Perk Of Being A Wallflower Essay

A motion picture normally has between 7,000 and 20,000 words depending on the type of movie (Tameri Guide for Writers, 2012). It takes the right words, in the exact right order and in the ideal situation, to create the right phrase that goes beyond the movie and into the hearts and lives of many. Similar in ways to how phobias and sometimes disorders are formed. It takes the right situation, at the right time, and the right circumstances for phobias and disorders to form. If there’s a line that fits this description in the Perks of Being a Wallflower it will have to be “We accept the love we think we deserve.” (Stephen Chbosky, 2012, The Perks of being a Wallflower) It’s a line from halfway through the movie, spoken during a conversation between Charlie and his English teacher.

Judgment has become part of everyday life, something you need to get used to. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee a historical fiction. Whether it was Scout, Jem or, any of the Maycomb citizens they always had judge everybody and anybody that came in there sight. Being even racist against the black happen every day, judging them by their looks and skin color was the ways many people in Maycomb function. Throughout the novel the characters judge each other though first impressions, social class and behavior.

‘The Perks of Being a Wallflower’ follows shy and kind-natured Charlie Kelmeckis (Logan Lerman- Percy Jackson, The Butterfly Effect) as he enters high school alone, after the recent loss of his middle school best friend to suicide. Charlie gets befriended by seniors Sam (Emma Watson- Harry Potter-Beauty and the Beast) and Patrick (Ezra Miller- Justice League, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them) and finally feels accepted.

At school, Charlie finds a friend and mentor in his English teacher, Bill. He also overcomes his chronic shyness and approaches a classmate, Patrick, and his stepsister Sam, become two of Charlie's BFFs. Charlie’s new found friends – Sam, Patrick, Mary Elizabeth and Bob - aren't exactly popular and are outcasts themselves. They are all seniors and often hang out at the Big Boy except Bob who doesn't go to school.

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

Emotional Instability is most often caused by a traumatic event in life. This leads to an individual growing up to have drastic mood swings without reason. Examples of these mood swings are lashing out, dangerous/reckless behavior, crying randomly, isolating oneself from society and experimenting with alcohol/drugs. Stephen Chbosky’s book, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, follows the socially awkward Charlie entering high school after his only companion ,Michael, commits suicide.Under those circumstances, it is evident that this experience impacted Charlie because in various parts of the book he often becomes overly aggressive or breaks down crying for no reason. Similar to the Perks of being a wallflower J.D Salinger’s ,Catcher in the rye,

was at a party) and voiced that you think that your Aunt Helen's death was your fault. Knowing

Have you ever lost someone in your life and didn’t know how to cope with the pain? In The Perks Of Being a Wallflower written by Stephen Chbosky there are two families that have to cope with the pain of losing a loved one. Charlie’s family has to deal with the loss of Aunt Helen. She died in a car crash while going to get Charlie’s christmas present. The novel takes you through the hardship that Charlie goes through when he’s trying to cope with the pain of losing his Aunt. Then there is Michael’s death that took place when Charlie was in middle school. Michael had committed suicide by shooting himself. He didn’t even leave a not for Charlie as to why he decided to do this. Both Charlie and Michael’s family had to try and cope with this loss.

The award-winning coming-of-age novel to film, The Perks of Being A Wallflower, has sparked controversy with parents across school districts nationwide since its publishing in 1999. Many students read the book for English class, as a choice read, as a part of a school project or independently, but many parents are disappointed with the books “suggestive” content. While few bold subjects are written, there is certainly no intention of promoting bad habits or behavior like adults claim that is presented within the novel and this does not represent the novel as a whole.

Stephen Chbosky’s The Perks of Being a Wallflower captures not only the essence of the 1990s but also critiques the problems society faced during this time period. The brief but powerful New York Times Bestseller is written in the form of multiple letters sent to an unknown recipient that detail the life of a high school student known to the reader simply as Charlie. This writing style is consistent with the “self-reflexive acknowledgement of a text’s own status as constructed…” that is common in postmodern texts (Nicol, “The Cambridge Introduction to Postmodern Fiction”). Because the novel is written in the first person, Chbosky is able to effectively use Charlie’s eyes and mind to project criticisms of popular culture. Charlie’s introverted but observant and analytic characteristics that make him a wallflower also make him a perfect tool with which the author can depict and comment on society. The Perks of Being a Wallflower’s critique of the zeitgeist of the 1990s, most notably in regard to the rise of standardized education, the objectification of women, and homophobia allows the reader to gain a more multi-faceted view of opposing viewpoints within the time period.

Past experience pave the way for future encounters. This is certainly the case for Charlie in Stephen Chobosky’s The Perks of Being a Wallflower. Charlie, who has bad childhood, is now doing many bad things to escape the pain. His bad childhood starts and ends with certain relationships he has had with family members. Throughout the story, Charlie attempts to solve these problems but is often unsuccessful.

The book and the movie for The Perks of Being a Wallflower are extremely different, and I believe that the movie is much better than the book. The book is written much differently than the movie. There are lots of scenes that are in the book but not in the movie and that are in the movie not the book. The movie focuses less on the bigger, depressing topics than the book does. The characters in the movie are also much different than they are in the book. Their personalities are very different in the movie than the author described them as in the book.

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.

Sociology is the scientific study of being behavior in human groups (Schaefer). There are very many examples of sociology in the movie The Perks of Being a Wallflower, but I view alienation, deviance, and gender roles to be the most prominent. This movie is about the struggles of a teenage boy named Charlie’s freshman year of high school. Charlie is seen as a social outcast and he just barely makes it through the year with the help of his best friends Sam and Patrick. Throughout the movie Charlie experiences most of the basic struggles of starting high school and some. This movie is very relateable since it gives a more realistic view of high school for some people. Charlie , and the audience, learns the importance of love and friendship in growing up in today’s society.

The Unforgettable Trauma Throughout the book, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, almost every time Aunt Helen’s name was mentioned, it seemed depressing, her life has been crap. She was Charlie's aunt and they were very close, the book is based on personal letters Charlie is sending to a “friend”. He explains how his aunt went through traumatic experiences and did things that most of us would never ever do. The trauma Aunt Helen went through affected her life, consciously, leading to drug abuse and unhealthy relationships. As a child, Aunt Helen was molested so now as she’s older she thinks it is okay to molest Charlie at a young age.