Literature Analysis #6 ~ The Perks of Being a Wallflower

1. Briefly summarize the plot of the novel you read according to the elements of plot you've learned in past courses (exposition, inciting incident, etc.).  Explain how the narrative fulfills the author's purpose (based on your well-informed interpretation of same).
Exposition: Charlie is a HS freshman with no friends, his best friend Michael died and Susan no longer speaks to him. He is ultimately a loner. Charlie does have a reputation of being weird, as well as being known for the one fight he won because of the moves his brother showed him. Charlie is a smart kid and gets the attention of his English teacher, Bill. Bill gives him special books and helps Charlie improve his writing. Charlie also thinks about his Aunt Helen a lot, she passed away on his 7th Birthday, Christmas Eve.

Inciting Incident: Patrick decides to go to a football game where he recognizes a guy from shop class, Nothing otherwise known as Patrick. Patrick introduces him to his sister, Sam. They keep hanging out and create a good friendship. Charlie also has a sister who has an abusive boyfriend. 

Rising action: Patrick and Sam take Charlie to many parties, one being were he finds out Patrick is gay and fooling around with Brad. Eventually Charlie begins to date Mary Elizabeth, Sam's best friend. However, he despises that she never gives him a moment to speak. One day at a different party, when they were all drunk, Charlie is dared to kiss the prettiest girl and kisses Sam instead of his girlfriend, this did not go down well at all. Charlie is told to stay away. 

Conflict: Charlies isn't allowed to hang out with the group anymore, he returns to being a loner. This causes him to return to some dark places, he begins to get angry and gloomy, he smokes a lot of pot and cigarettes and ditches school. But one day he defends Patrick from being beat up by Brad's friends, and that gains him all his friendships back. Charlie would soon realize that his friends will be gone once again, they will all be leaving to college, Sam leaving the soonest.

Climax: Charlie is invited over to Sam's house to help her pack for college. She asks him why he doesn't try making a move on her, he is confused, she tells him to do what he feels. They begin to fool around, but when Sam reaches for Charlie's privates, Charlie begins to freak out and cry. The next day when Sam departs, Charlie still feels horrible, he can't help having dreams where his Aunt Helen attempts to touch his privates. 

Falling action: Charlie is sent to a psychiatric hospital were he realizes that his Aunt Helen abused him physically when he was younger. While in the hospital he receives letters from his friends and family, which makes him feel better. 

Resolution: He gets out of the hospital and writes one last letter to the anonymous person. He tells the person to no longer worry about him, that his letters will stop coming and he will not bother him anymore. And he ends the letter by wishing the person a nice life. 

 2. Succinctly describe the theme of the novel. Avoid cliches.
Multiple themes can be found in this novel, most dealing with teenagers and the coming of age signified through drugs, sex, love, family issues, and realizations.

 3. Describe the author's tone.

"Then I started crying again. I really am a roller-coaster sometimes."

The tone changes with every situation. In this novel the tone changes as much as Charlie's feelings do, whenever he is with Sam and Patrick he is happy, whenever he is a loner he becomes gloomy, serious, and angry. 

 4. Describe a minimum of ten literary elements/techniques you observed that strengthened your understanding of the author's purpose, the text's theme and/or your sense of the tone. For each, please include textual support to help illustrate the point for your readers. (Please include edition and page numbers for easy reference.)

1. Motif: "We accept the love we think we deserve." 
2. Metaphor: "He's a wallflower." pg 37
3. Paradox: "First, I am very interested and fascinated by how everyone loves each other, but no one really likes each other." pg 56
4. Juxtaposition: "And I felt good that those were the first two words I ever typed on my old new typewriter that Sam gave me." pg 69
5. Epiphany: "I want to make sure that the first person you kiss loves you."  The information before the kiss makes Charlie sad enough to cry ~ Sam had been abused by her dad's friend and only recently had she let Patrick and Mary Elizabeth know > this also hints at one of the roots of Charlie's problems, abuse, the abuse that occurred to Aunt Helen).
6. Personification: "And my mind played hopscotch." pg 98
7. Paradox: " Or how everything was a deafening whisper, when they said that maybe I should start seeing a psychiatrist again." pg 99
8. Allusion: "I said maybe it was in This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald.... He talks about his "restless generation" and things like that. And he says something like, "This is not a time for heroes because nobody will let that happen." pg 105
9. Repetition: "Not thinking anything. Not feeling anything. Not hearing the record." pg 137
10. Irony: TITLE - The main characters constantly describe themselves as wallflowers, but we never see many perks. We only see things like Patrick being unable to be with the guy that "loves" him in public, or Sam and her extremely low self-esteem, or even Charlie.

CHARACTERIZATION

1. Describe two examples of direct characterization and two examples of indirect characterization.  Why does the author use both approaches, and to what end (i.e., what is your lasting impression of the character as a result)?

DIRECT:

1. "Incidentally, Sam had brown hair and very very pretty green eyes. The kind of green that doesn't make a big deal about itself." 
2. ""You see things. You keep quiet about them. And you understand.""

INDIRECT:

1. "And this guy got really red-faced. And he looked at me. Then, he looked at her. And he wound up and hit her hard across the face. I mean hard. I just froze because I couldn't believe he did it. It was not like him at all to hit anybody. He was the boy that made mix tapes with themes and hand-colored covers until he hit my sister and stopped crying."
2. "When Mr. Callahan found Nothing doing this near the belt sander, he actually laughed because Nothing wasn't doing the impersonation mean or anything. I wish you could've been there because it was the hardest I've laughed since my brother left."
3. "I feel ashamed, though, because that night, I had a weird dream. I was with Sam. And we were both naked. And her legs were spread over the sides of the couch. And I woke up. And I had never felt that good in my life. But I also felt bad because I saw her naked without her permission." 

Both approaches are used in order to show physical attributes as well as internal characterization of the characters. Indirect characterization concerning actions or things said reveal more about a character, their intentions, their morals, than appearance does. My lasting impression of a character like Charlie, after seeing both forms of characterization in the book are that he is a genuine guy who needs a friend and doesn't want to harm anybody; but the book does lack a description of his looks.

2. Does the author's syntax and/or diction change when s/he focuses on character?  How?  Example(s)?

The authors syntax and diction do not change. The book is presented in letters written by a teenage boy who doesn't necessarily change his way of writing when describing a person. The only thing "Charlie" does is add details when writing about people. 

3. Is the protagonist static or dynamic?  Flat or round?  Explain.

Charlie is as dynamic as the situation he finds himself in. If his life is hectic, his mind follows suit and cannot maintain control. Throughout the book it easy to see how Charlie becomes increasingly angry, how he seems to be spiraling out of control, starting from the point where he losses all his friends. But we also see how he manages to get better, how going to a hospital helped him, and how he no longer needs to write letters because he knows he will be okay.

4. After reading the book did you come away feeling like you'd met a person or read a character?  

After reading the novel I do feel like I met a real person, like I'm reading the recounting of events from a real teenage boy. In high school Charlie comes across frequently faced problems such as loneliness or a loss of friends, at home he faces problems such as physical abuse and more average problems such as having Christmas dinner at an aunts house. In life Charlie faces things like death, and he experiences the normal emotions, sadness, and questioning at if other students miss them, too. Charlie experiences multiple events that one does not wish to go through but that occur on a daily basis, like physical abuse, and he has trauma like any real person would.