Book Talk - Perks of Being a Wallflower

Book Talk – The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

1.     Detailed Description of Text:

The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky is about a fifteen-year-old boy named Charlie who has just begun his freshman year of high school. This book is written as a series of letters that Charlie writes to an unnamed “friend.” This “friend” never writes back and the readers never come to learn who they are which creates the sense of reading a diary rather than a book. Charlie is a very shy and quiet person who always keeps himself within his own head. He is anxious about having to start high school alone (his only friend from middle school died). Even though Charlie is nervous about beginning school by himself, he soon finds two sources of friendship. His English teacher and mentor, Bill Anderson, and Sam and Patrick who soon become his best friends and quickly introduce him to many other great friends and acquaintances. This books timeline takes place over the course of one year and during that year, Charlie goes on his first date, has his first kiss, deals with bullies, experiments with drugs and drinking, makes friends and loses them and eventually gains them back, deals with death and trauma, and learns to cope with depression. It is through Charlie’s relationships with the outside world that he begins to discover who he really is and begins to feel more at peace with himself.

2.     Why I Chose This Text and who Would Read it:

I chose this text because I think that it is one of the most relatable books that I have ever read. This book does not sugarcoat adolescence but rather, it embraces both the good and the bad sides of growing up in order to deliver a narrative that is easily relatable. The Perks of Being a Wallflower really emphasizes emotional and social issues that kids in high school face. Because of this, I would say that anyone who is a freshman or older would really be able to take in this book, however, I think that even those who are in middle school could easily read this as well, though it is pushing it. I think that those who are in high school would be an appropriate audience for this book because The Perks of Being a Wallflower is all about high school the confusing times that come with it. This book would allow students to become aware that they are not the only ones going through what they are going through and it could possibly make whatever they’re going through a little easier.

3.     Teaching Ideas:

I envision this book being used in the secondary classroom as a way to open students up to analyzing texts. Something that could be done to work on analyzing skills would be to show students how it is not only the plot and the characters that contribute to the story itself, but also the structure of the novel itself and its content. Some thing that could be asked of students to discuss and to analyze as a group or with partners is “How does the structure of this novel contribute to better understanding Charlie?” Something that could also be done to work on analyzing is to have students look at Charlie’s style of writing in each letter compared to his mental state. Another thing students could analyze would be to the poem in the book and how it changes from beginning to end in style and how it contributes thematically to book as a whole (70-73).

4.     Challenges:

Quite honestly there are many challenges that can arise from having this book in the classroom. This book has numerous controversial subjects including sexuality, abortion, drug and alcohol use, sexual abuse, and suicide. Some potential issues that may arise from using this book is that there are too many sensitive subjects or that some students may not be mature enough to handle this book. An administrator or parent may not be a fan of this text because of the controversial subjects that take place, and a student may not be a fan because of feeling embarrassed or perhaps the text may hit too close to home for some people making it a rather difficult read.

5.     Importance:

Although this text seems as though it has many downsides to it, there are a lot of upsides. There were so many moments within this text that I related to, and then as it continued it made me feel better about having gone through the same experiences. I think that opening students up to this text, though it is controversial, may be eye-opening and could possibly create more sensitivity to certain subjects. This book is full of worth-while messages that deal with real life scenarios and it could possibly help students not only understand themselves but others as well. 

6.     Some Quotes That Stood out to me:

“So, this is my life. And I want you to know that I am both happy and sad and I’m still trying to figure out how that could be” (2).

“But because things change. And friends leave. And life doesn’t stop for anybody” (145).

“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” (211).