Book report: The perks of being a wallflower
The perks of being a wallflower is a book by Stephen Chbosky, the story has a broad spectrum of
characters from the first chapter to the last. The book is actually divided into 4 parts, but different
chapters.
In the book, the main character is Charlie, he is a 15 year old boy in the beginning of the story, he
is a very strange guy, Charlie is a boy that is still trying to discover himself. The book doesn’t have
detailed description of what he looks like, but it does have a detailed description of what he’s going
through as a freshman in high school. Charlie lost his friend Michael, to suicide, so he’s really trying to
cope with it and the anxiety of being a high school student. I think Charlie and his friends are a figment of
the author’s imagination, because the author doesn’t say anything about it being a real life situation.
Although, the things that charlie and his friends go through, shows that the author was trying to portray
the struggles of the modern day teenager. This book was basically the usual teen fiction but then it talked
about a lot of societal issues that are being ignored. From my memory, the important characters are: his
dad. His dad was abused as a little child and really tried his best to not abuse charlie but still did, but only
once. His mom was also important, the book portrayed her as the quiet type that just sat back and
watched, she didn’t have a dominant role in the book. Sam and Patrick, they play a very important role
because they were his first friends after Michael and they really showed him what it was to be a teenager.
Bill, is his english teacher and mentor that always advised him when he had problems. I don’t know too
much about the author, and i haven’t read any of his other books but it’s definitely something i want to
do.
I think the main idea of the book is to talk about the challenges of a teenager, the kinds of
struggles teenagers go through. The major lesson I really learnt from this book is that one shouldn’t be too
susceptible to peer pressure. Charlie was a major victim of peer pressure, he started smoking because of
his friends, Sam and Patrick. I feel like this book is very believable because it so accurately talks about
the life of any other average teenager, these are things that happen to teenagers but they’re not always
able to talk about it. If Charlie had a normal childhood, if he wasn’t molested by his aunt, then the book
would have turned out differently. I feel like the author is just trying to pass a message that a lot of people
think only happens in movies, or isn’t real. The most important event in the book was when he found out
that his aunt used to molest him every saturday when she calls him to watch tv.
The are several problems in the story, his anxiety for high school, he solved it by writing letter to
a mysterious man he doesn’t know, and because he was in a state of shock after he found out that his aunt
used to molest him, he went to a rehabilitation center. I think these are the major challenges that arose in
the book. I would have solved the anxiety with a friend or a trusted adult than to write to a strange person
that I don’t know. I don’t think i’d want to be like any of the characters because they all have different
issues and struggles and that’s what people would want to avoid. I don’t really know anyone like any of
the characters in real life. The whole book makes me feel kind of sad at some parts and quite happy at
some parts, it made me feel sad when he found out about his aunt that molested him, but when i felt
happy was when his sister was graduating and also when he was comforting his sister.
I personally would recommend this book to others, it adequately portrays the life of
the average teenager, it was a very nice book.