Perks Of Being A Wallflower Theme Essay

The Perks of Being a Wallflower is a novel written by Stephan Chbosky set in the early nineteen-nineties. It follows Charlie, the main character and narrator, his friends and family through a tough time in their lives. Chbosky may be implying throughout the novel that there are negative effects to: mental illness, embracing sexuality at a young age, and drug dependencies. There are several examples of each throughout the novel. Mental illness seems to be one large theme in the novel. From the start, Charlie is shown to have problems controlling his emotions. Charlie retaliates against a fellow student who is bullying him and ends up injuring the other student badly (7). Charlie then becomes hysterical because before the incident Charlie had not done anything to the other student. Charlie’s brother had to pick him up early from school as a result (8). This may signify that Charlie is repressing some sort of emotion from a past traumatic event.
Another example of dealing with mental illness as a theme is this novel may be when Charlie is invited to go to a party with Sam and Patrick and he recalls

Drugs are brought up on a semi-regular basis throughout the novel. Brad and Patrick turn to alcohol when they are struggling with their sexualities (44,161). Charlie begins experimenting with drugs when he is given a pot brownie without his knowledge (35). After feeling the effects, Charlie begins to smoke marijuana more regularly, and also begins smoking 10 cigarettes a day when things get hard (103). At one point in the novel, Charlie ingests LSD and falls asleep in the snow. When he is taken to the hospital, no one thinks about it because Charlie would wander off when he was younger (99-100). This implies that even though Charlie has started using drugs more frequently, there is some sort of emotional trauma to cause