Summary
Charlie has a difficult transition from
middle school to high school. He lost his best friend Michael to
suicide and became depressed because of it. When he entered high
school, he was the loner that people tended to ignore. Charlie's
English teacher encourages him to read books and write his reactions
to them, which Charlie does. While Charlie's writing begins to
improve, his interpersonal relationships do not. His brother is off
to college, and his sister barely speaks to him, so Charlie begins to
make an effort to make friends. He hangs out with the seniors who
are smoking outside and starts participating in activities like the
football games, and the Rocky Horror Picture Show. Even with this
extracurricular activity, Charlie continues to be the shy, quiet
person in the crowd. Charlie makes friends with Sam, who he has a
crush on, and Patrick, who is gay. Although Charlie does not smoke,
both of his friends do. Charlie's sister finds herself pregnant and
Charlie agrees to be with her while she gets an abortion.
Charlie also goes out with Mary
Elizabeth, who is a controlling person and constantly talks, and
Charlie does not know how to politely break it off. At a party,
Charlie was given the dare to kiss the prettiest girl in the room and
he kissed Sam. Mary Elizabeth was heartbroken and angry at his
rejection. Because of this, Charlie was asked to stay away, which
left him feeling bereft and lonely all over again. Throughout this
book, Charlie always seems the outsider looking into the lives of his
friends. In the end, Charlie has a meltdown which requires him to be
hospitalized. His family and friends rally to his side with
encouragement and words of love. The meltdown helped Charlie to
finally put the ghost of his dead aunt to rest. It was she who was
his favorite person in the world and it was she who had sexually
abused him as a child.
Impressions
This book may not be for every reader
in the library. The protagonist, who at first comes about as a
quiete, shy individual, does witness and participates in a a lot of
risk taking behaviors. Although he did not smoke, eventually Charlie
became a chain smoker. He did not use drugs, but eventually began to
experiment with his friends. This is a book that some teens will be
drawn to because it mirrors many of the problems teens have at
school, at home and in their personal lives.
Use in the library
I would use this book in collaboration
with a sociology teacher and as a springboard for a discussion in
sociology class studying risky behaviors and common reactions of
students to the stresses of life. This book can be a real eye
opener. The health teacher might also be interested in the issues
regarding young sexually active people, and what the consequences can
be for unprotected sex.
Reviews
From VOYA
Charlie is an observer. A bright loner,
the new high school freshman becomes the mascot and confidant of a
group of older students. In a voice that is both naive and
omniscient, he records the tragic and mundane events in the lives of
his friends and family, using a series of remarkable letters
addressed to his "dear friend." From Charlie we learn about
one friend's suicide, experiments with drugs, heterosexual and
homosexual love affairs gone wrong, bitter family memories, and his
own mysterious Aunt Helen. Chbosky never falters, always maintaining
Charlie's perspective perfectly. By getting to know Charlie's pals,
would-be girlfriends, teachers, and family, we find out a great deal
about Charlie himself. In the same matter-of-fact voice, Charlie
describes watching the rituals of The Rocky Horror Picture Show,
taking his sister for an abortion, and being
hospitalized for acute depression. Even when he is
urged by his English teacher to become a participant and not an
observer, he remains oddly detached. Only at the very end of the
story do we learn the real reason for Charlie's detachment. The novel
has the disjointed and almost dreamlike quality of a music video.
Charlie's freshman year provides a framework for the story, with
flashbacks to his childhood. Designation of this title as an "MTV
Book" should ensure wide readership. I would recommend this
coming-of-age story to readers who enjoyed Catcher in the Rye."
Reviewed by Jamie S. Hansen.
From Publisher's Weekly
"Charlie, the wall flower of the
title, goes through a veritable bath of bathos in his 10th grade
year, in 1991. The novel is formatted as a series of letters to an
unnamed "friend," the first of which reveals the suicide of
Charlie's pal Michael. Charlie's response - valid enough - is to
cry. The crying soon gets out of hand, though - in subsequent
letters, his father, his aunt, his sister and his sister's boyfriend
all become lachrymose. Charlie has the usual dire adolescent
problems - sex, drugs, the thuggish football team - and they perplex
him in the usual teen TV ways. He hangs out with a group of seniors,
among whom are Patrick and Samantha. Patrick is gay, and Charlie
learns about gay. Sam is pretty, and Charlie learns about
heartbreak. Sam is, alas, going out with Craig. Charlies goes out
with the uppity Mary Elizabeth. Patrick goes with Brad but breaks up
with him when Brad's father discovers their relationship. Into these
standard teenage issues Chbosky infuses a droning insistence on
Charlies's super sensitive disposition. Charlie's English teacher
and others have a disconcerting tendency to rhapsodize over Charlie's
giftedness, which seems to consist of Charlies's unquestioning
assimilation of the teacher's taste in books. In the end we learn
the root of Charlie's psychological problems, and we confront, with
him, the coming rigors of 11th grade, ever hopeful that he'll find a
suitable girlfriend and increase his vocabulary."
Resources
Chbosky, S. (1999). The perks of
being a wallflower. New York, NY: Pocket Books.
Hansen, J. (1999, December). [Review
of the book The perks of being a wallflower by S. Chbosky].
VOYA. 22(5). Retrieved from
http://www.voya.com/
Steinberg, S. & Zaleski, J. (1999,
January 25). [Review of the book The perks of being a wallflower by
S. Chbosky]. Publishers Weekly, 246(4),
73. Retrieved from http://www.publishersweekly.com/
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