Literary Analysis Of Perks Of Being A Wallflower

1003 Words5 Pages
The Perks of Being a Wallflower, written by Stephen Chbosky takes us through the journey of a fifteen year old teenager named Charlie. He is a wallflower, a term used to describe someone who is often reserved and excluded at parties. He is normally very quiet although he observes things that happen in his life everyday very carefully, but chooses to only write them down, to a stranger who he believes is very nice. The book begins when Charlie just starts his freshman year in high school and also battles two emotional breakdowns in his life; death of his only friend and aunt Helen. Charlie finally comes out of his shell and makes friends with Patrick and his step sister Sam on who Charlie ends up having a crush on. Although Charlie is still…show more content…
The Perks of Being a Wallflower is a perfect example of a Bildungsroman novel. First, it starts with Charlie’s loss of his aunt and friend, just like the beginning of any Bildungsroman novel. Second, the protagonist in the story changes from a very quiet and reserved person to someone who is willing to participate in the world and make friends, after he has gone through quite a lot. Third, the ending is ambiguous and not very clear. All that the readers know is that Charlie is going to stop being a wallflower, we don't know if he really participates in the world or if he ends up getting depressed again, after being released from the hospital. Also, Charlie’s character makes a shift from an inexperienced state to an experience state when he learns about how to make friends and also let go of the past. A lot of Bildungsroman novels have lessons and morals like perseverance and acceptance that many people lack today. Reading more of these kind of novels would produce more principled and better generations. Bildungsroman novels are more appealing to me since the whole story is like a process, and with character shifts and different stages in terms of the story’s progress, it makes Bildungsroman novels unique to other kind of genres. These kind of novels can take the fun of reading books a notch higher and can contribute even more to the growth of…show more content…
I have always been someone was not able to fit in with others and talk to them. I have personally gone through a lot in life. I have always grown up under violent and chaotic conditions ever since grade five. My parents quarrelled often, my brother went around breaking things after abusing drugs. I felt like my world was a jigsaw puzzle losing its pieces gradually. I couldn’t talk about it to anyone since no one really paid attention to what I said. I started to ponder on my sexual orientation when I found myself liking guys, when I was in seventh grade. I started to even hate myself for being different to other boys of my age. I went through an even more bigger mental breakdown when I found out that I was gay in a culture where my religion considered being homosexual a sin. Depression started to hit me as my parents decided to get a divorce, which led me to even think of suicide at times. In my junior year of highschool, after I moved to Thailand, I started to drink and abuse drugs until I found friends in my last year of highschool who accepted me regardless of my sexual orientation and I could actually talk to them openly. I learned about who I really am, just like Charlie did. Things started to get better, and now the past just feels like a dream, a bad dream that I just don’t want to speak or think
Show More
Related

  • Summary Of The Perks Of Being A Wallflower By Stephen Chbosky

    4049 Words  | 17 Pages

    Then after some years he completed writing the book entitled ‘the perks of being a wallflower’, and was an immediate success amongst teenage readers. Stephen Chbosky has acclaimed that he connects with ‘Charlie’, and understands his state of mind, even though Charlie’s high-school life was somewhat different than his. One can notice

    Read More

More about Literary Analysis Of Perks Of Being A Wallflower

Open Document