Perks Of Being A Wallflower Essay
Title: The Perks Of Being A Wallflower
Composer: Stephen Chbosky
Source: MTV Books/Pocket Books
Date: Published Feb 1, 1999 context: The epistolary novel, The Perks Of Being A Wallflower is semi-autobiographical. it is set in Stephen Chbosky's home town Upper St. Clair, Pennsylvania. Chbosky was working on a "very different type of book" 1994 when he wrote the line ,"I guess that's just one of the perks of being a wallflower."
The writer recalled that he "wrote that line. And stopped. And realized that somewhere in that sentence was the kid I was really trying to find." Several years later, Chbosky began writing The Perks of Being a Wallflower, a novel that follows the emotional maturation and self growth of "Charlie" over the course of his freshman year of high school. The book is semi-autobiographical. Chbosky has said that he …show more content…
"relates to Charlie"
Audience: The Perks Of Being A Wallflower presents issues almost any teenager is able to relate to. Although it has an intended teenage audience it also has many good reviews by several different age groups.
Purpose: Chbosky shows through Charlie that “even if we don’t have the power to choose where we come from, we can still choose where we go from there”.
He wants the reader to focus on this message and understand that it is okay to be a little different or strange as long as your heart is in the right place.
Synopsis of text:
The Perks of Being A Wallflower is an incredibly accurate depiction of early adolescence and growing up. It is a narrated story by an introverted, shy 15 year old who goes by the alias of "Charlie". Charlie is a sincere and emotional character, who experiences episodes of depression triggered by sexual abuse as a young child. He is perceived as "weird" or "different" because of his disturbed emotional state and the fact that he is so quiet.
The book is set out over Charlie's freshman year in high school, which he is starting friendless. His only friend, Micheal, killed himself in the previous year leaving Charlie confused and scared to start school.
As Charlie meets seniors Sam and Patrick, he starts to feel more comfortable and everything changes for him. The pair take Charlie under their
wing.
Through the course of his first year in high school and throughout the book Sam, Patrick, and their group of friends begin to merge him into the real world by exposing him to drugs, sex, rock and roll, and "The Rocky Horror Picture Show". They help him come to terms with life and learn to interact.
Charlie begins learning about sexuality, friendship and himself. He also starts to understand his complicated family. He tells his story through a series of letters addressed to an anonymous stranger who is never revealed.
Ideas relevant to 'Belonging':
Belonging is an emphasised concept in the epistolary novel, The Perks Of Being A Wallflower.
The fact Charlie is a shy, awkward, emotionally unstable, introvert starting his freshman year alone makes it very difficult for him to belong.
The novel presents the idea of belonging in high school and the difficulties that come with it. It expresses the the great joys and other wonderful emotions it brings when you finally belong for the first time in your life.
As Charlie makes his first friends in his freshman year, Sam and Patrick, they make him feel like he belongs somewhere other than the outer fringes."And in that moment, I swear we were infinite," describes Charlie's feeling of belonging with his new friends as they drive to nowhere in particular, listening to a song they had enlightened him with and which they all love. The pair introduce him to an entirely new sub-culture and to their friends who are immediately accepting of him. They teach him all about music, drugs and sex. This gives Charlie a sense of belonging because he, to an extent, feels as though he finally 'fits in' to a particular group which he can relate to. The quote "Sam and Patrick looked at me. And looked at them. And I think they knew. Not anything specific really. They just knew." shows that Charlie felt they understood him, which is an important aspect of belonging.
techniques: metaphors etc
Title: Winter Girls
Composer: Laurie Halse Anderson
Source: Viking
Date: published in March 2009
Context: Anderson wrote Winter Girls as a result of several letters she had received from teen girls about their struggles with eating disorders, depression and cutting.
Audience: Young teenage girls and young adults
Purpose: The purpose of this teen novel was to tackle the tough subject of eating disorders with sensitivity, subtlety and grace and to inform young girls about how serious eating disorders really are.
Synopsis of text:
Winter Girls is a young adult novel written from 18 year old anorexic Lia's point of view. Lia suffers anorexia nervosa. The novel tells her story of the struggle between her addiction to the disorder and life.
The book begins with the news of Lia's bulimic best friend, Cassie, dying alone in a hotel room. The night she died she had called Lia 33 times but Lia had failed to pick up. The traumatic news sends Lia on a downward spiral of self hatred and self harm. It triggers her anorexia which she learns to hide very well from her busy mother and selfish father who are separated.
The spiteful ghost of Cassie haunts Lia and convinces her to follow her path of self destruction. Lia tries to find a way out of the nightmare she's been living but all her efforts appear to be self doomed. Lia starves her self because it is the only control she has over her disconnected personality. She cuts herself to "let the baddness and pain leak out".
Ideas relevant to 'Belonging':
Lia and Cassie didn't feel they belonged so in attempt to do so they altered their bodies in such ways they felt necessary. The self destructive pair took extreme actions of self harm, starvation and purging because they felt it vital to belong and would do anything reach it.
Lia searches for a sense of belonging in her family. She feels she does not belong with either of her parents after their separation. Her cold, busy mother, Dr Marrigan, either doesn't have the time for Lia or uses her as a lab rat because of her eating disorder. Her selfish father, Professor Overbrook, has a new family- his new wife Jennifer and her daughter, not to mention his job that consumes him. Lia is left on the edges of it all. She is part of both "families" but she does not feel as though she belongs to either. She uses destructive methods of self harm and starvation to escape the nightmare, to find a reality where she belongs.
The quote"I failed eating, failed drinking, failed not cutting myself into shreds. Failed friendship. Failed sisterhood and daughter hood" shows that Lia believes she wasn't good enough for her family, that she'd never belong and so she stopped trying and
Composer: Stephen Chbosky
Source: MTV Books/Pocket Books
Date: Published Feb 1, 1999 context: The epistolary novel, The Perks Of Being A Wallflower is semi-autobiographical. it is set in Stephen Chbosky's home town Upper St. Clair, Pennsylvania. Chbosky was working on a "very different type of book" 1994 when he wrote the line ,"I guess that's just one of the perks of being a wallflower."
The writer recalled that he "wrote that line. And stopped. And realized that somewhere in that sentence was the kid I was really trying to find." Several years later, Chbosky began writing The Perks of Being a Wallflower, a novel that follows the emotional maturation and self growth of "Charlie" over the course of his freshman year of high school. The book is semi-autobiographical. Chbosky has said that he …show more content…
"relates to Charlie"
Audience: The Perks Of Being A Wallflower presents issues almost any teenager is able to relate to. Although it has an intended teenage audience it also has many good reviews by several different age groups.
Purpose: Chbosky shows through Charlie that “even if we don’t have the power to choose where we come from, we can still choose where we go from there”.
He wants the reader to focus on this message and understand that it is okay to be a little different or strange as long as your heart is in the right place.
Synopsis of text:
The Perks of Being A Wallflower is an incredibly accurate depiction of early adolescence and growing up. It is a narrated story by an introverted, shy 15 year old who goes by the alias of "Charlie". Charlie is a sincere and emotional character, who experiences episodes of depression triggered by sexual abuse as a young child. He is perceived as "weird" or "different" because of his disturbed emotional state and the fact that he is so quiet.
The book is set out over Charlie's freshman year in high school, which he is starting friendless. His only friend, Micheal, killed himself in the previous year leaving Charlie confused and scared to start school.
As Charlie meets seniors Sam and Patrick, he starts to feel more comfortable and everything changes for him. The pair take Charlie under their
wing.
Through the course of his first year in high school and throughout the book Sam, Patrick, and their group of friends begin to merge him into the real world by exposing him to drugs, sex, rock and roll, and "The Rocky Horror Picture Show". They help him come to terms with life and learn to interact.
Charlie begins learning about sexuality, friendship and himself. He also starts to understand his complicated family. He tells his story through a series of letters addressed to an anonymous stranger who is never revealed.
Ideas relevant to 'Belonging':
Belonging is an emphasised concept in the epistolary novel, The Perks Of Being A Wallflower.
The fact Charlie is a shy, awkward, emotionally unstable, introvert starting his freshman year alone makes it very difficult for him to belong.
The novel presents the idea of belonging in high school and the difficulties that come with it. It expresses the the great joys and other wonderful emotions it brings when you finally belong for the first time in your life.
As Charlie makes his first friends in his freshman year, Sam and Patrick, they make him feel like he belongs somewhere other than the outer fringes."And in that moment, I swear we were infinite," describes Charlie's feeling of belonging with his new friends as they drive to nowhere in particular, listening to a song they had enlightened him with and which they all love. The pair introduce him to an entirely new sub-culture and to their friends who are immediately accepting of him. They teach him all about music, drugs and sex. This gives Charlie a sense of belonging because he, to an extent, feels as though he finally 'fits in' to a particular group which he can relate to. The quote "Sam and Patrick looked at me. And looked at them. And I think they knew. Not anything specific really. They just knew." shows that Charlie felt they understood him, which is an important aspect of belonging.
techniques: metaphors etc
Title: Winter Girls
Composer: Laurie Halse Anderson
Source: Viking
Date: published in March 2009
Context: Anderson wrote Winter Girls as a result of several letters she had received from teen girls about their struggles with eating disorders, depression and cutting.
Audience: Young teenage girls and young adults
Purpose: The purpose of this teen novel was to tackle the tough subject of eating disorders with sensitivity, subtlety and grace and to inform young girls about how serious eating disorders really are.
Synopsis of text:
Winter Girls is a young adult novel written from 18 year old anorexic Lia's point of view. Lia suffers anorexia nervosa. The novel tells her story of the struggle between her addiction to the disorder and life.
The book begins with the news of Lia's bulimic best friend, Cassie, dying alone in a hotel room. The night she died she had called Lia 33 times but Lia had failed to pick up. The traumatic news sends Lia on a downward spiral of self hatred and self harm. It triggers her anorexia which she learns to hide very well from her busy mother and selfish father who are separated.
The spiteful ghost of Cassie haunts Lia and convinces her to follow her path of self destruction. Lia tries to find a way out of the nightmare she's been living but all her efforts appear to be self doomed. Lia starves her self because it is the only control she has over her disconnected personality. She cuts herself to "let the baddness and pain leak out".
Ideas relevant to 'Belonging':
Lia and Cassie didn't feel they belonged so in attempt to do so they altered their bodies in such ways they felt necessary. The self destructive pair took extreme actions of self harm, starvation and purging because they felt it vital to belong and would do anything reach it.
Lia searches for a sense of belonging in her family. She feels she does not belong with either of her parents after their separation. Her cold, busy mother, Dr Marrigan, either doesn't have the time for Lia or uses her as a lab rat because of her eating disorder. Her selfish father, Professor Overbrook, has a new family- his new wife Jennifer and her daughter, not to mention his job that consumes him. Lia is left on the edges of it all. She is part of both "families" but she does not feel as though she belongs to either. She uses destructive methods of self harm and starvation to escape the nightmare, to find a reality where she belongs.
The quote"I failed eating, failed drinking, failed not cutting myself into shreds. Failed friendship. Failed sisterhood and daughter hood" shows that Lia believes she wasn't good enough for her family, that she'd never belong and so she stopped trying and