Perks Of Being A Wallflower Symbolism Essay

In the novel The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky, symbolism is used to represent different themes in the book such as friendship, loss, and hope. Symbolism is used to make these emotions stronger and to make the reader think deeper about the meaning of a certain thing, place, or person in the book.

Friendship is symbolized through a mixtape that Charlie gives to Patrick. Charlie, the main character, does his first Secret Santa gift exchange with his new friend group and gets Patrick. Charlie tries his best to pick out the perfect gifts for Patrick, and one of the first gifts that he gives him is a mixtape. “I spent all night working on it, and I hope that Patrick likes it as much as I do. Especially the second side. I hope

I hope it can be like that for him.”(page 62 part 2). Through this mix tape, Charlie shows Patrick how much his friendship means to him and how he wants Patrick to feel how Charlie feels when he’s with him; like he belongs to something. After making the tape, Charlie describes how it felt to hold it knowing that he was passing it on to Patrick. “I had an amazing feeling when I finally held up the tape in my hand. I just thought to myself that in the palm of my hand, there was this one tape that had all of these memories and feelings and great joy and sadness.”(page 62 part 2). Later in the book, Patrick becomes depressed after losing Brad, his boyfriend. He feels alone and unloved, just like how Charlie felt before becoming friends with Patrick and Sam. Patrick listens to the mix tape and feels just how Charlie wanted him to feel; like he is a

At the beginning of the book, Charlie has no friends and decides that he hates high school. After becoming friends with Sam and Patrick, his feelings change and he is hopeful for the future. The first time he ever met them, they went through a tunnel in Patrick’s car. After going through the tunnel, Charlie tells Sam and Patrick that he “feels infinite”. On the way back home from Charlie’s first party, he goes through the tunnel again and experiences the same feeling. “Anyway, Patrick started driving really fast, and just before we got to the tunnel, Sam stood up, and the wind turned her dress into ocean waves. When we hit the tunnel all the sound got scooped up into a vacuum, and it was replaced by a song on the tape player. A beautiful song called “Landslide”. When we got out of the tunnel, Sam screamed this really fun scream, and there it was. Downtown. Lights on buildings and everything that makes you wonder. Sam sat down and started laughing. Patrick started laughing. I started laughing. And in that moment, I swear we were infinite.” (page 39, part 1). This isn’t the only time the tunnel comes up in the book, from then on, the tunnel is a recurring place that Charlie visits and talks about. For the reader to get more of a sense of what he means when he feels “infinite”, he explains how it feels to be in the tunnel. “There’s just