what are the perks of being a wallflower essay

The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Stephen chbosky, everything you need for every book you read..

As a child, the novel’s protagonist Charlie was molested by his favorite aunt. Following this trauma, for much of his childhood and adolescence, Charlie repressed his traumatic memories, as he lacked a positive example of how to release his tension in a healthy way. Most of the people Charlie knows have also experienced trauma and abuse, including many members of his family and some of his friends. And many of the victims of abuse Charlie knows also go on to perpetrate violence, accept abuse, or both, since this is the behavior they know. Through exploring the complex cycles of abuse and trauma that permeate families and society, Chbosky illustrates how unfortunately common trauma and abuse are, especially in the lives of young people. This challenges a common assumption that children and childhood are defined by innocence—in fact, as Charlie notices, it is during childhood that so many people experience unspeakable trauma and then grow up to inflict trauma themselves.

Charlie’s family, in particular, is prone to abuse and trauma—verbal, physical, and sexual—which leads to generations of abuse. Both of Charlie’s parents (and their siblings) were beaten as children, for example, and as a result, several of Charlie’s aunts spend their adult lives in abusive relationships with men, since they have been taught that abuse is normal. Furthermore, even though Charlie’s sister has never been abused, she finds herself in a relationship with a man who hits her, and she stays with him because she believes that it was her fault for provoking him—and because she believes that men are supposed to be dominant and violent. This shows the cultural logic of abuse, through which many people (often women) accept abuse because it seems normal or deserved. In addition to physical abuse, Charlie’s family exhibits cycles of sexual abuse. Charlie’s aunt Helen was molested as a child by a family friend. Not knowing how to productively cope with her experiences, Helen perpetuated the cycle of abuse when she molested Charlie, leaving Charlie—like her—with a morass of unresolvable emotions, ones that he spends his adolescence trying alternately to repress and accept.

Chbosky begins the novel with the suicide of Charlie’s friend Michael to show the stakes of unaddressed mental health needs: readers intuit that if Charlie doesn’t find a way to work through what has happened to him, it could also be life-threatening. While for much of the novel Charlie has repressed his memories of sexual abuse, this trauma still has profound effects. Charlie is often anxious and he feels isolated from others, as he is afraid of being close to people. Without being able to remember the source of his trauma, Charlie is stuck trying to manage its effects. Like his friend Patrick , Charlie turns to substance abuse to try to cope with his emotions, which only defers his feelings, rather than resolving them. More positively, Charlie copes with his trauma by making friendships. While sometimes he finds it difficult to bear his friends’ own emotional pain, his friendships generally help him feel valuable and embedded in a community, rather than alone with his difficult emotions.

Furthermore, Charlie’s friend Sam , who was also molested as a child, gives him an example for how to recognize and work through trauma. She realizes that, as a result of her abuse, she has a pattern of dating people that make her feel small. By the end of the story, Sam commits to a healthy relationship with herself and starts refusing to accept less than she deserves. Her example of recognizing an unhealthy pattern and committing to fixing it provides Charlie with a positive example of coping with one’s past. For Charlie, coping with his trauma through a mixture of substance abuse, close friendships, and personal resolve proves insufficient: he has a mental health crisis at the end of the book and finally remembers that he was molested as a child. Throughout the story, Charlie regularly states that others have it much worse than he does, but with the help of effective mental health support, he slowly learns to recognize that his problems are valid, too, and that he needs to address them.

During his two-month hospital stay with intensive counseling, Charlie comes to terms with his past and who he is now, both because of and despite his childhood trauma. At the end of the story, Charlie decides that it wasn’t productive for him to blame others for his abuse, both because “it wasn’t going anywhere” and because “it wasn’t the point.” Charlie explains that cycles of abuse often extend too far back into history to trace, and losing oneself in blame and anger does not provide relief or a productive strategy for moving forward. From his friends, teachers, and eventually even his family, Charlie receives the care and support he needs to begin to open up about his history of abuse, and to begin the work of learning to love himself. In this way, Charlie avoids the same fate as his friend Michael, who supposedly felt there was no one he could talk to about his own problems. In this way, Chbosky demonstrates the life-saving power of speaking out about abuse, confronting the traumas of the past, and seeking help from others in dealing with life’s difficulties.

Trauma, Abuse, and Mental Health ThemeTracker

Trauma, Abuse, and Mental Health Quotes in The Perks of Being a Wallflower

So, this is my life. And I want you to know that I am both happy and sad and I’m still trying to figure out how that could be.

Charlie, we accept the love we think we deserve.

“He’s something, isn’t he?”

Bob nodded his head. Patrick then said something I don’t think I’ll ever forget.

“He’s a wallflower.”

And Bob really nodded his head. And the whole room nodded their head. And I started to feel nervous in the Bob way, but Patrick didn’t let me get too nervous. He sat down next to me.

“You see things. You keep quiet about them. And you understand.”

I have decided that maybe I want to write when I grow up. I just don’t know what I would write.

I had an amazing feeling when I finally held the tape in my hand. I just thought to myself that in the palm of my hand, there was this one tape that had all of these memories and feelings and great joy and sadness. Right there in the palm of my hand. And how many people got through a lot of bad times because of those songs. And how many people enjoyed good times with those songs.

I feel like a big faker because I’ve been putting my life back together, and nobody knows.

“I can't do that anymore. I'm sorry,” I said.

“It's okay, Charlie. Just go to sleep,” Sam said.

But I wasn't talking to Sam anymore. I was talking to someone else. When I fell asleep, I had this dream. My brother and my sister and I were watching television with my Aunt Helen. Everything was in slow motion. The sound was thick. And she was doing what Sam was doing. That's when I woke up. And I didn't know what the hell was going on.

It's like if I blamed my aunt Helen, I would have to blame her dad for hitting her and the friend of the family that fooled around with her when she was little. And the person that fooled around with him. And God for not stopping all this and things that are much worse. And I did do that for a while, but then I just couldn't anymore. Because it wasn't going anywhere. Because it wasn't the point.

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. We can still do things. And we can try to feel okay about them.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower

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Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 1, Chapters 1-5

Part 1, Chapters 6-10

Part 2, Chapters 11-20

Part 2, Chapters 21-25

Part 3, Chapters 26-37

Part 4, Chapters 38-51 and Epilogue

Character Analysis

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Discussion Questions

Explain the relevance of the title in relation to Charlie’s character. What is a “wallflower”? And what does Charlie gain by being one?

Abuse, both sexual and physical, plays a large role throughout the novel. How does the abuse that Charlie experiences and witnesses directly influence his character? And how does secrecy play a role in these abuses?

In Chapter 39, Charlie mentions feeling nostalgic for “bad things”(139). How does he define nostalgia? And how does this relate to his aunt Helen?

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The Perks of Being a Wallflower: Mental Illness Depiction

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Mental illness analysis in the perks of being a wallflower.

• American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th ed.). Author.
• Corrigan, P. W., & Penn, D. L. (2015). Lessons from social psychology on discrediting psychiatric stigma. American Psychologist, 70(7), 618-625. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0039404
• Dearden, A., & Phillips, S. (2018). Cinematherapy, depictions of mental illness and the recovery journey in film. Journal of Mental Health, 27(4), 345-350. https://doi.org/10.1080/09638237.2018.1461441
• Ebert, R. (2012, September 19). The Perks of Being a Wallflower. RogerEbert.com. https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-perks-of-being-a-wallflower-2012
• Kazdin, A. E. (2013). Adolescent mental health: Prevention and treatment programs. American Psychologist, 68(6), 442-454. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0032698
• Koocher, G. P. (2011). Ethics and the portrayal of mental illness in popular film: Recommendations for filmmakers. Journal of Medical Ethics, 37(8), 477-481. https://doi.org/10.1136/jme.2010.038984
• Sánchez-Ortiz, V. C., Munarriz, M., Galván, G., & Vicens, V. (2015). Cinematherapy in mental health. A narrative review. Frontiers in Psychology, 6, 1476. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01476

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The Perks of Being a Wallflower Review

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“The Perks of Being a Wallflower” Literary Analysis

The author utilized symbolism in Stephen Chbosky’s The Perks of Being a Wallflower to portray Charlie’s character. The tunnel, the Rocky Horror Picture Show, and dancing were employed as symbols and imagery to illustrate Charlie’s transition from observing life passively to actively participating in it. These symbols also convey Charlie’s realization of the significance of friendship and family.

Charlie, a teenager named Charlie, is coping with the suicide of his friend Michael. In order to alleviate his concerns and worries about embarking on high school by himself, Charlie starts corresponding with an unknown person whom he believes to be compassionate despite their lack of acquaintance. Over the course of the academic year, Charlie encounters significant milestones such as going on his first date and experiencing his first kiss. He also has to face bullying, experiments with substances like drugs and alcohol, and undergoes the repetitive process of forming friendships, losing them, and subsequently reconnecting.

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Charlie creates his own personal soundtrack by crafting a series of mix tapes filled with iconic songs. He also reads a vast amount of timeless literature and immerses himself in the interactive culture of the “Rocky Horror Picture Show” audience. In his last letter, Charlie expresses optimism about leaving the hospital, forgiving his aunt Helen for her past behavior towards him, making new friends in his sophomore year of high school, and actively engaging with life instead of just watching it go by. Charlie’s goal is to break free from his introspection and become an active participant in the tangible world.

In the story, Charlie goes through tunnels three times. The first and third occasions are with his friends, but when he goes through the tunnel the second time, he is by himself. This allows him to think about the life he has been living. Tunnels can have various meanings, but in this story, they represent a path for Charlie to transition from being a wallflower to becoming an engaged and sociable teenager. When Charlie goes through the tunnel with his friends again, it signifies that he is truly living life instead of merely watching it from afar.

Feeling the wind on my face while standing in that tunnel made me completely indifferent to seeing downtown or even considering it. The mere presence in the tunnel was sufficient to evoke a sense of infiniteness within me. Another symbolic allusion found within the novel is The Rocky Horror Picture Show, a 1970s film wherein characters masquerade as Frank ‘N’ Furter, engage in object throwing antics, and interact with the screen. One of the tunes showcased in this movie is “Time Warp”, which actually entails a collective dance.

Charlie finds a special meaning in The Rocky Horror Picture Show as it represents his desire to be accepted and fit in. This need for acceptance is extremely important to Charlie, just like the friends he surrounds himself with. The film offers a safe space where Charlie can freely express himself and participate in unconventional activities without fear of being mocked. As Charlie puts it, “While we may not understand all the reasons behind who we are, we still have the ability to determine our future regardless of our origins.”

Despite having multiple chances to dance at his school, Charlie only dances once in the story when Sam asks him to. This reluctance to dance symbolizes his unwillingness to fully participate in anything. Additionally, the story also uses dancing as symbolism. Charlie’s teacher, Bill, asks him if he dances at the homecoming dance and Charlie replies, “I’m not a very good dancer.” This further emphasizes his hesitation to engage in activities.

Instead of dancing, he chooses to watch others dance. During school dances, he remains in the background, tapping his toe, and pondering how many couples will dance to their song. This serves as further evidence that Charlie is a wallflower, until his friends come along and help him understand that experiencing life is more fulfilling than merely observing it. When Sam invites Charlie to dance, it becomes one of those moments when Charlie feels infinite. “She holds me a little closer, and I hold her a little closer. And we continue dancing. It’s the one moment during the entire day when I genuinely wish time would stand still.”

Another instance occurred when Sam and Charlie shared a kiss, a moment that brought intense joy and made Charlie realize he had never been happier in his entire existence. This event further solidifies the fact that Charlie is starting to break free from his introverted nature and form genuine connections with others. The author skillfully employed symbolism and imagery to depict the transformation of Charlie, the story’s protagonist, as he transitioned from being a passive observer to an engaged and collaborative teenager, exemplified through various elements such as tunnels, the Rocky Horror Picture Show, and dancing.

The author utilized these elements to demonstrate how Charlie discovered the importance of family and friends in one’s life. Additionally, they depict the thoughts and feelings experienced by a wallflower regarding life. Most notably, symbolism and imagery were employed by the author to highlight the idea that actively participating in life is superior to mere observation.

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The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Coming of age in the perks of being a wallflower anonymous 9th grade.

Life is about overcoming obstacles and fears to become truly happy, a message that The Perks of Being a Wallflower teaches its readers as Charlie matures through the coming-of-age process. The story follows Charlie as he encounters drugs, sexuality, and friendship while struggling through his freshman year of high school. This involves meeting new people and going through conflicts he has never had to deal with before such as drugs, alcohol, and peer pressure.

In Stephen Chbosky's realistic coming-of-age novel, the protagonist, Charlie, grows from naivety to self-awareness and from chastity to sexuality. At the beginning of the book, Charlie is both innocent and naive. An example of his innocence can be seen when Sam invites Charlie to her room to show him the typewriter she bought him for Christmas. Sam asks Charlie if he has ever kissed a girl: “[he] shook [his] no. It was so quiet.” This proves how uncomfortable sexuality is for Charlie (70). His discomfort is also evident when he describes his uncomfortable perspective on the school dances: “At the school dances, [he] sit[s] in the background… wonder[ing] how many couples will dance to their song…’” Again, this shows that he attends dances alone (24). Charlie is also very...

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The Perks of Being a Wallflower: 20th Anniversary Edition

By: stephen chbosky.

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