Valenzuela, Angela Tricia M. October 12, 2012
2011-41040 English 11 (2:30-4:00)
Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky:
A Review
At the age of fifteen, Charlie has been through a lot. His “Favorite” aunt Helen died on his birthday when he was young and the summer before he starts high school, his best friend, Michael, commits suicide. To lessen his fear of going to a whole new school with a whole bunch of new people alone, Charlie decided to write letter to a friend who everybody said to be someone nice but he had never met before.
At school, Charlie found a friend and mentor in his English teacher, Bill, who discovered that there’s more to Charlie than just a boy in class who’s too shy to participate. Bill knew of Charlie’s exceptional knowledge in and ability to understand literature so he gave Charlie extra reading assignments that Charlie found to be fun and to be a sort of relaxation. Eventually, He overcame his chronic shyness and approached a classmate in his shop class, Patrick, who, along with his step-sister Sam, became two of Charlie's Best friends.
During the course of the school year, Charlie had his first date and his first kiss, he dealt with bullies, he experimented with drugs and drinking, and he made friends, lost them, and gained them back. He creates his own soundtrack through a series of mix tapes full of iconic songs, reads a huge stack of classic books, and gets involved in the Rocky Horror Picture Show audience-participation culture.
Charlie has a relatively stable home life, though, with supportive, if distant, parents to fall back on. His older brother and sister are very understanding of him and care about him greatly though they may not openly show it. Unfortunately, a disturbing family secret that Charlie had repressed for his entire life surfaced at the end of...