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Through the eyes of a wallflower In Stephen Chbosky’s The Perks of Being a Wallflower, the hero’s journey begins with Charlie starting his freshman year of high school. Charlie just wants to make new friends to help him get through these next four years. This is shown when he is writing to his pen pal who he calls “friend”. In the letter he states that his best friend Michael “shot and killed himself because he had problems at home” (Chbosky 5). When Charlie found out he was very confused and shocked, and often times putting the blame on himself. Charlie’s Aunt Helen also sexually abused Charlie when he was younger; and has passed away. Charlie has trouble coping with this and feels very alone. These events are often on Charlie’s mind, affecting his depression and making him a very quiet, introverted, and self conscious individual. …show more content…
Charlie is able to successfully complete his journey by making new friends in high school and getting the proper help he needs from a therapist to help deal with his past.
He is able to put the knowledge he has gained from his therapist and friends Sam and Patrick, towards helping him move past his problems and past experiences. Charlie realizes he cannot blame his aunt Helen for sexually abusing him. “It's like if I blamed my Aunt Helen, I would have to blame her dad for hitting her, and the friend of the family that fooled around with her when she was little. And the person that fooled around with him. And God for not stopping this and things that much worse. And I did do that for a while, but then I just couldn't anymore. Because it wasn't going anywhere. Because it wasn't the point” (Chbosky 211). This quote demonstrates Charlie has learnt that nothing comes from blaming people, and if you want to blame one person you have to blame many others as well. He learns that everything happens for a reason, and is able to find comfort and
peace. I am able to relate to Charlie because much like him, I started high school with no friends, was shy, and lacked self confidence. Once I met my friends, I felt I could be myself around them and was able to “open up”. In the perks of being a wallflower, by Charlie meeting his friends Sam and Patrick allowed him to let loose and unwind. “When we got out of the tunnel Sam screamed this really fun scream, and there it was. Downtown. Lights on buildings and everything that makes you wonder. Sam sat down and started laughing. Patrick started laughing. I started laughing. And in that moment, I swear we where infinite” (Chbosky 39). Much like Charlie, being more confident has not only helped me get through problems, but has also made me feel like a better person.
He doesn’t lack of encourage anymore, he has overcome his fear and despair. “I have to go. I have to disobey every impulse and leave her for Jasper Jones, for Jack Lionel, for this horrible mess.” We see a different Charlie from his determination. From escape to face up, he shows us more responsible. From helpless to assertive, he comes to realize what he really wants. He knows the dark side of human nature and this unfair and cold world. His innocent, his perfect world has been destroyed by those horrible things; because of these, he knows the part of real world, he knows how the ‘dark’ actually changes this world, his friends, his family, included
Watching a film, one can easily recognize plot, theme, characterization, etc., but not many realize what basic principle lies behind nearly every story conceived: the hero’s journey. This concept allows for a comprehensive, logical flow throughout a movie. Once the hero’s journey is thoroughly understood, anyone can pick out the elements in nearly every piece. The hero’s journey follows a simple outline. First the hero in question must have a disadvantaged childhood. Next the hero will find a mentor who wisely lays out his/her prophecy. Third the hero will go on a journey, either literal or figurative, to find him/herself. On this journey the hero will be discouraged and nearly quit his/her quest. Finally, the hero will fulfill the prophecy and find his/herself, realizing his/her full potential. This rubric may be easy to spot in epic action films, but if upon close inspection is found in a wide array of genres, some of which are fully surprising.
We can all sympathize with Charlie on the surface, we have all made mistakes that we have to live with. Charlie is attempting to move forward with his life and erase the mistakes of his past. The ghosts of his past torment him repeatedly throughout the story, his child's guardians despise him and his old friends do not understand him.
Throughout the entire movie, Charlie doesn 't live in ‘good faith’. He lets everyone take control of him, such as Mary Elizabeth getting what she wants from him, Patrick taking advantage of him and letting his aunt ruin his childhood. Charlie gets bossed around in school and never shares is own opinions because they don 't matter to him. He never made his own choices in life, he always made sure that everyone else around him was happy. At parties he was played with and he had is innocence taken away. He never bothered with his own feelings, which makes him not live his own life. Because of this he lived in bad
For Charlie, Ignorance is bliss. He realizes that his so called ? friends? were just using him to entertain their perverse humor. Also, he was also fired from the job that he loved so much because his new intelligence made those around him feel inferior and scared.
...of all responsibility (for, of course, there is no way that a normal person could ever kill.) In keeping with this principle the film attempts to absolve Young Charlie from all responsibility in her Uncle's death, for it is seen as an accident that occurred when Young Charlie was fighting her Uncle in self-defence. In the final stages of the film we are brought back to the small town introduced to us in the beginning, this time, however, it is in morning for a beloved son. Charlie's death has brought Graham back to Young Charlie. We can see the good side has won the battle for her. As in early situational Charlie has learned her moral lesson and the episode may end.
In the movie, The Perks of Being a Wallflower the audience learns a great deal about, Charlie, the main character’s life and how his past traumas affect him psychologically (Chbosky, 2012). Charlie is a 15-year-old boy who is coping with his best friend’s suicide, in addition to struggling with Posttraumic Stress Disorder (PTSD) (Chbosky, 2012). When Charlie was younger, his favorite Aunt, Helen, raped him, although he did not seem to fully understand that until he was hospitalized (Chbosky, 2012). However, Charlie was not hospitalized until right after he learned his best friend, Michael, committed suicide. Charlie is also shy, therefore has difficulties making friends. At the beginning of the movie, Charlie is writing to a new friend and
... mistakes. Charlie is not ready, to change himself, since he repeats his past misdeeds. It seems like he will never be able to change or be happy about what he has or had in his past. There is no money in the world, which can help him. The story "babylon revisited" has anticlimax end, and Charlie left empty handed. In life any person, who tries change has to put a lot of efforts and time, to do it. If a person wishes to change himself, the first step he has to take is to remember his past mistakes and stay away from them. A past of a person will be always a part of him. He can never escape or ignore it, but he can learn from it and change himself. Every person has to learn how to use his/her unpleasant experience of the past as an advantage, to stay away from his past misdeeds, to build a bright future.
Charlie struggles with apparent mental illness throughout his letters, but he never explicitly addresses this problem. His friends make him realize that he is different and it is okay to be different from everyone else. This change in perspective gives Charlie new opportunities to experience life from a side he was unfamiliar with. Without these new friends, Charlie would have never dared to try on the things he has. His friends have helped him develop from an antisocial wallflower to an adventurous young man who is both brave and loyal. Transitioning shapes how the individual enters into the workforce, live independently and gain some control over their future
In adolescence social interactions are a very important part of young adult development. Within this transitional period the young adult experiences social changes even though such changes vary from youth to youth. In The Perks of being a wallflower Charlie was socially awkward, but intellectually he was a genius. He was faced with a few social extremes throughout the movie. For instance, His social awkwardness is partially due to the death of his best friend Michael. The summer before High School started Michael committed suicide. Dealing with this trauma was no easy feat for Charlie. As a result, he withdrew from the world around him. Upon entering High School Charlie was weary of his surroundings. He tried to reach out to a girl whom was in Middle School with him but she acted as if she did not know him. He was left feeling alone. As the movie went on he was exposed to yet another social
Charlie has had an extremely rough life. He has had only 1 true friend. His dad beats him and drinks way more than the average person should. At one point during the book, Charlie is out camping with his dad and his dad's friends. His dad and his dad’s friends are all drunk and the start to talk about how if
He was involved in a fight defending his friend and always tries to do the right things, but sometimes they do not always have the best outcome for Charlie. He does not remember the fight because he completely blacks out, but it is after this fight it is when he begins to, as he puts it, “starting to get bad again.” Finally, when all of his friends leave for college, he has a flashback of all the bad things that he has not talked about with anyone else. And this long flashback, makes him attempt suicide. If a Charlie was a real psychiatric patient, he would diagnose with Posttraumatic Stress Disorder. Throughout the movie, Charlie experiences flashbacks of what he once thought was a dream of his Aunt Helen and him alone, the night his aunt died, and other scenes that show how much anger and sadness he is building
not know is that his aunt molested him when he was little. Charlie does not realize this till his
Now Charlie is open to the possibilities that could happen in his life, ones again but this time with a healed heart and a confident soul. He is also thankful for all the love he has been revising from people around him. At the end of the Epilogue, Charlie finds a new perspective in life and has completely changes. He might not be a totally fixed person, he is a person who's full of scares but still willing to fight to find his happiness :
In the novel the Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky, Charlie is found by his parents sitting on the couch naked and staring at the tv, which was not even on. After that charlie was in the hospital for two months for having a mental breakdown. “Everything I dreamt about my aunt Helen was true. After a while, I realized that it happened every Saturday when we would watch television” (Chbosky 208-209). Charlie realizes this because when Sam and him were “fooling around” he blacked out and the next thing he knew he was in the hospital. Charlie's family was there for him and loved and supported him throughout the entire time he was in the hospital, even his friends showed up to see him. Charlie notices that through his rough patch his friends and family are there for him and not only do they support him, but they love him so much and do not want anything to happen to him. After Charlie gets out of the hospital he writes in his journal how he appreciates all the small things in life such as eating fries and that one time when Sam, Patrick and him went for a ride in a tunnel and Sam was standing in the back of the truck while Patrick and him were listening to music and feeling the wind on their faces and in that moment Charlie said that they were