In the Perks of being a Wallflower the main character Charlie struggles with not only his sexuality, but also the complications of sexuality of those around him. The movie portrays Charlie, Patrick, and Charlie’s love interest Sam, going through one long mischievous bonding trip, while exploring their own sexualities .It opens up with Charlie writing to a friend about his daily struggle in trying to find people to accept him for who he is. Charlie, like many people in society, is uncomfortable in his skin, and he feels judged by those around him. According to Sara Ahmed in “Queer Feelings”, homosexuals always feel uncomfortable because they cannot fit in. Charlie may not particularly be gay, but Charlie meets a man named Patrick who is in fact gay, and they become quick friends. Throughout the movie, introverted Charlie encounters the bad side of sexuality through molestation, bullying, fornication, and domestic violence. For example, Patrick’s lover in the movie, Brad, is a popular football quarterback, who desperately tries to suppress his sexual feelings for Patrick out of fear of what his father, and friends, might think of him. In the past, Linda Garnets states in “ Sexual Orientations in Perspective” that sexual orientation was understood as an old paradigm, so in Brad’s case people would label him as gay, simply because of what he does with his reproductive organs. But, Garnets believes that the new paradigm would say that people can act differently than they
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.
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.
‘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.
Author of The Perks of a Wallflower, Stephen Chbosky, mentions an important point when he says, “Banning books gives us silence when we need speech. It closes our ears when we need to listen. It makes us blind when we need sight.” Banning books has been a practice since 443 BC in Rome when Socrates was to drink poison because of “his corruption of youth and his acknowledgement of unorthodox divinities,” says Beacon for Freedom of Expression. Before a book can get to the point of being banned, it undergoes a process of being challenged. This is when a group of people or a person tries to restrict certain materials. When a challenge ends up being victorious, the book gets banned and removed. Some people believe that certain books are not ethically
Movies are constantly created by producers and writers to convey a particular meaning to their audience they are reaching out too. The meaning can be interpreted in several ways. For example, one can understand the meaning that was intended by the creators, or it could be an individual’s own understanding of a storyline in the movie. As a movie can be viewed through different perspectives, a dominant male named Louis Althusser created the theory of Interpellation and the Role of ISAs and RSAs to help further understand movies. Althusser’s theory explains that people in power will remain in power and others will be controlled by those in power (Hartt-Fournier, Lecture 2). Furthermore, the role of ISA, known as the Ideological State
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 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
Krista Miller Miller Honors English 1y September 23, 2015 Dear Germanna English Professors, As a frequent movie goer, I tend to see bountiful films that pass the time, but only possess surface value and express sparse substance beyond that. However, there has only been a handful of films that have had a meaningful, long lasting impact on me. One of the finest examples of excellent cinema for me is the film, based on the cult classic novel, is The Perks of Being a Wallflower. Originally written by Stephen Chbosky, the motion picture addresses themes centered around the painful transition from adolescence to adulthood and issues during this time such as substance abuse, exploration of sexuality and insecurities of fitting in with your peers.
The Perks of Being a Wallflower is told in first person point of view because it is told from the perspective of a character inside the novel. Setting: The novel takes place in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The novel takes place around the 1990s. Main Characters: There are three main characters of The Perks of Being a Wallflower.
My favorite book is The Perks of Being a Wallflower. The author of the book is Stephen Chbosky. The reason The Perks of Being a Wallflower is my favorite book is, because The book is a drama which is something I typically enjoy watching. I am not much of a reader during my free time, so when I finally I decided to pick a book I choose to get one in the same genre of shows that I like.
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.
The movie Perks of being a Wallflower sparked people's hearts throughout the world for its variety of difficult situations teens everywhere go though. In The perks of being a Wallflower there are three main values that reflect a larger cultural values. For example the value of happiness. Everyone deserves happiness but it is not simply attained it has to be fought for. Charlie from The Perks of being a Wallflower has to learn the hard way the value of friendship. He was shy and unpopular, and socially awkward. But with the help of his friends, he transformed into a kind, funny person. the values of friendship affects many people in the world. Another values in The perks of being a Wallflower is sadness. Sadness can consumes one's life if not
was at a party) and voiced that you think that your Aunt Helen's death was your fault. Knowing
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