The Perks Of Being A Wallflower By Stephen Chbosky

In the film adaptation of The Perks of Being a Wallflower written by Stephen Chbosky, this coming-of-age drama tackles mental health, homophobia, and growth. We follow the main character, Charlie, as he navigates freshmen year, and friendships, and opens up locked trauma. When he attends the football game, he recognizes Patrick in the crowd and gets invited to sit with Patrick and Sam. Charlie is instantly attracted to Sam, Patrick’s stepsister. Instead of tackling his mental health head-on, Charlie continues to avoid it throughout the movie. It catches up to him when he compromises his friendships. The three symbols are greatly represented in various scenes in the film.
Mental health is a popular symbol throughout the film. It is portrayed

Patrick, the supporting character, and a good friend of Charlie is open about his identity and embraces it. However, he is entangled with Brad, the football star who is a “closet gay”. Brad’s character can seem very generic to most football stars. He is popular and has an image to keep up, but secretly is living another life. When Charlie catches Patrick and Brad, Patrick asks Charlie to keep it a secret for fear that Brad’s father and peers may find out. Homophobia seems more apparent in today’s society thanks to social media and the film helps depicts the issues of being open about one’s identity. They are constantly ridiculed, teased, and the opinions of others can be overbearing. Another scene of homophobia greatly depicted is after Brad gets caught by his father having intercourse with Patrick. Brad’s father is livid and beats Brad for it and although it does not show, Brad must have been given an ultimatum. The next day, Brad and Patrick get into an argument during lunch, which leads to Brad calling Patrick a faggot. Brad’s friends overhear and end up beating Patrick up. It shows that homophobia can stem from the home environment because of Brad's need for approval and acceptance from his father, who is extremely homophobic. He then goes to school and ridicules the one person who understood and accepted him. Society can be a harsh world for same-sex relationships and the movie does a spectacular job to highlight the

All the characters show development towards the end of the film compared to the beginning. Our main character, Charlie who repressed his trauma and secluded himself from activities and friends, learns to heal from his trauma and gains two wonderful friends. Charlie unlocks the trauma Aunt Helen caused him and realizes he is not at fault for her death. In the end, he also writes a letter to his friend that committed suicide. It shows his personal growth to accept and acknowledge the huge role the death of his friend and sexual abuse from Aunt Helen impacted his life negatively. Instead of seeing the bad of the two situations, he begins to choose to see the good in