...The Perks of Being a Wallflower analysis The Perks of Being a Wallflower is the famous book written by Stephen Chbosky about the 15-year-old boy Charlie, who is both the main character and the narrator in the story. Charlie is writing a bunch of letters to his “friend” who we do not know but Charlie is telling this friend absolutely everything he experiences throughout his first year of high school. These experiences include both friends, love, family and death. As mentioned Charlie is a 15-year old boy who is just about to start high school. At first he seems to be confused about his feelings because he says on page 3 that; “I want you to know that I am both happy and sad and I’m still trying to figure out how that could be.” He is also a strong person, even though he has a breakdown towards the end of the book, but he is still standing tall despite the fact that his best friend Michael shot himself and his Aunt Helen molested him as a child and died in a car accident. Charlie is a very observant person, he talks a lot about his family and his friends and how they are doing and that is what makes him a wallflower. Just like Patrick says to Charlie; “You see things and you understand. You’re a wallflower.” Charlie never says much but he sees things and he is aware of everyone’s feelings, like when he sees his sister’s boyfriend hitting her and then tells his teacher, Bill about it. He is also very sensitive and cries easily. He dreams about Sam naked and most boys would...
Words: 855 - Pages: 4
...Stephen Chbosky’s The Perks of Being a Wallflower is, on the surface, a typical coming of age story about a boy going through the ordeals of high school and the trials he encounters, but it deviates from the norm with its introverted protagonist, Charlie. We follow Charlie’s journey as he navigates his first year of high school through a series of letters he writes to an unnamed friend. Stephen Hawking once stated that “Quiet people have the loudest minds,” and Chbosky’s Charlie proves this quote to be true. He spends more time thinking and observing his surrounding than actively participating with others. Charlie’s passive nature negatively impacts his life by preventing him from developing relationships and obtaining happiness. In a way,...
Words: 919 - Pages: 4
...The perks of being a wallflower ”The perks of being a wallflower” is a novel written by Stephen Chbosky. It is the first of his novels and it was published in 1999. It contains 231 pages of adolescent fiction about teenagers and their encounters within school, sexuality, violence, parties and much more. This report starts with a summary of the book, descriptively introducing the prime characters and setting while leading to the conclusion At first, we’re introduced to Charlie the protagonist, who seems to be a rather smart, yet troubled boy. He’s 15 years of age and a recently freshman in High School. The novel is written in letters, starting with Charlie sending out letters to an anonymous receiver, while only giving his first name, to also remain unknown. Charlie doesn’t have many friends, considerably due to his major intellect compared to the other kids. He had a friend named Michael, who unfortunately killed himself for a reason Charlie didn’t know. He actually wondered a lot how Michael could avoid talking to him about his problem, which surely must’ve had a huge impact on his mental state of mind. Charlie and Michael used to do sports together, just to have something to do, not because they urged to, but because there wasn’t much for them elsewhere. Now, Charlie is pretty much alone and as for girls, Charlie doesn’t really know how to communicate with them either. The first person for Charlie to really talk to is a senior named Patrick who people calls “Nothing”....
Words: 1047 - Pages: 5
...During Stephen Chbosky film, ‘The perks of being a wallflower’ the theme belonging is represented throughout the entire movie, as the protagonist, Charlie faces issues with belonging at school, home and in general society, he just doesn't belong, he's soon become a wallflower. The term belonging is a state of being a member of a group or organisation. It is the sense of being a part of something, to be accepted, to be loved and cared for, to have the comfort and support of someone. Charlie struggles to fit into any particular group at school, he watches other people talk and socialise, but doesn't join in himself. Throughout this essay, i will demonstrate how, ‘the perk of being a wallflower’, illustrates the theme of belonging. ‘The perks...
Words: 628 - Pages: 3
...“Harlem” * Of the six images, five are similes. Which is a metaphor? Comment on its position and its effectiveness. “Or crust and sugar over-“ The metaphor helps create the shift in the poen and also gives a deeper meaning of what the poet is trying to say with greater impact. * What specific denotation has the word “dream”? Since the poem does not reveal the contents of the dreams, the poem is general in its implication. What happens to your understanding of it on learning that its author was a black American? The specific meaning of “dream” is to be in pursuit of something, or a goal on e wants to accomplish. The understanding of the poem reveal some struggles and hopelessness because as a black American in the early 1900s it was difficult to do anything or even aspire to dreams. “The author to Her Book” * Vocabulary: haiting, feet, meet, vulgars. Line 3-4 refer to the fact that Bradstreet’s book The Tenth Muse was published in 1650 without her permission. * Haiting : feet or impoerfect * Meet: to become aquainted with * Feet : standing position * Vulgars: ignorance of or lack of good breeding or taste, crude * The poem is an extended personification addressing her book as a child. What are similarities does the speaker find between a child and a book of poem? What does she plan to do now that her child has ben put on public display? “ill-formed offspring” tells that something was wrong with the baby, but in different...
Words: 1134 - Pages: 5
..."To His Coy Mistress" is divided into three stanzas or poetic paragraphs. It’s spoken by a nameless man, who doesn’t reveal any physical or biographical details about himself, to a nameless woman, who is also biography-less. During the first stanza, the speaker tells the mistress that if they had more time and space, her "coyness" (see our discussion on the word "coy" in "What’s Up With the Title?") wouldn’t be a "crime." He extends this discussion by describing how much he would compliment her and admire her, if only there was time. He would focus on "each part" of her body until he got to the heart (and "heart," here, is both a metaphor for sex, and a metaphor for love). In the second stanza he says, "BUT," we don’t have the time, we are about to die! He tells her that life is short, but death is forever. In a shocking moment, he warns her that, when she’s in the coffin, worms will try to take her "virginity" if she doesn’t have sex with him before they die. If she refuses to have sex with him, there will be repercussions for him, too. All his sexual desire will burn up, "ashes" for all time. In the third stanza he says, "NOW," I’ve told you what will happen when you die, so let’s have sex while we’re still young. Hey, look at those "birds of prey" mating. That’s how we should do it – but, before that, let’s have us a little wine and time (cheese is for sissies). Then, he wants to play a game – the turn ourselves into a "ball" game. (Hmmm.) He suggests, furthermore...
Words: 403 - Pages: 2
...In "To His Coy Mistress," Andrew Marvell presents a speaker who has a deep conviction appeal to his love. The speaker uses an appeal as his main tool, but he also appeals to his mistress through emotion to gain a response. In the first part of the poem the speaker appeals to his character, second part emotion, and last reason. By using the methods of appeals the speaker hopes to win her love. . In the first stanza, the speaker professes his love for his mistress by saying he would love you ten before the flood (7-10). The speaker's "love should grow vaster than empires"(11-12) and he would adore her for thousands of years (13-18). “What it’s like to be a Black Girl (for those of you who aren’t)” by Patricia Smith, The speaker uses sharp sentence structure and strong forceful language that showed the reader the seriousness of her topic. . Smith’s poem gives the readers a view into a young black girl’s transition into black woman-hood at a time where both being a black girl and a black woman was not as welcomed. In the beginning “It’s being 9 years old and feeling like you’re not finished,” writes Smith, “like your edges are wild, like there’s something, everything, wrong.” (4-5). She refers in her poem is feeling the awkwardness of her changing body and the hope of something different. “It’s dropping food coloring in your eyes to make them blue and suffering their burn in silence. It’s popping a bleached white mop head over the kinks of your hair and primping in front of the...
Words: 293 - Pages: 2
...The poem, To His Coy Mistress, by Andrew Marvell brings out some actions that some of us have experienced or even thought about in this concise poem. This poem is very appealing to the male senses and what some make are like. Some women could be thought of when this is read. Andrew Marvell puts it in words that make it seem as if it was very acceptable. The first twenty lines of the poem start to talk about how much this girl means to this perticular man. The main character in the poem talks about how he will wait forever to be with her. He mentions that “We would sit down and think which way To walk and pass our long love’s day.” (st. 3-4) His views as of now are that he wants to take his time and he doesn’t have go anywhere. This man certainly wants to plan things out so that it will be perfect. Another line from the poem that makes him the gentleman that he is portraying to be is “An hundred years should go to praise Thine eyes and on thy forehead gaze. “(st.13-14) I think he is saying that we will give praise to her eyes that are so magnificent. Her eyes are so beautiful, because of which he will praise them for hundred years before they can truly be together. Later on it mentions that he will praise her breast each for two hundred years. The mood is set that this man certainly wants to be with this woman. He is telling her how he feels and wants her to understand that he really wants to be with her. In the next twelve lines we begin to see a bit...
Words: 686 - Pages: 3
...The comparison of the tone between two poems "To His Coy Mistress" by Andew Marvell and "Maarvell Noir" by Ann Lauinger. Tone of both poems is romantic because both speakers are talks about thier love and lust towards thier mistress,though, the difference is that in " To His Koy Mistress" the persona truely loves his Mrsstress and it is very romantic. However, in "Maverll Noir" the persona is kind of sarcastic, because at first he shows little romance and care for his wife, but later there is no romantic any longer. He doesnot care about her, while she is in prison, which he says in line 30 to 35, "But Irish bars are more my taste than Iron one: Strips ain't my style." in this point, he is kind of look down on his wife that he does not like...
Words: 871 - Pages: 4
...The “Wallflower” on the Big Screen “…And in that moment, I swear, we were infinite.” When I knew that Stephen Chbosky’s moving and illustrious novel will have a movie adaptation, I was real skeptic about it. With the overly mainstream use of infamous books as a direction for Hollywood films this generation, and being an aficionado of the book itself, I hoped that The Perks of Being a Wallflower will be done justice. Or else, I’ll be shouting, “No, damn you, Hollywood. Is nothing sacred to you?,” like Ezra Miller did in his Jimmy Kimmel Live! guesting. After watching the movie though, my wish was granted, sort of. Perks as a movie did not fully lived up to its original published form, but it was still able to leave its audience with a tug at the heartstrings. The Perks of Being a Wallflower tells about Charlie (played by Logan Lerman), who enters his first year of high school while coping with the suicide of his only friend in middle school, Michael and is pretty much trying to “participate” with the rest of the world. He also writes to his “friend,” an unknown persona whom he describes as nice though they’ve never actually met. However, high school isn’t so kind to him. If not neglected, he gets bullied. Luckily, Charlie befriends his English teacher, Bill, who believes in Charlie’s talent in writing. Charlie also makes a friend out of seniors, Patrick (Ezra Miller), who he approaches first in a football game which is his attempt to overcome shyness...
Words: 770 - Pages: 4
...The novels the Catcher in the Rye by J.D Salinger and the perks of being a wallflower by Stephen Chbosky are both coming of age novels. The Catcher in the Rye is set around the 1950s and is narrated by sixteen year old Holden Caulfield. Holden is very judgemental, especially when it comes to people he has categorized as phony. The perk of being a wallflower is set in the 90s and is narrated by Charlie who is a freshman in high school. Charlie is quiet, keeps to himself, and does not enjoy being the center of attention. As most adolescents attempt to find their place in the world they often find mentors to help guide them through conflict. Both Holden and Charlie search for the meaning of their lives, go through conflict, and find someone to help guide them. Both novels are coming of age books because the main characters search for meaning in their life. Holden has trouble staying in one place for too long, for example he has been expelled from four schools. This is because he is constantly searching for his perfect world that has no phonies. While he is trying to find a place with no phonies or adults he says: I’m standing on the edge of some crazy cliff. What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff – I mean if they’re running and they don’t look where they’re going I have to come out from somewhere and catch them. That’s all I’d do all day. I’d just be the catcher in the rye and all. (Salinger 173) Holden is describing to his sister Phoebe...
Words: 1081 - Pages: 5
...Was that the End? In The Perks of being a Wallflower, Stephen Chbosky illustrates how a growing teen aged boy struggles with people around him to get himself known among them. He tries to explain this from a view point of an innocent boy, Charlie, who is going to high-school for first time. Charlie is a guy full of innocence, care and is very immature. He make new friends who are elder than him. He have the most influence of his friends in his development process. Charlie goes through many difficulties in his freshman year. But at the end, he seems to take things very easily. The way Charlie had faced difficulties in his freshman year with the never diminishing memories from his past, it would not have been easy for Charlie to recover the way it was shown in the book. Charlie relationship had never been stable with one person. He was not able to know how to deal with people. For example, Charlie met Patrick while watching football game. Patrick invited Charlie to a house party where he meets other people and become friends with them. He sees Sam and starts liking her. Since then Charlie becomes best friend with Patrick and Sam....
Words: 782 - Pages: 4
...Courtney Vargas C. Abbott English 102 May 2, 2013 The Perks of Being a Wallflower: Which is better, the movie or book? Being nominated for awards from groups such as Toronto International Film Festival, Writers Guild of America for Best Adapted Screen Play, and Detroit Film Critics Society for Breakthrough Artist, Best Screenplay, and Best Supporting Actor, and winning Independent Spirit Awards for Best First Film and Boston Society of Film Critics for Best Supporting Actor, it is no wonder that The Perks of Being a Wallflower is described as a “heartfelt and sincere adaptation that is bolstered by strong lead performances” (Rotten Tomatoes, 2012). Just as far as the movie goes, The Perks of Being a Wallflower is a story to remember. Stephen Chbosky is not only the author of The Perks of Being a Wallflower book, but is also the director of the movie. Taking place in the early 1990s, The Perks of Being a Wallflower is a story of a teenager who is starting high school and his experiences through his freshman year. Charlie, the protagonist, is a loner entering high school and shortly after entering his school he essentially gets adopted into a group of smart, outcast seniors. His two best friends in the group Sam and Patrick, “seniors, stepsiblings, and self-defined misfit toys” (Chaney, 2012), give Charlie the time of his life his freshman year meeting new people through parties, football games, The Rocky Horror Picture Show and trying new things that most high school students...
Words: 2205 - Pages: 9
...that all novel loving fans will like, is a whole different story. The novel The Perks of Being a Wallflower, written by Stephan Chbosky, and the movie The Perks of Being a Wallflower, directed by Stephan Chbosky, follows the letters of an “outcast” teenage boy, Charlie, as he weaves his way through his first year of high school, from finding friends, to heartbreak, and all the way to dealing with the past. The plot of the novel is written very well, when it was transferred over to the movie though the director left out some key plot pieces like, Candice’s pregnancy and abortion, Sam’s heartbreak, and Charlie’s story of being hit by his father once. Each key piece if included would have added nicely to the overall theme representation. Character representation was also a factor that was done poorly in the movie, Charlie, the main character, was lacking depth and connection. The novel The Perks of Being a Wallflower, written by Stephan Chbosky, and the movie The Perks of Being a Wallflower, directed by Stephan Chbosky, have very similar ideas and topics but they differ from each other in pieces of the plot and character representation, which results in the movie version lacking depth and development of theme. Even though the novel will never be just like the movie and the director cannot keep every part of the book in the movie, certain pieces of the plot are necessary and in The Perks of Being a Wallflower movie this is true, many of essential plot pieces were missing...
Words: 1654 - Pages: 7
...The Perks of Being a Wallflower As teens or young adults you are still trying to figure out who you are and what you have to offer the world. There is so much pressure around teen’s every day of their lives. They do not know what is the right or the wrong choice, but certain influences and relationships help determine the choices they make. They need guidance and someone they can talk to, like a non-parental adult. This is an adult who wants to make a difference in the life of teens, and is someone they can rely on for support. Non-parental adults can come from many different socially-defined contexts: Teachers, coaches, or extended family. These adults play a tremendous role in teens lives’, which is exemplified well in Bill, a male adult character in Chbosky’s The Perks of Being a Wallflower. The Perks of Being a Wallflower (Chbosky, Stephen: Pocket Books UK, 2009) is a novel set sometime in the late 1990s, and focuses on the life of a fifteen year old boy, Charlie. He is a high school freshman, who is painfully shy, but also a very raw, real, vulnerable, and honest character. Throughout the book you see Charlie develop many different relationships. In fact, Charlie finds himself battling some moments of depression and he might not have found his way out without those relationships. An example of a non-parental adult that really impacts Charlie throughout his first year in school would be his English teacher, Bill. Bill recognizes Charlie’s intelligence and writing...
Words: 715 - Pages: 3
