The Perks of Being a Wallflower

High school is hands down the worst time of most people's lives. Adolescents are forced into a new school where they have to make new friends and figure out how they identify themselves. There is a new ranking system the students have to cope with as well: freshman, sophomore, junior, senior, jock, musician, geek, cheerleader, etc. The placement of a person within these groups determines how cool, or uncool, they are. Basically, the students have to decide what group to associate with in order to survive the next four years of their life.

Well Stephen Chbosky outlines this inevitable obstacle through the point of view of a freshman boy in The Perks of Being a Wallflower. This book does a fantastic job of highlighting the good and bad parts of high school that every person will have to deal with in some way. The main character, Charlie, begins the school year without friends and separated from the rest of the student body due to the unique way he views life. Throughout the book Charlie goes through a process of maturing and growing into a stronger individual. This is accomplished through the experiences Charlie has with his group of friends, the unique relationship established between the reader and Charlie, and the issues covered within the story and how they universally affect the public.

As I already mentioned, Charlie begins his high school career without any friends. He makes remarks about how whenever he is alone the world seems much more difficult to deal with than when other people are around. People acted as a distraction for Charlie whenever he was going through something really hard. I think anyone can relate to this. There have been times in every person's life when it seemed as though no one else was there to catch you if you fell or listen to you when your heart seems broken. It shows how everyone needs someone to support him or her in times of trouble.

Charlie's interaction with his friends also acts in a unique way. At the beginning Charlie associates with his future group of friends because he simply recognizes them from a class at school. As Charlie hangs out with them more, he develops deeper relationships with them because he recognizes the individual details that make them special. He sees the deeper, truer versions of these people. This is a unique quality. Usually people only recognize the surface version of a person, never learning anything more than the inconsequential details. Charlie, however, saw everything. He remembered what people said and made sure that he treated people as more than just your everyday high schooler.

This characteristic, and more revealed in the book, make Charlie into a person that anyone would want to have as a friend. Charlie takes time to understand people as much as he can. Additionally, Charlie has some of the best taste in music. He can listen to a song and know what kind of vibe it will put to a room. Charlie also reads some of the best books because of the themes and lessons taught through the literature. Some of these books include To Kill A Mockingbird, The Great Gatsby, Peter Pan, Walden, Hamlet, and The Fountainhead. This is an important quality of Charlie's because he can relate to the characters within these books on a first hand basis, which is awesome because most of the time people read books and don't take time to recognize what the characters are truly going through. The details presented about Charlie are what make the reader all the more likely to relate to this boy without even knowing him. It is done in such a subtle way so that, by the end of the book, the reader finds themselves one of Charlie's close friends.

Throughout the book deep issues also are presented and evaluated in order for the reader to gain a better understanding of how to live through the tough times in life. Issues discussed within this book range from body image to sexual orientation. This allows for these hot button issues to be discussed in a productive manner. It also opens up the opportunity for young adults to learn about how deal with the issues if they present themselves in their lives or their friend's lives. Hopefully this book will be a beacon to someone who is going through dark times.

In the end, readers of The Perks of Being a Wallflower will be made into better people just by reading the book. I hope that the movie version will act as a good visual presentation of this book that has already sold thousands of copies.