payment page
The Perks of Being a Wallflower follows Charlie as he struggles with grief over the loss of his best friend Michael and his Aunt Helen while simultaneously attempting to be a more active participant in his own life. The two journeys work against each other – Charlie’s trauma and sorrow make him come across as reclusive and odd to his peers, but he yearns for the comforts and joys of friendship and companionship. The novel’s epistolary form further implies that Charlie has no one to talk to in real life about his problems and shows that he is an introspective person who gains an understanding of his and other people’s circumstances through the written word. Charlie’s life changes when two seniors, Sam and Patrick, take him under their weird and wonderful wing, introducing him to the joys and dramas of young adulthood and encouraging him to be his authentic self. However, Charlie can’t fully move forward in his life until he has processed and healed from past traumas, and as his personal life becomes more complicated, so does his mental health. By the end of the novel, Charlie has reckoned with his past, including deeply repressed memories of childhood sexual abuse, and has learned how much life has to offer if he takes advantage of his opportunities and actively tells people what he wants and how he feels. Although he’s still a quiet and sensitive person at heart, he graduates from being a passive observer to being someone who can take control of his own life.
At the start of the novel, Charlie enters his freshman year of high school having recently lost his best middle school friend, Michael, to suicide. He also still struggles with grief over the death of his Aunt Helen, who died several years prior but was an important figure in Charlie’s childhood. While not entirely a social outcast, Charlie is an outsider at school. The inciting incident of the novel occurs when, spurred on by the encouragement of his English teacher Bill, Charlie befriends one of his shop classmates, a senior named Patrick. Patrick brings Charlie into his wild and wonderful world, introducing him to the beautiful and intelligent Sam, folding Charlie into his greater friend group, and inviting Charlie to participate in their artsy, alternative lifestyle. Charlie is socially and emotionally stimulated in a way he’s never been before – from the freedom of expression and sexuality in The Rocky Horror Picture Show to Sam and Patrick’s inclusive and honest friendship, Charlie’s world is suddenly and wonderfully expanded. Charlie also experiences some of the more difficult aspects of young adulthood. Charlie and his friends suffer from unrequited love, abusive relationships, homophobia, and low self-esteem, all while holding out hope for a better future.
In the novel’s rising action, many of the beautiful things in Charlie’s social life become increasingly complicated: Patrick and Brad’s secret romance ends horribly and violently, Charlie embarrasses himself and insults Mary Elizabeth by kissing Sam in front of everyone, and Sam’s boyfriend Craig admits to having been unfaithful throughout their relationship. The friends make it through these bumps in the road by leaning on each other for support, but for Charlie, the end of the school year looms near. He knows it means the loss of his newfound friends as they head off to college and to new futures.
The novel comes to a climax when Charlie finally has a chance to be with Sam, whom he’s been in love with since the start of the year. But when their night together becomes sexual, Charlie panics as he begins to remember his Aunt Helen touching him in a similarly sexual way. Uncovering the repressed memory of his childhood sexual molestation sends Charlie into a suicidal and then catatonic state. In the novel’s falling action, Charlie is hospitalized, and he begins to work through his trauma with his doctor and family. Thoughtful and forgiving beyond his years, Charlie even processes and lets go of his anger toward his aunt, realizing that she was continuing the cycle of her own childhood abuse.
When Charlie leaves the hospital, Sam and Patrick drive him through the tunnel that he loves, listening to their favorite music. Charlie comments that he intends to participate next school year and ends his final letter with the feeling that things are going to be “good” going forward. The same can be said for many of the novel’s characters. Patrick has finally healed from the traumatic break up with Brad, Sam has split from her toxic ex and is ready to have healthier relationships with people like Charlie, Charlie’s sister has left her abuser, and Charlie’s family has grown closer through the many difficulties and sorrows they faced throughout the year. The novel’s ending has a bittersweet quality, as nothing can be completely perfect – Brad remains closeted and in fear, Sam is going away to college and will likely never be in a real relationship with Charlie, and Charlie still must continue the work of healing from his traumas and making new friends. But there is undoubtedly hope for everyone’s futures, and a sense that Charlie and his friends have benefited from each other’s companionship in a way that will stay with them for the rest of their lives.
