Perks Of Being A Wallflower Essay

506 Words3 Pages
For this outside readings project, I read The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky. The format of the book is one in which the protagonist Charlie is writing to a stranger, and we as the reader are reading these letters that are addressed to his “Dear Friend.” In the beginning of the book we meet a fifteen year old boy named Charlie. Charlie, we learn early on, has a friend named Michael Dobson who has recently committed suicide; this is one of the major struggles along with entering high school for the first time that the protagonist faces in the beginning of the book. Charlie, as a way of coping with the initial stresses that we learn about, begins writing to an anonymous stranger that he has heard is friendly but he has never met in person.…show more content…
We learn that Charlie also has a probleming with being shy, but he overcomes this shyness and is able to approach his classmate, Patrick, who along with Patrick’s step sister, become Charlie’s best friends. Throughout the course of the book, we follow Charlie in his adventures through high school. He experiences his first kiss, his first date, his first experiences with drugs and alcohol, all the while making, gaining and losing friends. Charlie we discover is very creative, making original soundtracks with different mixtapes of popular songs, reading a slew of classic novels, and even getting involved in the Rocky Horror Picture Show which he finds is one of the only places where he can be himself and fit in which is exactly what Charlie desires to do; fit in with a group of others alike. Charlie’s home life is for the most part ideal with supporting yet absent parents. Charlie, as the book begins to wrap down, has a mental breakdown towards the end of the school year. Memories of his Aunt Helen molesting him as a child are ones that he has been able to repress for most of his life, but they surfaces and the results lead to his
Open Document