Henry Davignon
Mrs. Siragusa
1AC
Blog post/STAARS
S- Friendship
T- Stephen Chbosky exhibits the many different types of friendship around and with the main character, Charlie. He says there are many different types of it and some better than others.
A- open-minded, kind-hearted, thoughtful
A- Young Adults mainly, but suitable for more mature people as well
RS- Symbolism
Evidence- “The first present is going to be a mix tape. I just know that it should. I already have the songs picked and a theme. It’s called “One Winter.””
““Well why don’t you chip in with your sister and buy him that sweater?” Charlie replied, “ I don’t want to I want to buy him something.” … “ My sister decided to buy the sweater on her own.””
The Perks of being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky is a coming of age novel about a traumatized boy named Charlie. Chbosky makes great use of symbolism to enhance his subject of friendship in the novel. In the book Charlie talks about his Secret Santa present to Patrick saying, “The first present is going to be a mix tape. I just know that it should. I already have the songs picked and a theme. It’s called “One Winter.”” Charlie shows his true friendship for Patrick by making him a heartfelt mix tape , a symbol used throughout the book to express love (his sister’s boyfriend). Just the gift itself took actual knowledge of being his friend to justify each song. Next is Charlie Christmas shopping for his dad where he and his mom, ““Well why don’t you chip in with your sister and buy him that sweater?” Charlie replied, “I don’t want to I want to buy him something.” … “My sister decided to buy the sweater on her own.”” Charlie’s sister just wants to get a gift so that it can be over even though she has to pay a little extra. However she did buy a gift so however the love may be a little empty, it is still true. Charlie goes on to 4 different stores to find the right gift (the last episode of MASH) which brings back memories and is very loving of him. Chbosky uses all these different gifts and scenarios as different symbols of strength of love. Charlie’s gifts are deep and full of both meaning and love. His friendship is strong with those he knows. People like Charlie’s sister give gifts for the sake of giving which is very empty and symbolizes a less full friendship.
In this book, Charlie is faced with the worst problem in his childhood. He loses his best friend, his loving Aunt Helen, watches a girl get raped, and he walks in on his sister having sex. The book is showing how badly a kid will or will not be messed up based on a traumatic childhood. This is reinforced with the fact that Charlie is just now being exposed to normal social activities and adolescence. This makes the “experiment” pure because all the traumatic incidences happened as a kid, mostly. Then, the book will have some parenting lesson at the end of it to raise your kids good or they will be depressed teenagers who make bad decisions.
Would Charlie’s life be taking a different course if he was not trying to put himself out there and make friends like Sam and Patrick? Explain your answer.
Last minute FTW
Brittney Champagne
ReplyDelete4AC
Why do you think the quaterback of the highschool football team, Brad, is afraid of everyone in the school finding out he is homosexual? Explain.
Brittney Champagne
ReplyDelete4AC
S - Friendship
T - Throughout the novel, Charlie has to adapt to a variety of different experiences and events that consequently alter the way he interacts and creates new friendships. Stephen Chbosky uses friendship as a way to show how the main character Charlie, a young adolescent, contends and handles difficult situations, and the positive and negative outcomes it can have.
A - concerned, thoughtful, reflective, kind hearted, compassionate
A - Young Adults
RS - “Sam and Patrick looked at me. And I looked at them. And I think they knew. Not anything specific really. They just knew. And I think that's all you can ever ask from a friend.” (68)
“I spent all night working on it, and I hope Patrick likes it s much as I do. Especially the second side. I hope it's the kind of second side that he can listen to whenever he drives alone and feels like he belongs to something whenever he's sad. I hope it can be that for him.” (62)
“I think I should tell Sam about this, and I really hope it does not prevent us form maybe making up inside jokes of our own. It would be very nice to have a friend again. I would like that even more than a date.” (21)
The Perks of Being a Wallflower, a becoming of age novel by Stephen Chbosky, is an exploration of how young adolescents friendships can be formed due to the way one contends and handles difficult situations in their earlier childhood. Traumatizing experiences growing up can alienate children from forming bonds of friendship the way other children in society would. Throughout the novel, Charlie has to adapt to a variety of different experiences and events that consequently alter the way he interacts and creates new friendships. Chbosky uses the literary technique of symbolism, which is the use of symbols to represent ideas or qualities, to show the reader’s the understanding of social interactions. During Christmas, Charlie and his friends participated in their own exchange of presents where Charlie was Patrick’s Secret Santa. In the novel Charlie states, “I spent all night working on it, and I hope Patrick likes it s much as I do. Especially the second side. I hope it's the kind of second side that he can listen to whenever he drives alone and feels like he belongs to something whenever he's sad. I hope it can be that for him,” (62). Charlie puts extreme thought and effort into his present for Patrick because not only is he in love with his sister, but Charlie sees Patrick as a very close friend and he really wants to display that to him the best way he can. Patrick is Charlie’s first close friend after he lost his best friend to suicide, and Charlie’s passion for Patrick is put into a deep thought process of picking each song by hand that only Charlie and Patrick would have full appreciation for. Another instance of Charlie’s friendship is when he has an inappropriate dream about Sam, and is scared it will ruin their friendship. In the novel it states, “I think I should tell Sam about this, and I really hope it does not prevent us form maybe making up inside jokes of our own. It would be very nice to have a friend again. I would like that even more than a date,” (21). Charlie has been traumatized both by watching a girl get raped and walking in on his sister having sex that could have contributed to the dreams he was having about Sam. Sam was such an important person to Charlie that he would do anything and everything to make sure it wouldn’t ruin their bond. Charlie even had the guts to tell Sam exactly what happened so their friendship could be completely open, and evidently make their relationship stronger. Chbosky’s use of symbolism to depict adolescent friendship makes the novel much more meaningful. While many things that happened to Charlie may seem unfortunate by themselves, put together Charlie is able to handle them and make a positive impact on the way he never takes friends, or life for granted.
Brittney Champagne
ReplyDelete4AC
The Perks of Being a Wallflower, a becoming of age novel by Stephen Chbosky, shows us the many experiences that an adolescent male teen might face during his transformation into adulthood. Throughout the novel, Chbosky explores many unfortunate events a young adult might have to face and how adapting to these issues makes the person who they grow up to be. Charlie is faced with the death of his close Aunt Helen, the death of his best friend Michael to suicide, rape, sex, drugs and alcohol to name a few. At all of these instances, Charlie could have easily lost control and headed a very dark path. Until then, Charlie’s life was pure and ignorant, yet now he is faced with many obstacles that he could have taken into a positive or negative outlook. Charlie has to learn quickly how to adapt to his changing environment and Charlie does so by making choices he thinks is right. By making decisions on his own he is transforming himself into someone more elaborate, which is needed to grow up. In Part Two when they exchange gifts, Charlie takes the time to show how thankful he is to having a friend like Patrick and putting an extreme amount of thought into his Secret Santa gift. We are hinted that this is really the first time Charlie puts this much effort into is families gifts and how he wants to show his friends and family how much they mean to him. Chbosky shows us already that Charlie has changed drastically from the beginning of the book and that this will continue as Charlie is faced with new issues and how he handles each one throughout high school.
To answer Brittney's question,
ReplyDeleteI think Brad is afraid to reveal himself as being homosexual simply because of what people will think and say. Brad is the QB of the football team, so everyone expects him to be a certain way, and obviously being gay is not what people expect. Brad is forced to hide his relationship with Patrick, and struggles down a path of drugs, alcohol, and loss of identity because he is afraid that the high expectations that people hold him to, will be let down once he reveals his homosexuality.
S - Coping
ReplyDeleteT - Different people have different ways of coping with certain situations. It is shown in The Perks of Being a Wallflower that when one struggles to find appropriate coping mechanisms, negative consequences such as depression may result.
A - Struggling, dark, difficult
A - Teenagers, young adults
R - Repetition
S - My Aunt Helen was my favorite person in the whole world. (Pg 5)
My dad does not like to go to the cemetery because it gives him the creeps. But I don't mind going at all because my Aunt Helen is buried there. (Pg 16)
My Aunt Helen would always let us kids stay up and watch Saturday Night Live when she was baby-sitting or when she was living with us and my parents went to another couples house to get drunk and play board games. (Pg 16)
Sam then gave me a hug, and it was strange because my family doesn't hug a lot except my Aunt Helen. (Pg 22)
He doesn't like when the boys in the family touch him. But I'm very glad that I did it anyway in case he dies. I never got to do that with my Aunt Helen. (Pg 60)
I remember a doctor asking me questions. I remember telling him how Aunt Helen was the only one who hugged me. I remember seeing my family on Christmas day in a waiting room. I remember not being allowed to go to the funeral. I remember never getting to say good-bye to my Aunt Helen. (Pg 91)
"I'm going to buy your birthday present." That was the last time I ever saw her. (Pg 92)
And I made my Aunt Helen a promise to only cry about important things because I would hate to think that crying as much as I do would make crying for Aunt Helen less than it is. (Pg 93)
The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky, is a coming of age novel which shows that different people have different ways of coping with certain situations. It is shown in the novel that when one struggles to find appropriate coping mechanisms, negative consequences such as depression may result. Chbosky uses repetition to get this message across. On numerous occasions in the novel, Charlie mentions his Aunt Helen who passed away in a fatal car accident on his birthday. On page 5, Charlie says "My Aunt Helen was my favorite person in the whole world." This shows that Charlie loved his Aunt Helen very much, and since her death he probably feels very alone since his favorite person is now gone. It is also percieved that Charlie and his aunt had a close relationship. Another instance Charlie mentions his Aunt is when he says "Sam then gave me a hug, and it was strange because my family doesn't hug a lot except my Aunt Helen." (Pg 22) By Charlie saying this, its portrayed that no one else hugged him except his Aunt. Sam provides a sense of security to Charlie because when she hugs him, it brings back memories of his aunt and by him constantly thinking of her, it shows that he is still coping with her death and thinks of her in his day to day situations.
TEARS Continued .....
ReplyDeleteMaking his depression in the past obvious, Charlie says, "I''m really glad that Christmas and my birthday are soon because that means they will be over soon because I can already feel myself going to a bad place I used to go. After my Aunt Helen was gone, I went to that place." (pg 74) This quote makes it clear that in the past Charlie has spiraled down the dark path of depression over his aunt. He has gone to "that place" once before, and he says he feels he will go back there. These are signs that Charlie is still coping and it is not improving. On page 91, Charlie brings up the memory of the day his aunt passed away. He says "I remember a doctor asking me questions. I remember telling him how Aunt Helen was the only one who hugged me. I remember seeing my family on Christmas day in a waiting room. I remember not being allowed to go to the funeral. I remember never getting to say good-bye to my Aunt Helen." This reveals a vital reason to Charlies depression and struggle because he never got the chance to say goodbye to his aunt. He also never got to go to her funeral, so he wasn't able to recieve any closure. This fact also could hurt Charlie a lot because he feels he was the reason his aunt had passed away and he never got to see her again or give a final goodbye. Possibly the most touching thing Charlie said was on page 93 when he states "And I made my Aunt Helen a promise to only cry about important things because I would hate to think that crying as much as I do would make crying for Aunt Helen less than it is." If anything shows his depression and his difficulty with coping, it is this quote. This shows that he does not want to cry anymore even though he cries about pretty much everything, because he does not want it to appear that the things he cries about are even close to the amount of sadness he feels when he cries for his Aunt Helen.
This novel relates to The Catcher in The Rye by J.D Salinger, because in both novels, the main characters are coping with the death of a loved one. In J.D Salingers novel, Holden Caulfield copes with the death of his younger brother Allie. This is much like Charlies situation because he is coping with the deaths of both his Aunt Helen and his friend Michael. Both characters never got to say goodbye to their loved ones so niether of them ever got the closure they wanted and as a result, depression and a seek of identity followed.
The Perks of Being a Wallflower, a coming of age novel by Stephen Chbosky, shows the difficulties that teenagers face while coping with the death of a loved one. Throughout the novel, the author portrays Charlie as being a depressed teenager who struggles with the death of his Aunt Helen and bestfriend Michael Dobson. Charlie talks about "that place" he has gone to in the past when his Aunt Helen died. It is percieved that this place is his deep depression. Charlie also struggles with the death of Michael. Charlie says that Michael was the last friend he had over the house, but he is "trying to participate" and move on in a way by creating new relationships with new friends such as Patrick and Sam. Both of these examples show the trials and tribulations Charlie experiences on his path of coping. He is slowly becoming an adult, and is learning the experiences of life.
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