Perks Of Being A Wallflower Essay

The Perks of Being a Wallflower” is about a boy named Charlie. Charlie is a freshman in high school who battles depression, and other social anxieties. He comes in contact with a new group of friends after a traumatizing event occurred in his life, and the novel follows him and his adventures with these new group of friends. His life resembles a rollercoaster; having really high highs and really low lows. The novel did a great job of depicting how mental illnesses work. I liked that the author did not portray Charlie’s illnesses in the stereotypical ways that society often shows. He really got into the mind of someone who has depression and different types of anxiety, and showed the internal battles that these people deal with each and every

day. The author of this novel made the depression and anxieties feel real. I also liked this book for the different types of personalities that were shown between each character. They were all so diverse, and yet they still blended together so flawlessly. The characters certainly did not seem like the author needed another character, so just decided to toss one of them into the plot.

The characters, and the character development of the most important three main characters (Charlie, Sam, & Patrick) were all thought out extremely well. It’s like you knew these three people your entire life, and you watched them blossom and grow into the impeccable young adults that they were always destined to become once they surpassed a few hardships they had to endure. The novel also shows a strong relationship between Charlie and his advanced english teacher, Bill. I think this is an important part of the book because a lot of students view their teachers in a bad light due to their teacherly duties they have to uphold. I like that the novel showed that a lot of teachers are not teaching solely for a paycheck, they are in the career field that they are in to help the students who enter their classrooms everyday. The stereotypical depiction of teachers being the bad guy who’s always out to get you isn’t helpful for student readers, so I’m glad that at least one book shows a strong beneficial relationship between a teacher and his student. I liked how the book didn’t have chapters, but was written like journal

entries. It cut out the excess details that had no purpose to the storyline of the novel. The one and only thing I wasn’t too happy about with this book was the length. As stated in the header above, the novel was only 213 pages long, which is not a large book. If the novel were at least a hundred more pages, I’d be a little more happier with it. All the points were met in the plot, but it was a little upsetting when I finally, and quickly, reached the last page in the book. I wanted more. Overall, I would recommend this book to everyone. It was a phenomenal novel that really pulled you into it.