Book Report: The Perks Of Being A Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

Characters and Characterization:

• ·         Charlie ~ the youngest among the three, a fifteen year-old boy. He’s the one who writes and shares his story to us through his diary. Charlie’s diary holds every important event that happened to him on his freshmen year in high school, the ups and downs of his life included.
• ·          Charlie’s brother ~ he is the oldest of the three siblings. He plays football.   
• ·          Charlie’s sister ~ she was often described by Charlie as a very pretty girl, mean to boys, bratty and a straight A’s student. She’s very secretive to her parents, in terms of boys. She doesn’t have a good relationship with Charlie, but events happened and she’s got no one to turn to, except her brother. That’s the part where they start to have interactions, like sister-and-brother moments.  
• ·          Charlie’s mom and dad ~ parents who were always there for their kids.
• ·          Aunt Helen ~ deceased aunt of Charlie. She is Charlie’s favorite person in the world.
• ·      Patrick (a.k.a Nothing) ~ classmate of Charlie in shop class. He is very hilarious, does impersonating and other stuffs that makes people laugh. It was revealed in the story that Patrick is gay and he is with Brad (on the football team), but they’re keeping their relationship as a secret to avoid everything that may possibly happen if this news blows up.
• ·       Sam ~ she’s Patrick’s sister. Charlie’s really in love with her. In the book, she’s described by Charlie as “smart and fun” and “very very pretty and nice”. Charlie even wrote in his diary, “…she was the first girl I ever wanted to ask on a date someday when I can drive”. In the most part of the book, she was dating Craig.
• ·    Mary Elizabeth ~ she’s part of Charlie’s circle of friends. As Charlie describes her in the book, “very interesting person” and “really smart and pretty person”, she’s in-charge of The Rocky Horror Picture Show. There was also a time in the story that Mary Elizabeth and Charlie dated.
• ·          Alice, Bob, Susan, Craig, Peter, Bill ~ these are the people whom Charlie also spends time too. They are also part of what Charlie has become in the whole story.

Setting: UNKNOWN.

Plot:

            The Perks of Being a Wallflower is a story about growing up. It will open our minds and hearts and make us see life in the eyes of a fifteen year-old boy, through his diary. Charlie, a freshman student, thrown into the real world and faces different kinds of issues a teenager in his age would have. From the first group of friends he has, to his first crush, first date, first kiss, first love, first time to experience drugs and every first that is imaginable is explored and introduced to us in his diary. The story was just basically a narration of his life, his experiences as a child, as a brother, as a student, as a friend, as a boyfriend and as an ordinary boy who blames himself for the death of his Aunt Helen. The ups and downs of his life were written in his diary, and he also shared how he overcomes his problems in life.

“So, I guess we are who we are for a lot of reasons. And maybe we'll never know most of them. But even if we don't have the power to choose where we come from, we can still choose where we go from there. We can still do things. And we can try to feel okay about them”, Charlie writes this down in the diary.