Josh Drapkin
When I first read, Perks of Being a Wallflower, by Stephen Chbosky, I truly enjoyed it. Not being a very avid reader, I really don’t enjoy reading books, unless it is about something very interesting, or nonfiction. But this book really caught my attention. I enjoyed how the author was able to portray a teenager’s life so well, the perspective the novel was written in was very good. It flowed nicely, and was not convoluted. It was very easy to follow and understand.
The main characters in this novel are Charlie, who is the protagonist, and the point of view of the whole novel is from his perspective. Charlie recently started high school, and at first he despised it, because he could not fit in with anyone. He felt alone, and was very emotional, and would cry often. But at one of the high school football games, he met two teens, Sam and Patrick, who were step-brother and step-sister. They took Charlie with them, and from then on, they were good friends. Charlie began to do everything with them, and he had true friends that would help him if he needed aid. But Charlie showed that he was experiencing becoming a teenager by experimenting with drugs and alcohol, with affected him negatively. Once he wound up going to the hospital for doing LSD.
Charlie portrays numerous themes throughout his high school years, including the theme of friendship, which is shown through the relationship Charlie has with Sam and Patrick, because they are always spending time with Charlie, and make him feel better when he’s sad and help him in times of need. Also, coming of age is portrayed, because Charlie goes from acting like very immature in the beginning of the novel, to acting like an adult and acting in a proper, more mature way. Love is another theme, which Charlie shows with Sam mostly. Charlie liked Sam throughout the entire book, and he never did stop liking her. But only until the end, did Sam actually start to have feelings for Charlie and she showed at the end, that they had a great relationship and were true friends, although Sam continued to tell Charlie they were nothing more than that.
This book was very good, and I would highly recommend it to other people that are willing to read a very good book.