Madisyn Lemman
English IV
Ms. Gawith
25 September 2017
Letters of a Wallflower
Wallflower; someone who sees things, keeps quiet about them and understands. Charlie is a perfect example of this in The Perks of Being A Wallflower, by Stephen Chbosky. Charlie is a highschool boy who is coping with his friend Michael Dobson’s suicide. He writes letters to us, the audience, explaining his life from his past and present days. Throughout the novel, direct imagery is shown in different sexual circumstances Charlie experiences, such as visual exposure, psychological trauma and rape. The author uses this as foreshadowing to lead up to Charlie eventually opening up about his sexual assault from his Aunt Helen, his favorite person, whom he has dearly loved and mentioned more than anyone in his letters. After Charlie’s friend Michael, commits suicide, Charlie’s only friends are Sam and Patrick, who are siblings. He met them at a high school football game and grew extremely close to them. Charlie is attracted to Sam, he believes that she has a nice smile and pretty green eyes. Charlie’s first sexual circumstance was through visual exposure. One night he hung out with Sam and Patrick and they got to know each other, Charlie has a …show more content…
Charlie looks back to when his brother threw a party at their house while their parents were out of town. He conveys an image how a girl and guy rushed into his room and he didn’t know what to say when the guy asked if they could use his room. Charlie then describes the scene where the girl that was rushed into his own bedroom and begged the guy not to do anything. “Please. Dave. No.” (Chbosky 30). At the time, Charlie did not realize this was rape, along with when he was molested by his Aunt Helen. Charlie had repressed memories of his molestation so strongly that he had no idea it even happened. This revelation explains a lot of Charlie's unorthodox attitudes toward
English IV
Ms. Gawith
25 September 2017
Letters of a Wallflower
Wallflower; someone who sees things, keeps quiet about them and understands. Charlie is a perfect example of this in The Perks of Being A Wallflower, by Stephen Chbosky. Charlie is a highschool boy who is coping with his friend Michael Dobson’s suicide. He writes letters to us, the audience, explaining his life from his past and present days. Throughout the novel, direct imagery is shown in different sexual circumstances Charlie experiences, such as visual exposure, psychological trauma and rape. The author uses this as foreshadowing to lead up to Charlie eventually opening up about his sexual assault from his Aunt Helen, his favorite person, whom he has dearly loved and mentioned more than anyone in his letters. After Charlie’s friend Michael, commits suicide, Charlie’s only friends are Sam and Patrick, who are siblings. He met them at a high school football game and grew extremely close to them. Charlie is attracted to Sam, he believes that she has a nice smile and pretty green eyes. Charlie’s first sexual circumstance was through visual exposure. One night he hung out with Sam and Patrick and they got to know each other, Charlie has a …show more content…
Charlie looks back to when his brother threw a party at their house while their parents were out of town. He conveys an image how a girl and guy rushed into his room and he didn’t know what to say when the guy asked if they could use his room. Charlie then describes the scene where the girl that was rushed into his own bedroom and begged the guy not to do anything. “Please. Dave. No.” (Chbosky 30). At the time, Charlie did not realize this was rape, along with when he was molested by his Aunt Helen. Charlie had repressed memories of his molestation so strongly that he had no idea it even happened. This revelation explains a lot of Charlie's unorthodox attitudes toward