The perks of being a wallflower
I am currently reading, the
perks of being a wallflower by Stephen Chbosky. This is a book of letters
Charlie sends to a random person anonymously. Charlie is a high school boy who
is admired for his intelligence and compelling personality that is so different
from most high school boys. Charlie has a lot of friends, but I noticed that a
lot of the times, he is always the person on the outside.
Charlie is the type of person who is flat out honest and intellectual.
His closest friends Sam (who he is in love with) and Patrick (who is Sam’s
brother) seem to look at Charlie differently than you might expect a friend to
look at you. Sam seems to think Charlie is adorable and a lot of the times
doesn’t take him serious. Sam definitely knows that he loves her, but she
doesn’t seem to take it seriously. She kissed him only so his first kiss would
be with someone who loved him, but it seemed in a way that he is her little
brother. Patrick acts around Charlie a bot different. Patrick looks at Charlie
as someone he can lean on and just be there to listen to him as he cries.
Recently, Patrick’s heart was broken when Brad his “hookup boyfriend” who I
believe he is in love with, wouldn’t admit he was gay and called Patrick a
faggot. Patrick would drink and just talk for hours around Charlie about Brad
while Charlie said nothing. But after Patrick starts to see Brad again, Charlie
says in one of his letter, “I know Patrick will be around, but I’m afraid that
maybe since he isn’t sad, he won’t want to spend time with me. I know that’s
wrong in my head, but it feels that way sometimes”. The sad part about this is the fact that
Charlie never really complains about someone who doesn’t want to hang out with
him. Patrick, similar to Sam doesn’t really treat him in a way that Charlie
should be recognized.
Throughout the entire book, Charlie has always had to prove
himself to the other characters. Part of this, I think is proving to himself
that he is capable of being a “normal” teenage boy. This definitely relates to
any teenagers life. As a teenager, you have something to prove to people. Just
like Charlie, you are always going to have those people who underestimate you
as a person or friend. I know in my life that feeling like you’re on the
outside says something not only to other people, but to yourself as well. Sometimes
you get sick of being what people think you are when you know that your better
than what they think of you, or at least different in a way that gives you more
respect as a person.
