Charlie is lonely without his friends. He is trying to survive the grey days by analyzing his environment, especially people’s behaviour. He spends his time at the local mall alone, sometimes with the English teacher, Bob, and his books. Once he met with Susan, he asked her about their dead friend: "Do you ever miss him ?" The girl just bat her eyelids and stayed quiet. Susan’s company said something rude behind Charlie’s back. Brad appears at school, but he has changed a lot. Brad wounded Patrick’s hearth with words, like "faggot" at the cafeteria. During this tough period, Charlie stands on Patrick’s side, he even fought for him. At a Saturday morning, Charlie got a phone call from Patrick, which made his day. Since then, they spend days together, Charlie means a lot to Patrick. Charlie also apologized to Mary Elisabeth at the Rocky Horror Picture Show, Mary Elisabeth found a new boy, Patrick decided to quit playing Frank ’N’ Further.
Patrick must stand a bad phase. Charlie tries to help him to go through it and Patrick takes him to places where gay men meet anonymously. All seniors like Patrick, Sam and his sister make plans for their future after graduating. Patrick will visit college in Washington, Sam will start at Penn State. Patrick plays the Frank 'N' Further one last time. Charlie’s sister watches the show with her boyfriend. Mary Elizabeth kisses Peter at Craig's Party and Charlie is happy for them. Bill invites Charlie to his house to spend and afternoon with him and his girlfriend. Sam and Craig broke up because he cheated on her ever since the beginning of the relationship. Bill thanks Charlie because it was an honor for him to teach him. Bill says Charlie is one of the most gifted people he's ever met.
Stephen Chbosky (born January 25,1970 in Pittsburgh) is an American novelist, film director, and screenwriter. He is known for writing "The Perks of Being a Wallflower", which is a New-York-Times Bestseller. Chbosky is also known for writing and directing the movie version of this book, starring Logan Lerman, Emma Watson and Ezra Miller. Later, he wrote the screenplay for the movies "Rent" and the live-action adaptation of "Beauty and the Beast" of 2017. Stephen Chbosky also directed the movie "Wonder".
In most parts of the book, Charlie is talking about the struggles of coming of age. His everyday problems can be divided into three sectors. When describing his “friend”, he complains the “fears of adulthood”. Stephen Chbosky summarises this aspect with the well-fitting quote “It's much easier not to know things sometimes.” Charlie, the “wallflower” isn't ready to take the responsibility for his own life. High school, love and parties are overstraining him. “People who try to control situations all the time are afraid that if they don't, nothing will work out the way they want.” is Charlie's way to accept, that life happens the way it does and that he must stand it.
Main quote of the second part of coming of age, “What you need in life”, is “We accept the love we deserve.” Bill teaches Charlie that it needs more than people who give you love. You must give back. You must love yourself. You must trust others. You can't love alone. Charlie is also wishing for a person to keep contact “I just need to know that someone out there listens and understands.” By all the mess he had to go through, he tries not to lose his good mind about community.
Last main part of growing up is “becoming individual”. Sam, and also Charlie, understand that being an adult means to be unique. “I'm going to do what I want to do. I'm going to be who I really am. And I'm going to figure out what that is.”. That’s the way Sam declares her readiness. But adolescence also is about doubting, “Just tell me how to be different in a way that makes sense.” The book conveys an important advice to pass adolescence: Just be yourself, find out who you are, leave your past far behind, but never forget where you started.
Music is a very important part of Charlie’s life. Mostly, he listens to music in the car, either on the radio or from one of his mix tapes. These mix tapes are pretty special, because they are made by a person with their personal and favorite songs. Charlie thinks that when you know the taste of music of a person, then you already know them, because music says a lot about someone. Because of the personality, mix tapes are often used as a present. With music, Charlie connects a lot of memories, from car rides, high school dances, theatres or parties. On the mix tape of his sister is Charlie’s favorite song, called „Asleep“. He really loves this song and whenever he feels sad or lonely, Charlie listens to it.
In the novel, many books by other authors are mentioned. Charlie’s English teacher sees that Charlie loves reading and writing, so he helps him develop his skills by giving him extra "homework": books to read and essays to write.
Those books are:
Charlie likes all the books except "Naked Lunch" because he does not understand it.
All these books were written between 1911 and 1960; by and by, Charlie starts to see similarities in the books.
Sport
Charlie went to the high school football game. He went to the games sometimes, when the games were popular and sometimes Susan and Michael were there, but this time, Michael is gone and Susan hangs around different boys, also he went alone. He knew Patrick in the football game. He loves the “Football game”, then he can analyse play-by-play.
Although it’s not clearly said in the novel, Charlie probably has several mental illnesses, including: Asperger's, PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder), occasional depression, and perhaps drug(cannabis)-induced psychosis and/or schizophrenia. Before the end of the novel Charlie’s state of mental health deteriorates, because of his emerging PTSD (from the death of aunt Helen) and perhaps psychosis and/or schizophrenia. He is brought to a mental hospital, from which he finally recovers. Early in the book, it is mentioned that Charlie’s best friend Michael appeared to have suffered from depression and had killed himself (before the book). There are several more people in the book who appear to have depression and/or bipolar disorder.
Teenagers, like adults, may decide to take their lives for a variety of reasons. Michael, who was Charlie’s friend, had committed suicide (killed himself) but the reason behind it is never explicitly said in the novel. The school counselor guessed that he might have had "a problem at home" but nobody to talk to, so he felt desperate and lonely. As suicide is a tragic event, it impacted many of the people around him, like Charlie (his best friend) and Susan, (his girlfriend), in addition to the rest of his school. It did, however, help the staff and students become more aware of mental illness in and beyond the school. In addition, it is mentioned in the book that both Bridget and Carl struggled with suicidal thoughts when facing problems in their lives.
This paragraph is about the high school in the US from the book the perks of being a wallflower. But what do the students think about the school or what do the schools in the US pay attention to? The school in the US tries to offer social activities to the students so that they do not become criminals. However, the students are partly overstrained. The school in the US tries that the students are very educated when they leave the school.