The Perks Of Being A Wallflower

The Perks of Being a Wallflower is the story of a unique high school student named Charlie and his journey of self-discovery throughout his freshman year. Charlie’s personality changes drastically from the beginning of the book to the end of it; and this is what I want to focus on. First I am going to detail Charlie’s personality at the beginning of the book and then use Erik Erikson’s theory of Psychosocial Development, Kohlberg’s theory of Moral Development, Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development and an article about adolescent bulling to analyze them. I will then use examples from the book and film to illustrate his growth in the respected areas. Through these major theories of psychology I will show Charlie’s evolution from a wallflower to a human being.

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.

Teenagers today face a number of problems, ranging from peer pressure and alcohol, to depression and rape. These severe topics can have an intense effect on a growing child, now, and in the future. Many modern teenagers face the daily struggles of harmful situations, and the good and bad in them. In The Perks of Being a Wall Flower, Charlie faces almost every bad situation imaginable, in a heart breaking and realistic coming of age story. Charlie does not have the grandest high school experience, but the book represents the harsh and cruel reality of what so many students face today. Charlie, also being on the unclear side of what he was experiencing, was also hit hard with the outcomes of his actions. Drugs, alcohol, and sexual interaction contributed to the difficult standards that are held to growing students, in their fight to fit in. Every teen has faced the harsh reality of peer pressure and abuse, which takes a harsh effect on its victims. In the beginning of the story, Charlie faces the death of one of his friend Michael, to suicide. Starting the beginning of Charlie?s coming of age story, also known as a freshman in high school. Throughout the book, peer pressure, substance abuse, the fight to be normal, and the hope to have friends in the first place pushed Charlie to take the wrong path in some situations. Charlie?s coming of age story represents the teenage life today

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.

     I think that The Perks of Being a Wallflower is exceptional in its class of literary works mainly because Chbosky chose to push the limits of teen fiction. Most young adult writers are afraid to further explore the world of drugs, sexuality, and depression in too much detail. What most writers fail to realize is that high school vividly explains all those things. Young readers are ready for a book that seems to understand that too. Chobosky did a wonderful job at developing and defining each character. He made them seem real, which helps readers relate. Although many may think that the number of controversial issues discussed in the book makes it negative, the book is really about finding yourself in the midst of chaos and peer pressure. Charlie eventually

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.

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.

‘The Perks of Being a Wallflower’ fits into the romance and drama genres, but the movie truly shines in its role as a coming of age film. ‘The Perks of Being a Wallflower’ tackles the hardships and pain that growing up can sometimes make you feel, and depicts high school in the most realistic way I have seen for a while. Other coming of age films like ‘Clueless’ and ‘Mean Girls’ portray high school in a sort of innocence, with issues going on in the protagonist’s lives only occurring during their times at school. This film doesn’t sugar coat things. It shows Charlie’s struggles from all different angles of growing up and

The Breakfast Club consists of a principle, Richard Vernon, and 5 teenagers who spend a Saturday together because they have detention. The students are diverse and come from different social groups: Claire “the Princess”, Allison “a quiet Outcast”, John “a Rebel”, Brian “the Nerd”, and Andrew “the Jock”. The “mean” principle orders the students to write a 1000 word essay on “Who You Think You Are?” Instead the teens, fall asleep, talk to each other, and roam the halls.

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.

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

A few days ago, I was finally able to watch the long-awaited movie adaptation of Stephan Chbosky’s epistolary novel The Perks of Being a Wallflower. The movie follows awkward introvert Charlie Kelmeckis as he copes with the suicide of his best friend, starting high school, his first love, and his raging mental illness while struggling to find a group of friends with which he belongs.

John F. Kennedy once said, “Change is the law of life.” Change is the universal theme in the realistic novel, Speak, by Laurie Halse Anderson. To start, I began to witness people I have been close to for years, transform into totally different people. My former friends began to hang in different groups and forget I even exist. The sad truth is that change began to challenge me too. My frightening experience with an older guy adjusted me into a new person. I was depressed and the ‘weird’ girl that no one liked. This book helps you see the scary truth of high school. Different is scary when you start going to a new school or when you walk into a huge lunchroom and have no one to sit with. People who we have known forever convert into people

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 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.