The Perks Of Being a Wallflower

The Perks Of Being a Wallflower By: Stephen Chbosky

The characters in this book are the embodiment of what it is to be a high school student. Charlie is a freshman who is looking for himself coming into high school with no friends, and a sister who doesn’t acknowledge him when she sees him at school. Luckily within the first couple of weeks he finds two new friends, Sam and Patrick. The downside to this is that they are both seniors. Charlie, although confused, is immensely intelligent, opinionated, but all in all is a bit sad do to the death of his aunt and closest friend. Sam is a very static character because she brings out the inner fun in Charlie. She is outgoing, experienced, honest and most of all beautiful. Patrick is a dynamic character because he basically shows Charlie a whole new world in high school. Patrick is very funny, capable, unique, and brilliant.

This story really starts to pick up shortly after Charlie goes to the homecoming game for his school. The whole time before this Charlie had just been explaining about how much he misses his aunt who died in a car crash trying to get his birthday gift, incidentally his birthday is Christmas eve. What really gets the story going is that he meet Sam and Patrick at the game. After the homecoming dance they go to a party where Charlie discovers that Patrick is gay when he sees him and the quarterback kissing. When Patrick notices this he makes a toast in front of everyone to Charlie, saying that he is now a “Wallflower”. After the party they go through a tunnel and Sam stands in the back of the truck. It is in this moment that Charlie says he feels “Infinite”. Other conflicts start to happen throughout the story but the climax comes when Charlie and Sam kiss the night before she leaves to college. After this Charlie lets all of his problems take over him but in the end, Charlie spends 2 months in a sort of rehab where after he feels all is well. And in the end, Patrick, Sam, and Charlie go through the tunnel and Charlie once again feels infinite. The most major conflict in this story is that of Charlie and his aunt Helen. When she died he basically starts losing his sanity. She really meant a lot to him so when she died, so did a lot of his self pride. Originally he had been getting flashbacks and that’s what hurt him the most. But when he met Sam and Patrick it started getting easier to bear. When it starts to set in that Sam and Patrick are going off to college, it starts to get worse again. Charlie breaks down and spends two months in a hospital. But the conflict is resolved when it is revealed in the hospital that his aunt Helen had molested him. At first Charlie’s parents are sad but when they realize that this is what had been having a hold on him and now he feels relived they’re glad to know that they have their real son back. A huge theme in this story is that “Don’t give up, you haven’t lost it all. Rise each time you fall”. This is an amazing theme to this story because every time Charlie does indeed “fall” he figures out to get back up no matter what the odds. For example, at one point in the book it seems that Charlie losses all of his friends because he had been in love with Sam the entire time and when he gets a girlfriend whom he is sick of, he decides to make it known, by kissing Sam in front of everyone including his girlfriend. When this happens he doesn’t talk to anyone for a few weeks. In those weeks though, Patrick and Brad (the quarter back) are caught by Brad’s dad. When a couple weeks later Brad comes back, him and his friends try to jump Patrick but Charlie single handedly beats all of them up and gains his friendship back with his friends. So Charlie is definitely the embodiment of this theme. The best passage in the entire story to me would be when Charlie asks his English teacher why do people choose other people who are really no good for them. And his response was the best passage from the book “We accept the love we think we deserve.” This is the best passage because it explains the entire book. You can tell the characters choose who they think they deserve. Patrick who is very self confident accepts Brads love, who is the most popular guy in school. All though it’s a secret it still means a lot that they’re together. Sam’s boyfriend for the most part is a college student named Craig. Sam has been through a lot and really wants the best for herself but self consciously chooses a guy who constantly cheats on her. Charlie accepts the love from Mary Elizabeth, a girl who asked him to Sadies in the group they hangout in. He does this in spite of her always being very demanding. But in the end it all works out, Patrick is having the time of his life in college and Sam and Charlie accept each other’s love.