Intro To Perks of Being A Wallflower
While I will probably be writing an actual technical piece on Stephen Chbosky's The Perks of Being A Wallflower, I'm going to try to introduce some of the concepts that will be featured in the piece. Or something to that effect without me having to go find the book and do legitimate citations and revisions and whatnot.
One of the major concepts is the role of social interaction in adolescent development. The protagonist, Charlie, is exposed to many social extremes; gay bashing, group violence, rape, communal drug use, etc. While Chbosky fails at introducing these situations realistically (the effects of which will be discussed later), they still serve as talking points on the social interaction of young people, and as such, they are valuable to the novel. Chbosky argues in favor of realization of trauma as potential for growth; the supposed everyman Charlie was a molestation victim as a child, a fact he repressed until urged to enter into a sexual situation he could not deal with. While his breakdown provides the epilogue for the book and places him into a mental hospital, he comes out of the whole thing as a supposed fuller individual who is more self actualized than he would have been without realizing the sexual trauma of his youth or, more drastically, without ever having experienced it. The provider of Charlie's base drama, an aunt he looked up to and loved dearly, is a symbol of the death of loyalty; those who love you will inevitably betray you. This theme is brought up again as a fact of the relationship between Charlie and his girlfriend, Mary Elizabeth. Mary Elizabeth inwardly defines herself as a sexual object; she desires to be lusted after to gain validation as a woman. This becomes apparent to Charlie as Mary Elizabeth initiates various sexual situations and repeatedly asks if she is pretty; she is so desperate for the attention of a male who will both submit to her intellect and appeal to her skewed femininity that she becomes a living contradiction. After Charlie's realization of this, he breaks up with her, breaking her idea of self while making her realize that she does not need a submissive man, she needs someone to argue with. At a party a few months later, she speaks of Charlie, saying he had no personality and no soul, he did not challenge her. This betrayal of a friend by Mary Elizabeth acts a formative realization for Charlie; people see a situation as it effects them, they do not take into effect its impact on the people around him. With this realization in mind, we can dive deeper into the social meaning of Perks.
As a book about society and the aggregation social norm versus the outsider, Perks forces itself to thrive in conflict. With the idea of betrayal in mind, Charlie's social formation and its seeming oddity begins to be understandable. Charlie openly admires his aunt prior to his realization, while subconsciously suffering from the trauma, creating the idea that he has begun to associate sexual activity with love. While this is sensible in some regards, there seems to be no differentiation between sexual love and platonic love save for his own immediate family. The first evidence of this is Charlie's friendship with Sam, a girl he idealizes as a partner but with whom he is relegated solely to friend status. He cannot forget the idea of a sexual relationship even after putting it out of his logical mind; whenever she is mentioned, he speaks of their compatability as a couple and her physical appearance while insisting that she is just a friend. He willingly submits to her as a friend, not debating anything she says nor arguing for his own stance when it contradicts her. While this would seemingly be teenage infatuation, it all seems very off. Let's take into account Sam's brother, Patrick, Charlie's best friend and a homosexual. Towards the end of the novel, Patrick enters a bout of depression, causing him to drink more and act more openly gay around Charlie. Charlie willing submits to anything Patrick does or suggests, to the point of accepting multiple kisses from Patrick. In the context of American society, this seems strange and, most likely, homosexual. Charlie does not admit this, but he does say he doesn't mind and puts up no objection to being a surrogate for Patrick's ex-boyfriend. Even in the beginning of their friendship, Patrick's homosexuality was so commented on that he began to be defined by it in Charlie's mind; once again, a close friend defined by their sexual impact on Charlie's life.
The idea of loving submission is most likely a lingering element of Charlie's experience with his aunt. Not realizing the violation occurring at the time, he may have seen the molestation as an expression of platonic love, a closeness he would never have with his parents or siblings. He willingly took part, letting her control him for her own whims in the guise of the growth of a relationship. This idea would take root in his psyche; he would grow to define relationships by their intimacy and would choose to subvert his own desires to please the other, as this was what he did in his major formative relationship. His other major formative relationships, those with his immediate family, would also be skewed. While not dysfunctional, his family seemed a holdover from generations past, not willing to conform to modern ideas despite it being necessary for their growth in the world today. Charlie's mother was raised by a cruel and vindictive father who would often beat her and strip her of her own ideals. As a result, she grew up damaged, avoiding men like her father but never being able to cope with the emotional damage. She began to lack in expression, never able to voice her own opinion unless it was a truly worthy situation. She met Charlie's father and found support in him, a quiet man who opposed the physical nature of her father's parenting. The father is quiet and seen as strong, he is throwback to the stereotypical fifties father, voicing his own opinion and being the head of the household without ever saying anything. Raised by these two, Charlie gained the submissive tendencies and over drawn reactions to high stimuli experience of his mother and the quiet, observational tendencies of his father. He was raised to be a wallflower without anyone realizing it. His siblings are similar, taking after their respective gendered parent; his sister was hit by her boyfriend but continued the relationship, eventually dismissing him after he wouldn't support her getting an abortion of their unwanted child, the brother is a strong and quiet male who is an amazing football player but who is not really well known by most. The more important sibling to the story is the sister, who begins to develop like Charlie into her own well defined person. By the end of the novel, she has rejected her abusive boyfriend, made a pro-choice statement, and has started reading feminist literature. While this is stereotypical, it at least enforces the idea that abusive relationships can be ended and triumphed over through the strength of will alone. There is a cliche to this message, but it is presented effectively enough to overcome it and act as a real statement on the power of femininity in contrast to the weak Mary Elizabeth.
The social posturing of Perks is its style; a YA "realist" novel written to discuss modern issues. It fails as an example of lasting piece of actual realism; it makes no effort to denote days where nothing happens, slow mornings marked only by bad coffee and procrastination as opposed abortion and drugs. Instead every day must have an event and be dramatic; it eliminates the feeling of real life in the book. One week, even one month may be packed with dramatics, but certainly not nine months. The authenticity is ruined by the jam-packing of controversy into the novel. It is done to keep the attention of younger readers and to keep it on the best seller list, but it loses any memorable styles and methods in the process. As a result, it is a stylistic bore, it is the total middle of the line when it comes to YA and adult literature. If Chbosky had made some attempt to differentiate his writing from his peers outside of the controversy it created, it would certainly be a timeless novel.
I may continue this soon, but I have to go for the moment. I think this is a decent start though.
One of the major concepts is the role of social interaction in adolescent development. The protagonist, Charlie, is exposed to many social extremes; gay bashing, group violence, rape, communal drug use, etc. While Chbosky fails at introducing these situations realistically (the effects of which will be discussed later), they still serve as talking points on the social interaction of young people, and as such, they are valuable to the novel. Chbosky argues in favor of realization of trauma as potential for growth; the supposed everyman Charlie was a molestation victim as a child, a fact he repressed until urged to enter into a sexual situation he could not deal with. While his breakdown provides the epilogue for the book and places him into a mental hospital, he comes out of the whole thing as a supposed fuller individual who is more self actualized than he would have been without realizing the sexual trauma of his youth or, more drastically, without ever having experienced it. The provider of Charlie's base drama, an aunt he looked up to and loved dearly, is a symbol of the death of loyalty; those who love you will inevitably betray you. This theme is brought up again as a fact of the relationship between Charlie and his girlfriend, Mary Elizabeth. Mary Elizabeth inwardly defines herself as a sexual object; she desires to be lusted after to gain validation as a woman. This becomes apparent to Charlie as Mary Elizabeth initiates various sexual situations and repeatedly asks if she is pretty; she is so desperate for the attention of a male who will both submit to her intellect and appeal to her skewed femininity that she becomes a living contradiction. After Charlie's realization of this, he breaks up with her, breaking her idea of self while making her realize that she does not need a submissive man, she needs someone to argue with. At a party a few months later, she speaks of Charlie, saying he had no personality and no soul, he did not challenge her. This betrayal of a friend by Mary Elizabeth acts a formative realization for Charlie; people see a situation as it effects them, they do not take into effect its impact on the people around him. With this realization in mind, we can dive deeper into the social meaning of Perks.
As a book about society and the aggregation social norm versus the outsider, Perks forces itself to thrive in conflict. With the idea of betrayal in mind, Charlie's social formation and its seeming oddity begins to be understandable. Charlie openly admires his aunt prior to his realization, while subconsciously suffering from the trauma, creating the idea that he has begun to associate sexual activity with love. While this is sensible in some regards, there seems to be no differentiation between sexual love and platonic love save for his own immediate family. The first evidence of this is Charlie's friendship with Sam, a girl he idealizes as a partner but with whom he is relegated solely to friend status. He cannot forget the idea of a sexual relationship even after putting it out of his logical mind; whenever she is mentioned, he speaks of their compatability as a couple and her physical appearance while insisting that she is just a friend. He willingly submits to her as a friend, not debating anything she says nor arguing for his own stance when it contradicts her. While this would seemingly be teenage infatuation, it all seems very off. Let's take into account Sam's brother, Patrick, Charlie's best friend and a homosexual. Towards the end of the novel, Patrick enters a bout of depression, causing him to drink more and act more openly gay around Charlie. Charlie willing submits to anything Patrick does or suggests, to the point of accepting multiple kisses from Patrick. In the context of American society, this seems strange and, most likely, homosexual. Charlie does not admit this, but he does say he doesn't mind and puts up no objection to being a surrogate for Patrick's ex-boyfriend. Even in the beginning of their friendship, Patrick's homosexuality was so commented on that he began to be defined by it in Charlie's mind; once again, a close friend defined by their sexual impact on Charlie's life.
The idea of loving submission is most likely a lingering element of Charlie's experience with his aunt. Not realizing the violation occurring at the time, he may have seen the molestation as an expression of platonic love, a closeness he would never have with his parents or siblings. He willingly took part, letting her control him for her own whims in the guise of the growth of a relationship. This idea would take root in his psyche; he would grow to define relationships by their intimacy and would choose to subvert his own desires to please the other, as this was what he did in his major formative relationship. His other major formative relationships, those with his immediate family, would also be skewed. While not dysfunctional, his family seemed a holdover from generations past, not willing to conform to modern ideas despite it being necessary for their growth in the world today. Charlie's mother was raised by a cruel and vindictive father who would often beat her and strip her of her own ideals. As a result, she grew up damaged, avoiding men like her father but never being able to cope with the emotional damage. She began to lack in expression, never able to voice her own opinion unless it was a truly worthy situation. She met Charlie's father and found support in him, a quiet man who opposed the physical nature of her father's parenting. The father is quiet and seen as strong, he is throwback to the stereotypical fifties father, voicing his own opinion and being the head of the household without ever saying anything. Raised by these two, Charlie gained the submissive tendencies and over drawn reactions to high stimuli experience of his mother and the quiet, observational tendencies of his father. He was raised to be a wallflower without anyone realizing it. His siblings are similar, taking after their respective gendered parent; his sister was hit by her boyfriend but continued the relationship, eventually dismissing him after he wouldn't support her getting an abortion of their unwanted child, the brother is a strong and quiet male who is an amazing football player but who is not really well known by most. The more important sibling to the story is the sister, who begins to develop like Charlie into her own well defined person. By the end of the novel, she has rejected her abusive boyfriend, made a pro-choice statement, and has started reading feminist literature. While this is stereotypical, it at least enforces the idea that abusive relationships can be ended and triumphed over through the strength of will alone. There is a cliche to this message, but it is presented effectively enough to overcome it and act as a real statement on the power of femininity in contrast to the weak Mary Elizabeth.
The social posturing of Perks is its style; a YA "realist" novel written to discuss modern issues. It fails as an example of lasting piece of actual realism; it makes no effort to denote days where nothing happens, slow mornings marked only by bad coffee and procrastination as opposed abortion and drugs. Instead every day must have an event and be dramatic; it eliminates the feeling of real life in the book. One week, even one month may be packed with dramatics, but certainly not nine months. The authenticity is ruined by the jam-packing of controversy into the novel. It is done to keep the attention of younger readers and to keep it on the best seller list, but it loses any memorable styles and methods in the process. As a result, it is a stylistic bore, it is the total middle of the line when it comes to YA and adult literature. If Chbosky had made some attempt to differentiate his writing from his peers outside of the controversy it created, it would certainly be a timeless novel.
I may continue this soon, but I have to go for the moment. I think this is a decent start though.
Some quick opposing arguments (which you should consider when writing an essay)-
--Maybe teenagers do in fact define their life by conflicts, and so the unfilled days do go unnoticed.
--Maybe the author's focus on conflicts serves (like the mentions of crying) to highlight Charlie's repressed emotional turmoil. Jumping from one moment to another creates a sort of chain of angst, or at least feeling (which charlie usually ignores). The continuous chain of feeling contributes or aids in creating the sense of being infinite.
--Who are you to assume that nine months of conflict is not realistic? Show me one week without some kind of incident in a group of friends, and I'll see a week without really living- a sheltered living, at least.
So the string of events may not seem realistic, but they are highly relvant to what coming of age is all about.
Great analysis though :)
For example when you said "she (Mary Elizabeth)is so deperate...she becomes a living contradiction...After Charlie's realization of this, he breaks up with her." But I don't see this as the reason Charlie wanted to break up with her. He didn't really like Mary Elizabeth in a romantic way, and he wanted to break up with her because he felt she was using him in a way, didn't care about him as a person and he loved Sam. Charlie wanting to break up with her in the novel is one of the first examples of him acting on what he wants- which is what Sam and Bill tell him he should do throughout the book. Perks is about Charlie learning to engage with people, as opposed to just being used by them, or observing then.
I also thought your suggestion that Patrick is soley defined by his sexuality is unfair. The reason his sexuality is so important is because it plays a huge role in his characters story. And while you could say he was stereotyped as a gay man (his fondness for The Producers, Village People, and RHPS) I believe his character is more signifigantly defined as Charlies best friend (for example, when Charlie is standing in the tunnel near the end of the book, he reflects back on the past year and Patrick calling him his friend is important). I actually see Patrick as a good example of a gay character having more of a role than just being a gay character- rather than being catogoreized into the role of "gay friend", his friendship with Charlie is meaningful and interesting.
I also agree with the above comments...it wouldn't be a realistic adolescent account of life if it wasn't fairly dramatic ;)
I very much enjoyed reading your take on it :)
With nothing more to say ;) thanks for the analisis and sorry for my english :)
Love From Chile :)
He himself was not molested by his aunt- rather, his aunt was molested. He says "I will just say that my aunt Helen was molested."
Are you maybe saying that Mary Elizabeth molested him, or...? Apologies. I have not slept much and I tend to overthink when I am tired.