“Just tell me how to be different in a way that makes sense.” These words from Charlie himself perfectly describes the difficulty, confusion, and uncertainty he has trying to fit into the society as a normal person. Many people have this thought engraved in their mind all throughout high school where they’re at the peak of their stressful transition. In comparison to Charlie, I also face this this though in my head as I am only a naive freshman just starting high school. This proves to show that the main conflict in “Perks of Being a Wallflower” is the struggle Charlie goes through to find his identity and true meaning in the world. In the story Charlie faces through difficulties. For example, throughout his journey in the series of letters, …show more content…
Although, he gradually obtains the thought of how he should not care so much about the opinions of others, as he only truly has himself in this monotonous-seeking society. He directly expresses his feelings by writing, “I remembered this one time that I never told anyone about. The time we were walking. Just the three of us. And I was in the middle. I don’t remember where and I don't remember when. I don't even remember the season. I just remember walking between them and feeling for the first time that I belonged somewhere.” This shows to explain how much he has felt like an outsider most of his life and how little respect and love he has received from anyone. It makes me infer that he actually forced himself to not explore and venture out from his comfort zone, now leaving him unprotected and inexperienced to heartbreaks and conflicts.
The “Perks of Being a Wallflower” has truly given me a whole new series of experiences and emotions I would never be able to become senseless to. Charlie had never profoundly cared to stick out, or find his identity. However, his desires to find his true self shows in this certain series of letters he has sent to an unknown person. We get to watch him become more pronounced and confidence in himself. I truly felt as if I could hear his cold, numbed heart slowly began to beat once again throughout the beautifully
In the novel Charlie takes each person’s words into his heart and ponders about them thoughtfully. Nostrils Charlie’s best friend sticks by his side and is loyal at all times. While Nostrils is doing a job with Charlie, Nostrils gets beat up by Barlow and Nostrils tells Charlie to run which lands Nostrils in hospital. This teaches Charlie to be loyal and listen to what his friends tell him to do. Another incident is where Daisy Molony who is a prostitute tells Charlie to ‘use that money fer somethin’ good’, the filthy money that Squizzy Taylor gave to Charlie, for doing jobs for him. Mr Redmond is another strong character in Charlie’s life, teaching Charlie boxing, giving Charlie a gramophone and training him to run in the Ballarat mile. This shows Charlie, through an old man’s eyes, love and compassion. Mr Redmond dedicated a lot of time and energy for Charlie. All these people show Charlie a fragment of properties and qualities. From himself and spending time with his friends he learns how to nurture the feeling s of others but not the feelings one
Though Charlie is an unreliable narrator in both film and novel form, he offers a sense of complete realism. From not quite dysfunctional families to first parties, Perks of Being a Wallflower immortalizes realistic moments in time like listening to a song for the first time in a car with friends. In one of the most memorable scenes from both the novel and the film, Charlie is in the car with Patrick and Sam and they’re driving through the tunnel after a dance. Charlie is there, completely in the moment with them and he says “…in that moment I swear, we were infinite,” (p 80). True reality is seemingly just out of grasp for Charlie until he meets Patrick and Sam. They tether him to reality and, alongside the rest of the “island of misfit toys” (movie quote), enable him to be and feel present in the moment. The narrative of the movie reflects that subtle change as when Charlie begins making friends with the step-siblings, the voice-overs, or Charlie’s inner monologue
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
Relating back to trauma, a theory for who is phony verus who is not are the only people who experience trauma are non-phonies whereas people who don’t are phonies. Eventually Holden gets so lonely he asks a cab driver to get a drink with him. His isolation peaks while in New York City and he can’t go home too early. It leads to a breakdown of his mental and physical state where he gets tuberculosus. While in the medical facility to receive treatment he writes the story as a reflection of a rough isolated time in his life. In Charlie’s life told through letters in Perks of being a Wallflower, the reader learns at the end of the book how Charlie has been sexually harassed the whole book by his Aunt. In Charlie’s case he becomes a wallflower and takes in his surroundings alone. By definition a wallflower is a person who has no one to dance with or who feels shy, awkward, or excluded at a party. This defines Charlie well with the caveat that Charlie does have a few friends. Even to Charlie’s friends he is viewed upon as a wallflower, "He's a wallflower...You see things. you keep quiet about them. And you understand."(Perks p.37). Charlie not only is sexually harassed/assaulted he also
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”.
Charlie is the main character of Perks of Being a Wallflower, a book set in the early 1990s. Charlie taps readers into his sixteen-year old world, cueing us in on all the gritty details of his life. One aspect of it, however, requires inquisition. Charlie is surrounded by people--by friends and family--yet is alienated. Ironically, those who’re his friends have also been alienated by society. He also is unmotivated to do well socially, too. Charlie is seen to be very passive-aggressive, letting others have their way over his. He even lets himself deteriorate when he needs help. “So, this is my life. And I want you to know that I am both happy and sad and I'm still trying to figure out how that could be,” Charlie says on page 11. This quote proves Charlie’s feelings towards his own life, leaving one to assume his alienation is society’s fault. Why be motivated to fix your attitude when you will still be considered ‘abnormal’ by your peers. Furthermore, people in Charlie’s life know he’s different and aren’t afraid to remind him. “You're a freak, you know that? You've always been a freak. Everyone says so. They always have,” Charlie’s sister tells him on page 12. This quote shows people’s opinions on Charlie and perpetuates the fact that he’s alienated. Although, the reason for alienation is unknown and left for the readers to discover themselves. Is it his growing unmotivation that was ultimately his downfall? Or
In Perks of Being a Wallflower Charlie was alone and to himself after his friend had died.(pg-137) Charlie says “Nobody has call me since that night. I don’t blame them. I have spent the whole vacation reading Hamlet.” The coach in the movie was excluded at first because nobody wanted him in the town because people thought he was not qualified to be a coach. In the book Perks of Being a Wallflower Charlie was excluded. After his friend died Charlie did not want to talk to anyone at all. He was being bullied for that and being made fun of his lifestyle and his coming of age. He was made fun of because of the way he was. Patrick told Charlie to stay away from Sam and soon after the whole friend group had shunned him.that he had shunned him because of a truth or dare game that he had participated
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
Believing in yourself is one of the most important concepts to focus on when you're in a tough situation. In Perks of Being a Wallflower, Charlie is put in a situation that he must believe in himself or he would start to go into a deeper state of mind. After Charlie came to realization of what his favorite person, Aunt Helen did to him Charlie had to believe in himself or his therapy and his decisions could have affected his life dramatically. For the therapy to work for Charlie to the fullest he needed to believe that therapy could work and his determination can help him improve quicker. You can't just sit there and put everyone's lives ahead of yours and think that counts as love.
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.
Charlie, the main character in The Perks of Being a Wallflower, tells his story through a series of letters written over a span of one year, or Charlie’s freshman year of high school. Author Stephen Chbosky, tells the story of a young man trying to find his way and also trying to make friends in school. Along the way, Charlie has trials he must go through, and not everything results in a happy ending right away. Eventually, all is well in Charlie’s life, but he must struggle in order to finally be content and happy with his life. Charlie’s coming of age story is told through his trials of trying to fit in by going to parties, drinking and even doing drugs while many of his relationships are hurt in the process. Just as every other high school student, Charlie wants to feel like he belongs, even if that means becoming someone that he is not. Along the way, not only is Charlie hurt, but also his friends Sam and Patrick. The relationships with these two friends, and Charlie himself are tested by all of their actions and how they live their lives.
At the start of the novel charlie is just about to start his freshman year of highschool without any friends because his only friend michael killed himself but then at a football game he meets Sam and Patrick and make him a bit more sociable for example in a part of the novel he takes part in something called the rocky horror picture show in front of hundreds of people.By the end Charlie is now able to socialize and make more friends.This evidence shows how Perks of being a wallflower is partially about friendship and why it's important.Through socializing more and making new friends this shows that perks of being a wallflower teaches friendship and why it's important.
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.
In "The Perks..." there are a variety of personalities portrayed through the book. Charlie being the "wallflower" of the title, was different from most of the other students at his high school. He understood what most didn 't and didn 't judge anyone for who they are or what they were like; on the contrary, he actually thought about and sometimes asked why they decided to be that way, and there was nothing more to it. Through out the book, entirely composed of letters to an unnamed "friend", he explains how he met eccentric people, like Sam and her step-brother Patrick; two kids a few years older than the at the time freshman Charlie. Sam
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