The Perks of Being a Wallflower: Difference between revisions
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The first (and so far only) novel by Stephen Chbosky. It was first published in 1999.
The narrator, 16-year-old Charlie, is just starting high school as a freshman, having been held back a couple of years for reasons of being in the hospital due to being emotionally damaged. The novel primarily concerns Charlie's adventures in the '91-'92 school year, and is written as an [[Epistolary Novel]], a collection of letters Charlie is writing to a friend-of-a-friend whom he was told would be a good listener. Charlie, who doesn't excel at much except reading, seems to be off to a bad start before two seniors, step-siblings Patrick and Sam, take him under their wing. And so begins Charlie's adventures into school, literature, dating, [[Sex, Drugs and Rock and Roll]], teen pregnancy, [[Suicide (band)|suicide]] and
The book was well-received and essentially the literary version of a [[Killer App]] for its publisher, the newly-launched MTV Books. It has drawn comparisons to ''[[The Catcher in The Rye]]'', primarily for being a pull-no-punches look at high school and for having a [[Point of View|First-Person Narrator]]. It also placed 6th on 2008's List Of Most Frequently Banned Books, for similar reasons.
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* [[Ambiguous Disorder]]: Charlie is just said to be "emotionally disturbed".
* [[Bittersweet Ending]]
* [[Brutal Honesty]]: Charlie picks ''the worst'' possible time to invoke this when asked in a Truth or Dare game to {{spoiler|"kiss the prettiest girl
* [[California Doubling]]: Averted. Most of the locations for the movie, right down to the theater where they see ''[[The Rocky Horror Picture Show
* [[Camp Gay]]: Patrick, mostly when contrasted with Brad.
* [[Cool Teacher]]: Charlie's English teacher Bill.
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* [[Epistolary Novel]]: Charlie is writing these letters to someone. Evidently he just started sending them without any prior correspondence.
* [[First Girl Wins]]
* [[First Kiss]]: Sam to Charlie. She specifies that even though she has a boyfriend and sees Charlie strictly as a friend, she want his first kiss to be with someone he loves ({{spoiler|see [[Rape as Backstory]] below}}).
* {{spoiler|[[Good Girls Avoid Abortion]]}}: Averted by {{spoiler|Charlie's sister
* [[Invisible to Gaydar]]: Brad.
* [[Jerk Jock]]: Brad has shades of this, and pretty much evolves into a full-fledged one {{spoiler|when his dad catches him and Patrick and beats the shit out of him
* [[A Man Is Not a Virgin]]: Averted. Charlie is.
* [[May-December Romance]]:
* [[No Name Given]]: Charlie's sister never has a name mentioned out loud, nor do his parents or brother. And for that matter, there's hints that "Charlie" is a pen name adopted for reasons of anonymity
* [[One Steve Limit]]: Averted. Charlie's English teacher, Bill, shares a name with the limo driver for prom (Billy).
* [[Rape as Backstory]]: {{spoiler|Sam was molested, if not outright raped, as a young girl by a friend of her father
* [[Their First Time]]: Both versions are played straight: an unanticipated tryst is interrupted by something.
* [[Twenty Minutes Into the Past]]: Published in 1999, takes place over the '91-92 school year.
* [[Wanton Cruelty to the Common Comma]]: When learning how to punctuate, Charlie scatters punctuation all over that day's letter. The next day he apologizes
{{reflist}}
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