortable. Even a high schooler is prone to this, if action is not taken. There are hundreds of books full of violence, explicit language, and drug references. Annenberg Classroom says it is “unsuitable for students” (AnnenbergClassroom.org). Students of all ages are strongly suggested to not partake of those things, and reading all about them can cause them to think it is acceptable. It is up to administrators and parents to decide what should be allowed in school libraries. Everybody has different beliefs, but most people would not want their

For my paper, I am diagnosing Charlie from the film, Perks of Being a Wallflower. Before I delve into Charlie’s diagnosis, I will provide some background information about his character. In the film, Charlie is a 15 year old boy who has recently started high school as a freshman. He lives with both parents, and his sister who is a couple years older than him. Charlie also has a brother who has gone away to college. In school, Charlie is seen to be good with academics, particularly in English, since he has an interest in writing. However, Charlie does not have any friends and his best friend had kill himself in the last year. Furthermore, Charlie is seen to be quite socially awkward around his peers and usually keeps to himself.

According to the American Library Association, the most common group of people, challenging a book being read in schools, was the parents of the students. Parents have a right to be in charge of what is put into the minds of their students, however just because one parent objects does not mean that the whole school should ban the book from the list. A solution for this book would be to enforce parental consent for books to be read in the classroom. If a parent does not want a book to be read in the classroom, then there should be other options for the student to read. The school and teacher should not trespass on a parent’s rights of raising their child. I believe that if a parent has a concern, they should go and discuss the problem with the teacher so that the teacher will be able to defend their reasoning for choosing the book to be read in the classroom.

In her poem ‘Wallflowers,’ Donna Vorreyer illustrates a rare perspective on the ownership of words and their desire to be loved. There is also a mystery revealed about where the forgotten, but ever so unique words like ‘gegenshien’ or ‘zoanthropy,’ go to live when their existence and proper use exceeds common knowledge. The narrator’s depth of thought into the life of a word exposes this obsessive mystery and promotes society’s underlying fascination with the inclusion of outliers. By the means of both personification and metaphor, the narrator introduces the importance of words and their consumption by presenting them in a way, which creates a strong yet appealing feeling about the effects of neglect. As a direct result of Vorreyer’s employment

Censors typically feel as though the subject material of controversial books in the high school English curriculum is too much for teenagers to handle (Shen, 2002).