The Perks of Being a Wallflower

"It's the story of what it's like to grow up in highschool. More intimate than a diary, Charlie's letters are singular and unique, hilarious and devastating. We may not know where he lives. We may not know to whom he is writing. All we know is the world he shares. Caught between trying to live his life and trying to run from it puts him on a strange course through uncharted territory. The world of first dates, family dramas, and new friends. The world of sex, drugs, and The Rocky Horror Picture Show, where all you need is that perfect song on the perfect drive to feel infinite."

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he’s a wallflower.

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“I walk around the school hallways and look at the people. I look at the teachers and wonder why they’re here. If they like their jobs. Or us. And I wonder how smart they were when they were fifteen. Not in a mean way. In a curious way. It’s like looking at all the students and wondering who’s had their heart broken that day, and how they are able to cope with having three quizzes and a book report due on top of that. Or wondering who did the heart breaking. And wondering why.” — Charlie, The Perks of Being a Wallflower

(via happypositivethoughtsss)

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The Perks of Being a Wallflower

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Setting #3: The Hospital

In the last two letters that Charlie writes to his "friend", he talks about a near-sexual encounter with Sam, which brings up bad memories of him and his Aunt Helen. After he stops Sam and he goes to bed that night, he has a dream of his Aunt Helen doing the things to him that Same was doing earlier that day. This dream was actually reality, and the remembrance of his Aunt Helen molesting him put him into an emotional, mentally dysfunctional state which caused him to be hospitalized for two months. 

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Setting #2: Charlie's First Party

After meeting Sam and Patrick, Charlie is invited to an after-party on the night of his prom. At this party, Charlie is defined as a wallflower by Patrick, and he seems happy to be defined as this. 

Wallflower Definition: Someone who chooses to observe instead of experience life 

While at this party, he is fed brownies laced with marijuana. This is his first experience with drugs, and he doesn't know that he was given drugs until told later on in the book. 

Later on throughout the book, Charlie is taken to several other parties, where he is introduced to drugs such as ecstasy. 

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Character Description & Development: Charlie

                                 A Wallflower With Tangled Roots

Charlie is the protagonist in The Perks of Being a Wallflower. Charlie exposes his story through letters sent to an unknown “friend”. He explains his fears, problems, secrets and joys to this stranger. Charlie is a high school freshman that is suffering through the aftermath of his best friend’s suicide, the death of his favorite Aunt, Helen, and in the midst of this all, he’s a “wallflower”. Struggling with friendship and family insecurities, a group of high school seniors, Sam, Patrick, and Mary Elizabeth, befriends him. His new friends expose him to a new world of drugs, sexuality, love, parties, relationships, death, friendship, lies and culpability.  Throughout the novel, Charlie develops from an innocent ‘wallflower’ that lived in books to an adventurous, befriended high school freshman that learns that life needs to be lived not watched. Sam and Patrick show Charlie the perks of being a wallflower.

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Setting #1: Highschool

The Perks of Being a Wallflower is based on letters due to Charlie's fear of highschool. His year at highschool is how he makes new friends, how he develops new habits, and how he blossoms from being a wallflower to an outgoing teenager. 

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Stephen Chbosky

Stephen Chbosky was born on January 25, 1970 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In 1992, he graduated from the University of South Carolina. Chbosky received his Bachelor of the Fine Arts degree from the University of Southern California’s film writing program in 1992. He is a screenwriter, television writer, and stage writer. His first film, The Four Corners of Nowhere, premiered at the 1995 Sundance Film Festival, the largest independent cinema festival in the United States. The film won Narrative Feature honors at the Chicago Underground Film Festival. The Perks of Being a Wallflower is Stephen Chbosky's first piece of literature, which is what he is most well known for. The book was published by MTV/Pocket Books in 1999. Chbosky lives and works in Los Angeles, California. He is an active gay rights supporter, and he continues to work on films.

got information from: http://pabook.libraries.psu.edu/palitmap/bios/Chbosky__Stephen.html

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Character Description & Development: Mary Elizabeth

Mary Elizabeth is also another high school senior. She is very strong-willed, yet insecure. She became Charlie’s first girlfriend, and through the course of their relationship, she needed constant reminder that she was pretty or else she didn't believe it. When Charlie did not kiss Mary Elizabeth during their game of Truth or Dare when Patrick dared Charlie to kiss the prettiest girl in the room, Mary Elizabeth was both offended because she was dating Charlie at the time, and because she did not believe she was really pretty. Mary Elizabeth ran the Rocky Horror Picture Show that the entire group of friends (Patrick, Sam, Charlie, etc) participated in. She is very outspoken and determined and does not like her parents. She is a kind of rebellious girl, who has tattoos and piercings. Other than these facts, not much was written about Mary Elizabeth. Due to the lack of information, Mary Elizabeth seemed as if she stayed the same and did not develop at all. 

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Character Description & Development: Patrick

Patrick, also known as Pat, also known as Nothing, is Sam’s stepbrother. Patrick is openly gay, and is in a secret relationship with Brad, the high school’s football quarterback. Like Sam, Patrick is also a senior in high school. Patrick experiences the constant ridicule at school about being gay, but due to his mature, carefree personality, he does not take it personally; especially when Brad is the one insulting him. In the beginning of the book, Patrick starts out as a strong willed boy who doesn't accept the hate that is portrayed towards him from the other students of his school, and throughout the rest of the book he sticks to his personality. Patrick would be considered a static character based on how he views things. He does not change his beliefs or his outlooks on certain situations.

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Character Description & Development: Sam

Sam is a high school Senior who befriends Charlie at their school’s football game. She is Patrick’s stepsister and is one of the main influences on Charlie’s life. She grew up with an abusive relative who raped her. From then on, she gained more and more respect for herself and learned the true meaning of deception and taking-advantage-of. She says at the end of the novel, “I’m going to do what I want to do. I’m going to be who I really am. I’m going to figure out what that is.” 

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