Being A Wallflower By Stephen Chobosky: Perks Of Being An Antihero

Celia Yost
Larson
English 10
3 February 2023
Perks of Being an Antihero “Perks of Being a Wallflower” by Stephen Chobosky is a coming of age story about family, new friendships and family. Charlie Kelmeckis can’t be described as a social butterfly rather, a wallflower. He had always watched the lives of others never really participating in his own. His freshman year of highschool he meets two seniors, step-siblings Patrick and Sam. Charlies new sociable friends show him the joys found in friendship, love, music, drugs and alcohol. His new English teacher challenges him outside of class sparking his interest in writing and teaching Charlie valuable lessons through the books he assigns. As his new friends approach the end of highschool Charlie's internal struggles manifest and become a threat to his new social life. Charlie's sometimes cynical view, rough around the edges personality, and internal struggle support his role as the antihero of his own story. Someone who is “rough around the

These traits are proven through the text by his emotional ups and downs, pessimistic view of the future and compulsion to tell the truth especially at the wrong time. The traits of an antihero Charlie possesses can be found in old heroes as well as current heroes. One of the most famous antiheroes is another protagonist Jay Gatsby from “The Great Gatsby” written by F. Scott Fitzgerald and published in 1925. Gatsby is known as an antihero because of his low moral standards and selfishness. Selfishness relates to antiheroes “rough around the edges” and cynical traits that are also personified in Charlie. Charlie Kelmeckis and Jay Gatsby both break a common association made with antiheroes that they are villainous, so although they lack the traditional qualities of other hero types antiheroes are still heroes because there is a reason to support