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The Perks Of Being A Wallflower

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The young adult genre of books is generally taken up by vampires, romance, and fantasy worlds where the guy gets the girl and everyone lives happily ever after. The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky is an acceptance to this. It has an interesting plot line, teaches valuable lessons, and is very realistic. Nobody is perfect, and this book teaches us that the people who matter will accept you anyways. 15 year old Charlie Kelmeckis starts the book as a shy introvert with serious social issues. He is trying to cope with the suicide of his best, and only, friend Michael. He starts writing letters to an unknown person who he was told was nice and would listen to deal with the stress and anxiety of starting high school. He befriends …show more content…

One of my favorite quotes from the book: “So, I guess we are who we are for a lot of reasons. And maybe we’ll never know most of them. But even if we don’t have the power to choose where we come from, we can still choose where we go from there.” This quote exemplifies hope, and strength. No matter where you come from, what demons you’ve faces, they are all part of who you are. You can either let it destroy you, or learn from it and let it lead you to where you want to go. There’s no need to dwell on the past, just look towards the future. Another powerful quote from this book comes when Sam is talking to Charlie: “Why do I and everyone I love pick people who treat us like we’re nothing? ‘We accept the love we think we deserve.’” Self-worth is a big theme throughout the book. The characters have troubles with knowing how to love themselves, which is a theme that I think many people have trouble with. There are many other valuable quotes and themes throughout the book. Charlie is an extremely relatable character. Any teenager who has ever experienced pain, confusion, trouble with self-discovery, or social anxiety can relate to him. The setup of the book allows readers to enter Charlie’s thought bringing the readers closer and more intimate with the events of the book. You feel the emotions that Charlie feels, like you are Charlie. Through Charlie, we learn lots of things about ourselves. Our anxiety, our desire to fit in, and our thirst for happiness. And we learn that we’re not alone in those

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