Perks of Being a Wallflower Investigative Essay
Different mediums of creative outlets such as music, books, and movies, often guide people through their lives. Various texts translate meaning into any circumstance, and allow discoveries to be made in order to deepen understanding of not only oneself, but of the world around as well. In Stephen Chbosky’s, Perks of Being a Wallflower, the main protagonist Charlie, finds himself discovering a plethora of new experiences, from his own sexuality, to the use of drugs. These experiences are often guided by different pieces of literature provided by his teacher and mentor, Bill. Likewise, works of music and movies provided by his closest friends Sam and Patrick, allow Charlie to discover himself throughout
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His musical taste is not only gained from the mixtape that is given to him by his sister, but also from Sam and Patrick, who both heavily influence him. The novel mentions countless songs, with Charlie’s mixtapes being comprised of many classic melodies. The ‘Secret Santa’ mixtape is a compilation of songs including: MLK, by U2, Asleep, by The Smiths, and Smells Like Teen Spirit, by Nirvana. The mixtape also includes Landslide, by Fleetwood Mac, and it is initially referenced in the novel when Charlie, Sam and Patrick drive through the tunnel for the first time. Charlie claims that Landslide, is “a beautiful song” (pg. 42), and it assists him in the euphoric state of feeling “infinite”, but also relates to how he changes over the progression of the novel. The line: “well, I’ve been afraid of changing”, in the chorus of Landslide, enables the audience to connect the song, to capture how Charlie overcomes his vicious shyness. Charlie’s ‘changing’, or discovery of outgoingness, can be first correlated to when he approaches Patrick at the football game. He states that he himself, is normally very shy, but overcomes this because Patrick “seemed like the kind of guy you could just walk up to” (pg. 21). Therefore connecting the terror of ‘changing’ within the song, to Charlie …show more content…
He adores every book he reads, and with that, his English teacher, Bill, provides him with extra stimulus for his class. One of the extra pieces of literature assigned to Charlie, was The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D Salinger. The main protagonist of The Catcher in the Rye, Holden, has many similar traits to Charlie, as the two books parallel each other. Both protagonists are both classified as wallflowers, and throughout their respective novels, they go through a self-discovery process. Within both books, there is also a predominant discovery of love, which is made through Charlie and Holden’s new profound self-discovery. In Perks, Charlie realises the reality of relationships, and how difficult they can be. Furthermore, when it comes to relationships, Charlie lacks experience, additionally his love for Sam is overwhelming, and he often became confused surrounding the topic. “I love Sam. It’s not a movie kind of love either. I just look at her sometimes, and I think she’s the prettiest and nicest person in the world” (pg. 51). Being socially inept at times, Charlie finds it hard to comprehend his love. This is how The Catcher in the Rye, is similar to Charlie. Both protagonists are unable to connect with others, such as women, and they both assume very comparable roles. Charlie and Holden, discover the ideology of
In The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger, the main character and narrator Holden Caulfeild walks many different paths of life. He jumps around different aspects of his life throughout the book, showing the reader many different sides to himself. This theme is presented through the author’s technique in crafting the characterization and symbolism. J.D. Salinger develops a puzzle of a personality for Holden throughout the book, to show the complexity and multitude of sides to Holden’s character.
Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger is the story of Holden, a boy who struggles with emotions and how to tell his parents he got kicked out of school, again. He is always travelling around New York trying to find something to entertain himself and have fun. But you can tell by the subtle hints he drops throughout the entire book he hates change. As he tries to tell people about how he feels he finds himself alone and isolated. Throughout the course of Holden’s journey we clearly see he struggles with isolation as he tries to find comfort in different people, all he can find comfort in is his red hat and Phoebe.
Charlie also learns about facing fears in the book. Facing his parents, the sneaking out with Jasper, Corrigan and of course the truth about Laura. Charlie was always a scared
The Catcher in the Rye, a novel by J.D. Salinger follows the life of a cynical teenage boy named Holden Caulfield. Holden is first seen as a very cynical person who does not understand the world. He often criticizes everything around him and blames it on the people around him, almost never on himself. He mostly spends his time around clubs and getting drunk with no people to comfort him. His only friends, Phoebe and Allie, both contain a specific characteristic very important to him, innocence.
Every person gets influenced by someone even major characters, in both suitable and adverse ways. Holden Caulfield is a 17-year-old boy that is the protagonist and narrator of the novel The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger. Holden is influenced by many characters and tries to learn from his own experiences and from the ones of others as well. Some even change him in ways that make him grow up and change as a character. Not only that, Holden goes through many difficult hardships and through his cynicism he tries to protect himself from the agony and dissatisfaction of them. Many people influence him, especially Jane Gallagher, Allie Caulfield, and D.B. Caulfield.
With the number of people suffering from depression rising at excessive rates due to the presence of social media it is important to look back and reflect on the depression that Stephen Chbosky created in Perks of Being a Wallflower. Charlie is a teenager about to enter high school and for many people that can cause anxiety and fear that can plunge them in the darkness many people know as depression. Throughout the book, Charlie’s depression progresses to a point where it has become a form of self harm and he needs serious medical attention.
Catcher in the Rye influenced Perks of Being a Wallflower in many ways that makes their connection vary strongly, from the way it’s written, the tone, and the characters. Holden and Charlie both go through traumatic experiences that end with the boys being hospitalized. Not only Charlie and Holden had a connection, but so did their siblings: Charlie’s brother and D.B. takes up celebrity-like careers. Charlie and Holden relates in loosing people who are close to them. For example, they lost a family member and both of their classmates had committed suicide.
The book also focuses on Charlie’s home life. Charlie has two siblings that make him feel invisible. There’s a hidden resentment in the tone that is used by Charlie to explain his sister and brother. But by the end they have managed to form a certain bond that Charlie has always wanted.
The Catcher and the Rye and the Perks of being a Wallflower are two separate stories both involving a teenage boy going through their first taste of freedom. They both have similar challenges and issues ahead of themselves but their personality differ greatly but both remain awkward in character. Holden considers himself a loner who doesn’t avidly try in school. While Charlie is the opposite of Holden, he has a small group of friends and he viewed upon as the teacher’s pet. Although both the Catcher and the Rye and the Perks of being a Wallflower take place during different time periods they both go through the untimely struggles of growing
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
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.
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 is a book about the changes teens go through as they mature and the obstacles they face during this time. Charlie comes across changes in his relationships, his own stance in his family, school, and friends, and how he thinks of himself. He learns about his past and makes changes towards how he thinks about himself and why he is who he is.
The setting of the novel greatly breads Charlie’s life. In the suburbs, everyone knows each other better than in the city. Therefore, when one person is beaten by a mental illness, it affects everyone in some way. When someone has a mental illness people do not talk about it, it is pushed away and hidden. No one really tries to help, but once the problem goes to extremes and someone commits suicide, no one is not talking about it. So when Charlie’s best and only friend stops coming to school and they announce that he has passed away, everyone is whispering about it and trying to find what really happened. Charlie found someone who knows the truth and got the true but devastating news “Dave with the awkward glasses told us that Michael
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.