Although The Perks of Being a
Wallflower is Stephen Chbosky’s first popular YA novel, the character and
story he creates is masterful. Charlie has always been afraid of the world and
too shy to make friends, but through his freshman year of high school he
develops and resolves to change this.
Charlie’s point of view
begins to change when he meets his mentor and first real friend, his English
teacher. This character is most known for the acclaimed quotation from the
novel, “we accept the love we think we deserve.” As the year pursues, Charlie
approaches his classmate Patrick, who along with his step-sister Sam, becomes
his new best friend.
At the conclusion of
Charlie’s year, the reason for Charlie’s timid nature is revealed to us. I
loved how Chbosky executed this: the reader always knew Charlie had dealt with
a traumatic experience in the past but we never were told what happened. Even
the foreshadowing was very discrete—what exactly happened was completely
unexpected.
Through Charlie’s changing life and new
experiences, we are able to see him as a person. He is kind hearted and
although he makes hurtful mistakes, he recognizes them and learns to take
responsibility.
I think the most fantastic quality of
Chbosky’s writing is his character development. We are given insight into his
character’s motives and perceptions of life. This is seen not only in Charlie,
but his friends as well. Where Sam is perfect in Charlie’s eyes, we are also
able to see her flaws—she struggles with self-worth and never really fixes
it. Through all of their words and
choices we can see their dynamic and whole personalities. I t is definite to
say that Chbosky’s characters will never be ‘flat’. None of them are entirely
perfect or entirely flawed; he allows us to see that everyone is a little bit
of both.
I enjoyed this novel as well as the film.
The casting for the film was exact to how imagined the characters, and the
story line was carried out well. It certainly did the novel justice.
If you read and liked The Perks of Being A Wallflower by
Stephen Chbosky, I also recommend Looking for Alaska by John Green (which I
have also done a review for), and Speak
by Laurie Halse Anderson.
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