Perks Of Being A Wallflower Essay

For second semester I read The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky. Chbosky brings out the question; what are the links between identity and power and how do they affect you? In the book Charlie, the main character, struggles to find who is truly is. He tends to change depending on the people he is currently with. Charlie is a very passive, shy, and a little anti-social. Someone who would seem “powerless” and looks for friends who he considers “powerful”. The book raises this central question through Charlie and the relationships with other characters. In the beginning, Charlie is some who observes instead of participates, but as he befriends Sam and Patrick he begins to do anything he can to make himself be like them. Sam and Patrick are true to who they are and for that, Charlie finds them powerful. He starts acting the way they do in hopes he would find power within himself. The typical “powerful” people in high school are football players. They are the representation of power and popularity. If you identify as a football player, then you have power in high school. Brad, a football player in Perks of Being a Wallflower, is a jock but is also secretly gay and is

Throughout the book Charlie is constantly trying be someone else and does what he thinks other people would do. He becomes blind to what is actually right and it cost him friendships. He felt that he had be different in order for people to notice him and like him. At the end of the book, Charlie’s mistake is finally fading away and he begins to be himself again. That’s when Sam makes a move of Charlie even though she was constantly telling him that she was not interested. Chbosky writes Patrick as more powerful than Brad even though Brad is that popular football player. Patrick is the one who is accepting of