User:Autumn smurf/sandbox

Plot

Stephen Chbosky’s coming of age novel, Perks of being a Wallflower, follows a incompetent teen’s evolving relationships throughout his freshman year of high school through a series of letters sent to an anonymous friend. Charlie has a reputation for being eccentric and abnormal after his only friend, Michael, commits suicide; making high school look lonely and endless to Charlie. He takes the advice of his high school english teacher and tries to participate in life by going to the homecoming football game. He finds the intrepidity to talk to two seniors, Sam and Patrick, he becomes friends with them instantaneously. They take him to a party, introducing him to their diverse, free thinking ways and their wild, eclectic friends. Throughout the novel, Charlie experiences a first relationship and family tensions, experiments with drugs and sexuality, along with the intensity of a first crush. His letters start to become less frequent as he does not have the time to write to his anonymous friend. Charlie betrays his girlfriend, Mary Elizabeth, by kissing another girl in front of her. He was told to stay away for a long time by all his friends; causing his psychological problems to gradually get worse. A couple weeks later, he regains his friendship with everybody after helping Patrick fight an assemblage of football players. After gaining back his friends, his psychological issues do not disperse, he begins to have what he thought were dreams, later finds out that they were memories, of his aunt Helen molesting him and also blames himself for his aunt’s death. Charlie soon has a mental break down that requires hospitalization. After a couple months in a psychiatric hospital he begins to recover and can go back home and live his ‘normal’ life, back to his friends “and in that moment [they are] infinite”.

Reception

The popular book, Perks of being a Wallflower, is reviewed as “an excellent coming of age story” and is “well written [with a] great writing style” . Other readers find that this book has “much depth” and is “more intimate than a diary” and many say Chboshy's first novel "truthfully portrays teenage angst" . The Guardian wrote: “what makes this book so special and authentic is it’s reality. As an adult it takes you back to when you were a teenager, as a child it shows you what lies ahead and as a teenager it inspires you” . While many give praise to this novel, others find that it has a “preposterous plot and a boring protagonist” .

Major Themes

This novel, "unlike" other coming of age books, has an "accurate depiction" of life for the average unpopular teen. When the school year progresses he is not sheltered anymore. Charlie starts to learn about the world and he starts to be more mature.