J Alan Ruff - The Perks of Being a Wallflower

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“The Perks of Being a Wallflower” by Stephen Chbosky tells is a novel about a fifteen-year-old boy named Charlie.  The story follows Charlie through a year of his life as he enters high school, attempts to make friends, and deals with deep-seated problems.  Chbosky touches on many of the darker social issues that face young adults and speaks of them in an honest way that most people can relate to on some level.
                The first thing that stuck out to me about the novel is the writing style that Chbosky uses to tell the story.  “Perks” is told in the form of a sequence of letters written by Charlie.  The recipient is kept anonymous throughout the story.  I felt this worked to keep the reader invested in the story.  I wanted to know who Charlie was writing to and how did he choose them?  I’m also curious to know more about the recipient and their feelings towards Charlie.  Every letter also starts with the date at the top.  This helps to set the activities within the context of the school year as it is school that constitutes the epicenter of most young adult life. 
                The letter format gives us great insight into the mind of Charlie.  We are able to know what his thoughts and feelings are about each character and situation.  The way Chbosky uses pacing as he writes helps us to share the feelings of anxiety that Charlie has when he feels himself beginning to “slip away”.  When Charlie is recounting the story of buying his father’s Christmas present, Charlie’s sentences become very short as he feels the pressure building to find the right gift.  The exchange of dialogue is also shortened and rushed and I can feel my pulse begin to race in anticipation of what might happen (pgs 76-78).  Chbosky uses this same technique when as Charlie and Mary Elizabeth are alone at her house (pg 126).   This can be contrasted with the letter Charlie writes dated Dec. 21st describing the Christmas party at Sam’s house.  We can sense the calm and happiness that Charlie is feeling in the way he takes his time to describe the events of the night.  The sentences are longer and more descriptive as he describes how happy the night made him feel (pgs 65-73).  This writing technique is most obvious in the letters that Charlie writes at the beginning and again at the end when he travels through the tunnel and feels “infinite.”
                Though writing in the letter format works on many levels for this book it does present some limitations.  Since we don’t have an omnipotent narrator we aren’t able to know the thoughts and intentions of any of the other characters of the story.  Everything comes through Charlie’s filter.  We aren’t sure how Brad really feels about Patrick.  The reader is left to make the assumption after he goes to Charlie and says, “Thanks.  Thanks for stopping them (pg 152).” Why does Patrick kiss Charlie (pg 160)?  How do Charlie’s brother and sister feel once they learn the truth about Aunt Helen (pg 210)?

                But this also leads to my final point.  This is Charlie’s story.  He gets to tell it how he wants to.  And in the same vein, this is Chbosky’s story to tell and he can choose to tell it on the level he chooses.  Chbosky touches on rape, molestation, drug abuse, bullying, and mental illness but he never gets too deep in any one subject.  There seems to be a lot going on that doesn’t ever get fully addressed and perhaps the author could have chosen one topic and addressed it more thoroughly.  But I respect the right of the author to choose what parts he wants to tell and which perspective to use when writing the story.  I believe the letter format is done well in this story and helps to know Charlie.

Comments

  1. UnknownSeptember 16, 2016 at 9:38 AM

    I completely agree with what you're saying about how most of these issues are not flushed out. I think that it seems to mimic how we may understand certain issues as teenagers. We don't form full understandings of broad concepts upon first learning about them or experiencing them, but rather we receive information in pieces that can remain unresolved.

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  2. kendall hendersonSeptember 16, 2016 at 9:41 AM

    I definitely think it's so important that Charlie's sentences become shorter and more stressed in certain situations -- they give us insight into his emotions that even he doesn't know. Maybe when he's with Mary Elizabeth part of the reason he gets so overwhelmed is because he knows she probably has some sexual expectations and is subconsciously afraid of that. There are probably other points in the novel where Charlie's language tells us about his subconscious aversion to sex and subconscious knowledge of his childhood abuse.

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