Chbosky, Stephen. 1999. The Perks of Being a Wallflower. New York: Pocket Books.
As much as people say it, this really got to be one of my favorite books of all time. MTV promoted it, so it got a lot of press, so many people shun it and say it is overrated. I disagree completely with that factor. Chapter by chapter the reader follows the main character, Charlie, through his early high school career. He goes through a lot being such a young kid with high expectations to live up to. I selected this book (to read AGAIN) because it is simply my favorite teen-based book that I have ever had the pleasure of indulging in. Although the novel never says the exact time period it was in, I would assume that it is placed around the early 80’s. Back when kid’s still went to football games every Friday and went to places called the “Big Boy” to “grab a burger”. I am also guessing that this all took place in the mid-western United States. It never specifies these details because of the fact that Charlie is writing letters to a stranger- which I believe gave this book quite a bit of edge over most. This book- it’s not here to make you understand you life. However, I believe it makes you understand how to live.
Charlie has doubts about high school and a lot of personal issues in which he does not know how to deal with. However, as he makes friends and forms real relationships with two people at school, Patrick and Sam, and a compassionate teacher, Bill, who takes an interest in Charlie by giving him books (mostly classics) which they read and discuss. Charlie actually goes over to Bills house a couple of times. he learns about the world and about himself. Charlie, during high school has a lot of significant things that happen in his life. The first time he smokes pot, the first time he makes some true life long friends. Heartbreak and fighting and a whole bunch of other things. However, the most significant was when his aunt Helen died. This was the most significant event and through his writings he slowly gets over this. Through all of these events and shortcomings he soon learns a lot about life. This culminates in his uncovering of a secret past he has forgotten about and finally Charlie is able to understand who he is and who he wants to become.
Charlie is the wallflower of the novel. He is an unconventional thinker, when the story begins he is shy and knew very few people. He is a high school freshman and this book is basically set around his transformation. He considers himself emotional, and he is. Bill, his English teacher says he needs to “participate more”. He starts going to school dances and such. Before he knows it he was grown as an individual. He stops writing these letters.
I really love this novel. I have read it numerous times since the first time that my friend referred it to me my sophomore year. The book was really interesting and definitely entertained me. I didn’t really take a lot about life from this novel- but one lessen that I really remember was when Charlie said something along the lines of “when my kids are sad I’m never going to tell them about the starving children, or other things like that. Because that won’t change the way they feel and I wouldn’t want them to think that there feelings are insignificant because there are dying children out there.” I actually found this very inspirational. It made me think that even thought other people are out there- that shouldn’t justify the way you feel.
In comparison to real life I think this novel definitely connects to some key, controversial teen issue. Kind of like the whole “sex, drugs, and rock and roll” phase that they seventies kids went through. This novel has even more controversial topics than that. Like homosexual references among other things. I think everyone really needs to read this novel.
I think Charlie is a very intelligent person and I believe that he made the best decisions possible considering the circumstances he was under when he mad them. Off course, being the reader I can pick out key points when Charlie should have done something else. Overall, I was really impressed though. I think the book had a bad ending-but perfect at the same time. Any more information would have been overkill. However, it doesn’t really have an ending, its just a kid living his life one day at a time dealing with all the different things that people face.
Perks of being a wallflower is Stephen Chbokskys’ most famous book. It got nominated for many awards and was MTV famous. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find if he wrote any other books. However, I really think he did a fantastic job with this one. I loved this book and it is definitely a classic.