The Environment

This blog log is supposed to be about the environment in the book. Maybe this seem to be easy, but it´s not. Because most of it are described between the lines and therefor the reader need to visualize it by its self.  Of course there are some environmental descriptions, but just a few. Here´s one of them:

“We are all sitting in Sam and Patrick´s house, which I had never seen before. It was a rich house. Very clean.”  (The perks of being a wallflower, 1999. Stephen Chabosky, p. 73)

This describes how Patrick and Sam live. It doesn´t tell so much, but it enough to get a picture of how it looks like. As the quote says it´s a rich and clean house, and from there a picture is build. It´s a big house with nice decorations and good furniture’s and so on. The brain builds a picture by its self in other words. But still it´s not much environmental descriptions!

Then why has Stephen Cabosky chosen it to be this way?  Why doesn’t he describe the environment detail by detail? That question actually leads to two answers. To begin with: He can´t. Why? Because in the beginning of the book Charlie says:

“I will call people by different names or generic names because I don´t want you to fins me. I didn´t enclose a return address for the same reason.” (The perks of being a wallflower, 1999. Stephen Chabosky, p. 8)

That shows that he doesn’t want to be found. If the environment were described in detail, maybe it would lead to that the person Charlie´s writing to would found out. Therefor the environment can´t be described in detail, because then Charlie would do something that could risk his alias.

Secondly: He don´t need to. If he would state up detail after detail, the book would be different. The book would lose track from Charlie. The book is about CHARLIE. It´s about his life his thoughts and what he does. It’s not about the society. It’s his thoughts about everything that’s important. It’s that that’s the book´s about. Therefor the environmental descriptions are unimportant.

The Characters

Who is Charlie?

Charlie is a code name for the person who really writes the book. Charlie goes on his freshman year of high school. He is a quiet student that has good grades. He doesn’t say much and almost no one sees him. In other word, he is a wallflower.

It is his friend Patrick who says that Charlie is a wallflower.

Then, Patrick pointed at me, and said something to Bob.

- He’s something, isn’t he?

Bob nodded his head. Patrick then said something I don’t think I’ll ever forget.

- He’s a wallflower.

 […]

-You see things. You keep quiet about them. And you understand
(The Perks of being a Wallflower, Stephen Chabosky. Page 48)

Patrick says in it a very good way. It does describe Charlie in a good way. Because that’s Charlie He melts in into the background and he doesn’t talk much. Sadly much more information about Charlie is not given (jet). Therefore here come some about his sister.

Charlie has been talking some about his sister, but he hasn’t given her a name (jet?). But he doesn’t need to, because it’s Charlie that’s tells the story, therefore he sees her as his sister.  Anyway, Charlie’s sister is an interesting character. But it’s one place in the book that catches the attention most. These things made the head spin around. Not literally, but it made you think a lot. Many questions with the word “Why” popped into your head.

“Then, he looked at her. And he wound up and hit her hard across the face.” (The Perks of being a Wallflower, Stephen Chabosky. Page 18)

This quotation needs a lot of explanation. This is where Charlie’s sister gets hit by her boyfriend. Before he hit her she always talked about how he didn´t stand up to the class bullies. She always says mean things about him. At the same page as the quotation just before he hits her Charlie’s sister says that even Charlie stood up for his bully. After she said that he hit her. After that moment they grew even tighter. Somehow it feels like Charlie’s sister wanted to be hit? It felt liked she almost begged to be hit. Because it feels like she wanted a “cool” boyfriend and not a soft one. This is still confusing but it sadly as it is, it describes Charlie’s sister. 

The Exposition

 “Dear friend, I am writing to you because she said you listen and understand and didn't try to sleep with that person at that party even though you could have. Please don't try to figure out who she is because then you might figure out who I am, and I really don't want you to do that. I will call people by different names or generic names because I don't want you to find me.” (The Perks of being a Wallflower, Stephen Chabosky. Page 8)

Who is this so called friend? Who is he/she writing to? Why? Have something happened? If something has happened, what is it then? Who told him/her that this person would understand? Who could this person sleep with if he/she wanted to? Why didn’t this person sleep with that person? Why shouldn´t the person figure out who he is?

A lot of questions came to mind already after three sentences. Later in the book it says that it´s Charlie who writes the letter, but to whom? There are much proof that he´s writing to a stranger. In the beginning he says:
“I just need to know that someone out there listens and understands…” (The perks of being a Wallflower, Stephen Chabosky. Page 8)

He´s referring to “someone”, in other word a stranger, someone he doesn’t know.  At the same page he says: “I think you of all people would understand that because I think you of all people are alive and appreciate what that means. At least I hope you do because other people look to you for strength and friendship and it´s simple. At least that´s what I´ve heard” (The Perks of being a Wallflower, Stephen Chabosky. Page 8). Later in the book he says: “Since you are older…”. (The Perks of being a Wallflower, Stephen Chabosky. Page 44)

These three facts proofs:

1.      That the person he writes to is a stranger.

2.      It is a person that people look up to, probably a popular student or teacher.

3.      The person is older, therefore it could be an older student or an teacher

Somehow it seems to be a person from Charlie’s school. Otherwise it wouldn´t be necessary to be so anonymous. It truly makes sense to write to a stranger thought. Because it´s easier to tell a complete stranger about your whole life, then to tell your friends. Since it´s not a big chance that you would meet this stranger. Charlie also changes the names of his friends and persons that he meets, therefore that chance are even smaller.

Some characters that Charlie talks a lot about are his sister and his brother. Charlie also mentions his advanced English teacher Bill. Charlie seems to like Bill because he trusts him, for example he tells Bill about his sister’s boyfriend, and what he had done.