The Perks Of Being A Wallflower Analysis

Highschool is a time where boys turn into men and girls into women. It is also a time of growth for many people. A novel that perfectly represents this is Stephen Chbosky’s novel The perks of being a wallflower. The novel’s protagonist is an unidentified teenage boy although he assumes the name Charlie to hide his real name. Charlie tells the plot through letters he writes the reader who he calls “friend”. He describes his recent experiences in each letter stating specific details of each event and telling the reader his opinion of what happened or what he learned from it. Though a pivotal moment Charlie experiences was when he surrounded by his peers who are calling him a wallflower.
During Charlie’s tenth letter in part one of The perks of being a wallflower he goes to a party after his school’s homecoming football party. After eating a pot brownie and finding

his friend Patrick kissing the school’s star quarterback Brad, Charlie finds himself in front of everyone else in the party toasting to his name. Patrick tells Charlie, “‘You see things. You keep quiet about them. And you understand’”(37). Bob then asks everyone to toast to Charlie and the party ends with Charlie and his friends riding a pickup truck down a tunnel listening to music. Thus, part one ends.
The toast to Charlie for being a wallflower is a pivotal moment for several meanings.

Though there are many symbolic moments that happened at the party before it. For example Charlie being high alludes to him just drifting through life being there."about society as much as he his sober while high. Patrick’s kiss with Brad is symbolic of the forbidden norms of society that the novel often challenges. Though when the party goers toast to Charlie’s name this changes Charlie for the better. Before the party he has not found his identity or has any sort of personality before the party. After the party Charlie becomes more like a wallflower, for example he would watch listen to people more often keeping their secrets between them. An example of this when Patrick is having a difficult time accepting that Brad will not talk to him even though they are supposed to be lovers. Charlie says, “ It’s just hard to see a friend hurt so this much. Especially when you can't do anything except “be there”. I want to make him stop hurting but I can’t. So, I just follow him around whenever he wants to show me his

world”(161).
Highschool is a time of change and hardships. Though it is also a time of friendship and memories. So, for a novel to show its protagonist go through these changes and see how it affects him over time is such a beautiful thing to see.