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The Unread Letters

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December, 17, 2013

The Unread Letters

Taking a novel and making it into a movie is one thing but taking a novel and making it into a movie well 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, affecting the overall themes. In the novel Charlie’s sister is pregnant and also gets an abortion, “She took a deep breath and brushed off the hair that was sticking to her face. That’s when she told me she was pregnant.” (Chbosky116). The book also talks the abuse going on with his sister one step further, in the book Charlie tells Bill, his English teacher, about his sister being slapped by her boyfriend, “When I finally got home, my sister was sitting on a chair. My mom and my dad were standing in front of her. And I knew that Bill had called home and told them” (Chbosky 25). Sam, Charlie’s best friend, also has a situation that is skipped in the movie. In the book the reader finds out, “Craig had been cheating on Sam ever since they started going out[…]There were several girls. Several times. Drunk and sober. And I guess he never felt bad” (Chbosky 177). Finally, a piece of the book that was missing in the movie was when Charlie talks about if his dad has ever hit them, “He never touched my brother or sister, and the only time he ever slapped me was when I made my Aunt Helen cry” (Chbosky 26). Each one of these events either were cut short in the movie or were never mentioned or included at all. This story is a very small detail in the book but when looked at in a bigger light it means a lot more. It shows how and why Charlie accepts the love, and abuse from his aunt. Charlie was so young an innocent that once he was slapped he never wanted to hurt his Aunts feelings again so he never told on his Aunt for abusing him because he did not want to make her cry, in fear he would get hit again. Charlie’s sister gets pregnant and gets an abortion, showing a deeper, more relatable side to Candice,

then the image the movie portrays her as, a perfect teenage girl. Sam’s heartbreak, also is important because again it relates to the themes but it also shows that heartbreak does happen, and sometimes it is painful and you can get hurt by the people that you think love you. Charlie’s story of being hit once by his father, Candice’s pregnancy and abortion and Sam’s heartbreak all seem insignificant at the time but when you look at the big picture it is important to the themes of we accept the love we think we deserve and our shared experiences help us validate and understand each other. The important pieces of the plot that are missing, Candice’s pregnancy and abortion, Sam’s heartbreak and Charlie’s story about his dad hitting him once, and the two major themes, we accept the love we think we deserve and our shared experiences help us validate and understand each other, are easy to connect to each other. But without those major plot points it is hard to make a connection to the major themes or even take notice that those themes are relevant. The movie did a very poor job at transferring the themes into the movie, it solely focused on Charlie’s life and what issues he was facing, and while he was the protagonist, he was not the only one that made the themes develop, many of the other characters played a role in the theme too. It matters that Candice did get pregnant and got an abortion in the book because it shows why she accepts the love she thinks she deserves and is also easily relatable to the fact that more and more teens are becoming pregnant and getting abortions, by including that plot piece the theme of our shared experiences help us validate and understand each other is proven. This is also true with Craig cheating on Sam with many other girls. Heartbreak is a part of growing up and being a teenager, that is where the theme of our shared experiences help us validate and understand each other and it also shows what her type of love life is like and the guys she is attracted to showing the, we accept the love we thing we deserve, theme too. To conclude, leaving out important plot pieces in the movie resulted in lack of strong theme representation and poor overall atmosphere. The protagonist, Charlie, is portrayed different in the book than in the movie. This is the case for not only Charlie but most of the characters from The Perks of Being a Wallflower. In the book, Charlie is shown as a shy, loser, awkward, clueless, smoker that cries a lot about everything. All of these character traits and actions are lost in the transition from the novel to the movie. The emotional aspect of Charlie’s character is poorly represented trait; in the book he cries all the time, “And I remembered my Aunt Helen. And I started to cry.” (Chbosky280). Charlie cries many more times throughout the book and it shows how troubled he was and how something in his life was not right. Charlie is also a heavy smoker, “I’m now up to about ten cigarettes a day” (Chbosky103). Charlie is not the only that smokes either, the whole group of his friends smoke too. It is not that Charlie was pressured into smoking but he decided to start as a result of being surrounded by it all the time that he thought it would be acceptable to start, it was a peer influence, which is a huge part of the decisions you make as an adolescent growing up. It would have shown the teenagers that watch the movie that who you hang out with will sooner or later affect the choices you make. The only time that Charlie having a breakdown, or cry is presented to the reader’s attention is at the very end of the novel, right before he goes to the hospital also, never in the movie did smoking come up, neither Charlie or his friends smoked at all throughout the movie. Vulnerability and awkwardness are two very easily relatable emotions, and when put in a book allows the reader to have a deeper connection with the characters. That is what was done for Charlie, but when they transformed his character from the novel to the big screen they lost that connection of a vulnerable, outcast teen that was so easily relatable in the book and the characters seemed very plain and not relatable, they were all to “perfect” and had no depth to them.
The theme of our shared experiences help us validate and understand each other, is a theme to do with connection, whether it is a connection to the characters, events or time period. In this case it is the connection with the characters that is lost. The author wanted a wallflower or even just a regular high school student to take the characters out of the novel and connect each one to someone in their life. The novel did a very good job at this, but the movie did not. The connection was lost with the characters in the movie. The movie made it too much its main focuses on Charlie and not enough on the other characters. When it came to events in the novel like, Charlie going to parties, doing drugs and starting smoking most teens could relate to that aspect of peer pressure, and decision making through Charlie but if you were to watch the movie instead of reading the book you would not get that same relation and connection to Charlie or the events.
The movie and the novel of The Perks of Being a Wallflower, by Stephan Chbosky have similar aspect to them but are comparable and are much different in terms of missing plot pieces, how the characters were portrayed and how both of these differences have an effect on the original themes. The movie could have been more relatable and closer connected to the book if it was followed more carefully in terms of, plot pieces and character presentation.

Works Cited
The Perks of Being a Wallflower. Dir. Stephan Chbosky. Perf. Summit Entertainment.2012.DVD

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