A Rhapsody of Teenage Life
The Perks of Being a Wallflower is a coming-of-age novel, written by Stephen Chbosky an American novelist, screenwriter, film director, television writer, and film and television producer. It is a standalone novel. A film adaptation has been made with the same name starring Emma Watson and Logan Lerman.
A WALLFLOWER: Someone who is so shy they typically stand or sit alone rather than engaging with a larger group.
vocabulary.com
Charlie is a freshman, an introvert, and a wallflower and writes down his life’s happenings in letters, emptying his heart out to a stranger, that is the reader. When Sam and Patrick take him under his wing he is introduced to the world of drugs, alcohol, girls, and sexuality. All while his sister deals with an abusive boyfriend and he deals with his beloved aunt’s death among other things.
First of all, I’d like to say that I am an Indian here studies and education are extremely important. Our high school experience is way different than what is shown in the book, girlfriends and boyfriends are considered major distractions and if some people do have them most of the time it is a secret. As a girl even at 15-16, we have to ask permission to hang out with friends and mostly under some sort of supervision, it is different for boys though. Things like alcohol and drugs are totally foreign for most, I agree mostly with all this. Things are definitely changing and people are being influenced by the Western culture, which is both good and bad.
Charlie is somewhat detached but highly sensitive at the same time, it sounds contradictory but it is the truth. I personally could not relate to him since I am not a wallflower type of person nor to his experiences as a high schooler, that being said the book still made me feel. Some things I do relate to are his love for reading and music. He made some pretty dumb decisions and he is absolutely clueless on the romantic front (facepalms). He is supposed to be an intelligent student/person but honestly felt like sort of a book-smart person to me. It is quite evident throughout the book he is going through some issues mentally and there are some answers at the end. We do see him grow as he learns from his experiences.
Coming to the other characters I wanted to shake his sister until she came to her senses and give her a tight hug at the same time. Each character goes through some sort of struggle which is interesting. Sam is my new favorite and believe me that has absolutely nothing to do with Emma Watson playing her in the movie. There is no definite villain, to be honest, most of the characters are grey at most which seemed realistic to me since life is not black and white. The character arcs are good enough.
Chbosky basically added about every severe issue a teenager might face in this book. What struck me as a bit strange was that each of these issues was not very deeply dug into, Charlie just moves on to the next issue, it is like with a new letter comes a new issue, the reason I called him detached. In other books, such issues would be really dug into. Whether it is a good strange or a bad strange totally depends on the reader. For me, it was a good strange because I don’t like it when issues are dragged out a lot so the fast pace of the book worked well. The characters were all given indefinate ends which makes sense because 1. They literally have their whole lives to figure things out and 2. In real life too there is no perfect happily ever after there is just one chapter after another.
The book is from Charlie’s perspective and even though it was written about two decades back, it feels as if it has been written recently. The Perks of Being a Wallflower is the sort of book that can be called timeless. English is informal and not a lot of attention is given to grammar, so if that is something you care about in a book you have been warned. It is 224 pages long, divided into 4 parts, and 51 chapters long along with an epilogue.
The book has themes of domestic abuse, sexual abuse, suicide, homophobia, molestation, child abuse, infidelity, depression, and drug use. If you are sensitive toward or deeply affected by any of these I’d urge you to think before you read. According to me, this book is not for anyone below 15 years of age, if you still decide to let your ward read it, please go through it yourself first. There is quite a detailed account of sexual abuse in the book, also the characters get intimate.
The book made me think about a lot of things and I am pretty sure it will have that effect on most people. Some of the quotes are really beautiful, they actually stuck with me after I was done reading, not something that happens a lot. I would like to add that I believe if someone has been exploited in any way, they still do not have any right to put other people through the same situations. Such cycles of trauma need to be broken.
[Also Read: 10 Quotes From Perks of Being a Wallflower That Hit Deep ]
Overall it is an emotional rollercoaster if you are up for it, jump on!
Bye for now.
Yours,
A Fellow Bookworm
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