Alex Eubanks
Mrs. Hallstrom
Honors English One
9 May 2016
The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky as a Critique of Social Issues in the 1990s Stephen Chbosky’s The Perks of Being a Wallflower captures not only the essence of the 1990s but also critiques the problems society faced during this time period. The brief but powerful New York Times Bestseller is written in the form of multiple letters sent to an unknown recipient that detail the life of a high school student known to the reader simply as Charlie. This writing style is consistent with the “self-reflexive acknowledgement of a text’s own status as constructed…” that is common in postmodern texts (Nicol, “The Cambridge Introduction to Postmodern Fiction”). Because the novel is written in the first person, Chbosky is able to effectively use Charlie’s eyes and mind to project criticisms of popular culture. Charlie’s introverted but observant and analytic characteristics that make him a wallflower also make him a perfect tool with which the author can depict and comment on society. The Perks of Being a Wallflower’s critique of the zeitgeist of the 1990s, most notably in regard to the rise of standardized education, the objectification of women, and homophobia allows the reader to gain a more multi-faceted view of opposing viewpoints within the time period.
Within The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky, subtle criticism is brought to the changes in education that occurred in the 1990s. According
In the film The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Charlie, an introverted boy, coping with the recent suicide of his friend, begins high school. He finds trouble making friends until he meets Patrick and Sam. As Charlie attempts to improve his social interaction, and cultivate a sense of self, he continuously experiences blackouts and triggers. Nearing the end of the film, Charlie has a mental breakdown, which leads to his hospitalization, and he uncovers his repressed memories of his Aunt Helen molesting him. Charlie shows symptoms and behavioral tendencies of post-traumatic stress disorder in addition to a comorbid diagnosis of depression and social anxiety.
The Perks of being a Wildflower movie is a great demonstration on adolescence and childhood development as it portrays how much we as humans are effected by our early childhood years and how we struggle to make sense of life while navigating through adolescence. We are molded by our environment, but also shaped by the neglect or abuse we suffer as children. The traumatic experiences are life altering and if not dealt with can have dramatic outcomes for our future. The movie has a great story line and walks the audience through the character and identity development of an adolescence. Dissecting Charlies character will be helpful in understanding that part of a human’s life and development.
In the complete circle of life for all humans, this natural transition comes into existence with the formation of the one cell zygote to begin life from the initial stage of conception that goes through the various eight stages of psychoanalytic theory described by Erik Erikson how humans go through these stages of life by negotiating his or her biological forces and social cultures challenges until to our final stage of our lives that ends with death. In which, these challenges biological and social that we all face at some point in our lives have conflict between them and that has a dramatic effect upon us with whom we become in society. These human developmental stages has been debated by many scientists and psychologist over the years at what point in these stages in our life is the most important stage
‘The Perks of Being a Wallflower’ follows shy and kind-natured Charlie Kelmeckis (Logan Lerman- Percy Jackson, The Butterfly Effect) as he enters high school alone, after the recent loss of his middle school best friend to suicide. Charlie gets befriended by seniors Sam (Emma Watson- Harry Potter-Beauty and the Beast) and Patrick (Ezra Miller- Justice League, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them) and finally feels accepted.
Movies are constantly created by producers and writers to convey a particular meaning to their audience they are reaching out too. The meaning can be interpreted in several ways. For example, one can understand the meaning that was intended by the creators, or it could be an individual’s own understanding of a storyline in the movie. As a movie can be viewed through different perspectives, a dominant male named Louis Althusser created the theory of Interpellation and the Role of ISAs and RSAs to help further understand movies. Althusser’s theory explains that people in power will remain in power and others will be controlled by those in power (Hartt-Fournier, Lecture 2). Furthermore, the role of ISA, known as the Ideological State
In the English 110 class, we performed many tasks that are required to do in the class. The class also required us to read a book which was titled, The Perks of Being A Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky. Reading the book was to help us write an essay about the book. We wrote many essays in the class also each essay was a different type of essay. In total in the class we wrote 4 essays on different subjects and with different methods of writing of the essay. Three of the four essay I selected because it showed the seven different outcomes that are for writing. The seven outcomes are process, revision, critical reading, rhetorical analysis and argumentation. Then the others are researching, quoting, paraphrasing, and documenting sources plus
Author of The Perks of a Wallflower, Stephen Chbosky, mentions an important point when he says, “Banning books gives us silence when we need speech. It closes our ears when we need to listen. It makes us blind when we need sight.” Banning books has been a practice since 443 BC in Rome when Socrates was to drink poison because of “his corruption of youth and his acknowledgement of unorthodox divinities,” says Beacon for Freedom of Expression. Before a book can get to the point of being banned, it undergoes a process of being challenged. This is when a group of people or a person tries to restrict certain materials. When a challenge ends up being victorious, the book gets banned and removed. Some people believe that certain books are not ethically
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 movie Perks of being a Wallflower sparked people's hearts throughout the world for its variety of difficult situations teens everywhere go though. In The perks of being a Wallflower there are three main values that reflect a larger cultural values. For example the value of happiness. Everyone deserves happiness but it is not simply attained it has to be fought for. Charlie from The Perks of being a Wallflower has to learn the hard way the value of friendship. He was shy and unpopular, and socially awkward. But with the help of his friends, he transformed into a kind, funny person. the values of friendship affects many people in the world. Another values in The perks of being a Wallflower is sadness. Sadness can consumes one's life if not
was at a party) and voiced that you think that your Aunt Helen's death was your fault. Knowing
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.
The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky is a good coming of age story, written in an interesting point of view. The book was published February 1, 1999, but is still a staple for many teenagers in 2017. I think the target audience, is older teenagers and young adults. Even though this realistic fiction novel is told by ninth grader, Charlie Kelmeckis, it covers some sensitive topics that younger people may not understand. This book was, as stated before, in the point of view of Charlie.
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.
After discussing The Perks of Being a Wallflower, by Stephen Chbosky, I would strongly recommend this book to my peers, and teenagers. The novel focuses on a teenager’s life named Charlie, exploring various aspects such as drugs, love, mental illness, friends, family, and school. Many of these ideas come into our lives throughout high school (even after high school), and the author writes in such a way I think many teenagers can relate to. The book allowed me to escape from my life and delve into another. It gave me insight into aspects of life to look forward to, in addition to other parts that I should probably try to stay away from; there are plenty of awkward situations, and fun, racing parts.
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.