Perks Of Being A Wallflower Psychological Analysis

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.

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.

This exaggerated startle response when he feels threatens shows another sign of PTSD. He is miserable of having these experiences and feelings. His “abnormalities” leads to the clinical depression of him. Therefore, he’s been hospitalized, and “damaged”. Last year, his best friend has committed the suicide. Charlie locks himself and sincerely believes himself of being a loser. He can’t protect his friend or anybody. He is fully isolated from the outside world. This could be the reason why he loves to read and write. Even though the PTSD and depression put barriers on him to make friends and blend into the social stream, he finds his passion for reading and writing, as well as music. In addition, it gives him the chance to be connected with Mr. Anderson, his English teacher, and Sam, his love.

The Perks of being a Wildflower movie is a great demonstration on adolescence and childhood development as it portrays how much we as humans are effected by our early childhood years and how we struggle to make sense of life while navigating through adolescence. We are molded by our environment, but also shaped by the neglect or abuse we suffer as children. The traumatic experiences are life altering and if not dealt with can have dramatic outcomes for our future. The movie has a great story line and walks the audience through the character and identity development of an adolescence. Dissecting Charlies character will be helpful in understanding that part of a human’s life and development.

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.

In the film The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Charlie, an introverted boy, coping with the recent suicide of his friend, begins high school. He finds trouble making friends until he meets Patrick and Sam. As Charlie attempts to improve his social interaction, and cultivate a sense of self, he continuously experiences blackouts and triggers. Nearing the end of the film, Charlie has a mental breakdown, which leads to his hospitalization, and he uncovers his repressed memories of his Aunt Helen molesting him. Charlie shows symptoms and behavioral tendencies of post-traumatic stress disorder in addition to a comorbid diagnosis of depression and social anxiety.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower is a coming-of-age epistolary novel written by American novelist Stephen Chbosky set in the suburbs of Pittsburgh in the 1990's (Wikipedia, 2012). It follows the life of a teenage boy named Charlie.

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

The Perks of Being A Wallflower is a book about the changes teens go through as they mature and the obstacles they face during this time. Charlie comes across changes in his relationships, his own stance in his family, school, and friends, and how he thinks of himself. He learns about his past and makes changes towards how he thinks about himself and why he is who he is.

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

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 Perks of Being a Wallflower is a coming of age film about a 15 year old boy, Charlie, who has been through much trauma. As a freshman Charlie is left with no friends, because of the suicide of his best friend Michael, but he has the support of an english teacher who inspires his dreams of becoming a writer. Eventually, step-siblings Sam and Patrick discover that Charlie is lonely and in need of a friend, so they take him under their wing. Sam, Patrick, and their group of friends have much wisdom about life, because they are older, much of which they share with Charlie. Under the wing of Sam and Patrick, Charlie becomes more excited about life. Although, he still struggles with the side effects of past traumas, and dreads the day his new friends leave for their lives after high school.

Every kid who grows up in the suburbs loves to visit the big city. Stephen Chbosky’s novel, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, is based in the suburbs of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, that is filled with the problems most suburbs face. Further, Chbosky continuously describes different very troubling mental illnesses which directly and indirectly affect his main character Charlie and all the people around him. Moreover, the proximity in which Charlie lives to the city contributes to his relationships with his friends and family. In the cold suburbs of Pennsylvania, life is different than life in the city, this greatly influences the lifestyle of people throughout the novel.

Overall, the movie The Perks of Being a Wallflower tells the story of a teen with significant trauma and depression. It shows how his friends help him through tough times and give him a good high school experience. He finds himself and receives help from his friends, family, and doctors. It shows how mental illness is normal in teens and that it is okay to seek

I think that almost all teens go through a certain time of depression, some more than others but Charlie 's is kind of exaggerated I think. I can relate to Charlie though when he cried about losing his beloved Aunt Helen, because of what I went through when my grandfather passed away. I admire how maturely Charlie explained the quote, "I would die for you. But I won 't live for you". His idea that " every person has to live for his/her own life and then make the choice to share it with other people. Maybe that is what makes people 'participate. '", is very strong and I think makes perfect sense and defines life a little bit. In my opinion also, I think that I and pretty much everyone else is alike Charlie, because we can be open and agree to other 's thoughts. We can all watch, and hear and talk about differing opinions and in the end not really judge the opinions. The fact that Stephen Chobsky chose to create a story about a boy growing up and being labeled different catagories, especially a "wallflower", is an interesting idea. Most authors wouldn 't be so daring to write about something so controversial. And Charlie 's story is controversial; most parents and teachers wouldn 't want their children to read something about the experiences that a boy has in high school, but at some point we have to realize what 's true and false. In the book, I really enjoyed reading the last 30 or so