Emily Mullins
ENG 308
Critical Interpretations Paper
4-15-09
Psychoanalysis of love and sexuality in Perks of
Being a Wallflower
Charlie, the letter-writer and first-person narrator of Perks of Being a Wallflower, is a
keen observer of human nature. He also deals with his own deeply engrained set of
psychoanalysis issues he has trouble defining. Most of Charlie's problems stem from a trauma
readers and Charlie do not realize nor understand until the end of the novel; this trauma is one of
sexual molestation, loss, love and misinterpreted intimacy. The psychoanalytic aspects of this
novel seem to often find their way back to a sexual psychological experience in some way. Lois
Tyson, author of Critical Theory Today, remarks that "our sexuality is part and parcel of our
identity" and this identity has a close connection to our sexual identity (Tyson 24). She also
mentions that "the origin of our sexual being is in the nature of the affirmation or disruption of
our sense of self that occurs in childhood" (Tyson 24). Both in life, and in this novel by Stephen
Chbosky, an honest depiction of a hyperbolized life experience, sexuality is one of the most
consistent and clearest measures of our general psychological state. Charlie has difficulty
comprehending and defining the sexual relationships he witnesses and experiences, whether they
involve love, friendship, or both.
Chbosky's novel covers different forms of sexuality including homosexuality, physical
abuse in relationships, rape, molestation, and the psychological ramifications of these
experiences on Charlie and the other characters he observes from his position as a wallflower.
Charlie has difficulty defining love, platonic love, and sexual love due to his unconventional
thinking, core issues that stem from his repressed memories of a sexual violation, as well as his
observations of the friends and family who surround him. He often struggles with the meaning of
sexuality, and whether sexual activity equals love. His trouble with these definitions and
associations is partially due to his unconventional view of love, sex and relationships.
In the novel, Charlie sees his sister stay with a boyfriend after he hits her; he sees a rape
at a party and a secret homosexual relationship, a part of human sexuality he has little knowledge
of; and he also experiences an unrequited love and a girlfriend who desires validation as a sexual
object. Each of these experiences and understandings, however destructive to his view of love
and sex, develop Charlie's preoccupation with sex, as well as his anxieties surrounding it. There
are psychological differences in individuals and Charlie finds it difficult to strike a balance
between destructive and nondestructive behavior. His destructive behavior is caused by his own
self-esteem issues and his instability in terms of his social behavior and frame of mind. He is
never quite sure the best path to take nor the right decision to make. He wants so much to be
honest and loyal and for the people around him to be happy, that he often finds himself alone,
unhappy, and unable to figure out where he had gone wrong, or what he had misunderstood.
Charlie says that "sex things are weird, too. It's like after that first night, we have this pattern
where we basically do what we did the first time" but "everything is rushed. Maybe this is the
way things are supposed to be, but it doesn't feel right" (Chbosky 130). Charlie sights low selfesteem as the potential reason for Mary Elizabeth's desire for sexual attention. But "everything
can't be self-esteem can it?" (Chbosky 130)
Charlie, who is already someone who thinks about things to the fullest extent and
processes occurrences in very unique ways, finds love and sex confusing. Based solely on how
the people around him interact in relationships, and how he is also exposed to relationships,
sexually and otherwise, Charlie sees love as simply wanting the other person to be happy. He
tells Sam that he realized he loved her when he "thought that you being sad was much more
important to me than Craig not being your boyfriend anymore. And if it meant that I would never
get to think you that way, as long as you were happy, it was okay" (Chbosky 200). Love to
Charlie also comes in the form of friendship. Sam and Patrick are his good friends, friends who
readers can see, through their observations and feelings for Charlie, truly care about him.
However, because Charlie so desperately wants to make everyone happy, he allows Patrick to
kiss him even when he didn't want him to. When asked about why he let him, he answers, "'I was
just trying to be a friend'" (Chbosky 201).
In some ways the reader is unable to find real conclusive evidence to the cause of his
myriad of issues, but through his honest narration we see a study of the human condition and his
feelings about his own sexuality and relationships. Tyson poses the psychoanalytic question of
"what conscious and unconscious meanings and purposes [do Charlie and other characters]
express or enact in [their] sexuality?" (Tyson 24). Certain characters seem to use the love another
has for them to gain something, others use sex to validate themselves as a sexual object, while
others avoid sexual encounters altogether, and still others feel uncomfortable expressing
themselves in sexual ways. A few suggest the cause is a "fear of intimacy--if I get too close to
someone I will lose myself or be emotionally harmed" (Tyson 25). Charlie absolutely
experiences this, either because he feels he may be abandoned, betrayed, or become anxious or
upset. Fear of intimacy also stems from his self-esteem issues and his unstable and unsure sense
of self. Charlie is always convinced something it wrong with him, and it doesn't help that his
general happiness stems from watching the people around him being happy.
Sexual behavior is, in this novel, very much a product of the environment and culture
Charlie observes and experiences, as well as his lack of knowledge about relationships and sex.
His friend Sam sees Charlie struggling with the rules of proper sexual conduct, stemming from
his lack of knowledge of the rules of normal social conduct. Sam tells Charlie that "it's like
you're not even there sometimes. It's great that you can listen and be a shoulder to someone.
[But] what if they need the arms or something like that? You can't just sit there and put
everybody's lives ahead of yours and think that counts as love" (Chbosky 200). She tries to teach
him about what girls want from boys and this eventually leads to a sexual experience between
the two, one Charlie puts an end to fairly quickly. He doesn't quite figure out why he stopped
their romantic encounter, but his repressed memories begin to slowly come back in the form of
dreams. He starts to "feel like what [he] dreamt about [Aunt Helen] last night was true. And[his]
psychiatrist's questions weren't weird after all" (Chbosky 205).
Charlie, who readers begin to understand was sexually molested by his Aunt Helen, had
repressed those uncomfortable memories. Only when a similar sexual encounter began to occur
did those memories start to climb their way back to his conscious mind. As incestuously
victimizing as this experience was as a young child, Charlie's conscious memories may allow
him to begin to deal with this trauma and to self-actualize to become a fuller individual. This
may allow Charlie a potential for growth and to see beyond his circumstances and the lives
happening immediately around him. In terms of sex and love, Charlie has hardly been given
many shining examples. He had for so long "repressed, or driven from [his] conscious mind,
shameful thoughts that, then become unconscious" (Billig 1). In the novel, repression became the
'centre' to which all the other elements of psychoanalytic thinking are related (Billig 1). Charlie
understood attraction and had his own definition of love, but he also had difficulty seeing the
difference in love and friendship, and love and sex. Charlie also had romantic thoughts, very
emotional feelings and reactions, and successful friendships. Perhaps he only needed to uncover
the root of his misunderstandings and unique associations of sex, love and relationships to begin
to heal and understand that there truly is nothing wrong with him.
Works Cited.
Billig, Michael. Freudian Repression: Conversation Creating the Unconscious. United Kingdom:
Cambridge University Press, 1999.
Chbosky, Stephen. The Perks of Being a Wallflower. New York: POCKET, 1999.
Tyson, Lois. Critical Theory Today, A User-Friendly Guide. 2nd Ed. New York:
Taylor and Francis, 2006.