“Why everything that’s supposed to be bad make me feel so good?” (West). A similar attitude is adopted by many adolescents, and is reflected in the activities that they choose to take part in. This mindset is also reflected in the actions of the characters in The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky. This behavior can be seen when Patrick is coping with losing Brad, when Brad is coping with his sexuality, and when Charlie is coping with his depression. In The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Stephen Chbosky effectively displays the negative impact that substance abuse has on the physical and mental health of the individual. Firstly, the negative impacts of substance abuse are demonstrated when Patrick is coping with losing Brad. This …show more content…
Charlie becomes depressed around the Christmas holidays because of his aunt’s death. Charlie ends up trying LSD at a party and it causes him major physical harm. Charlie recalls upon the event, saying “I didn’t stop shivering from the cold until a long time after my mom and dad drove me home from the emergency room” (99). After taking LSD, Charlie collapses outside in the middle of winter without a coat. He is later found by a police officer and is taken to the emergency room. It is only through luck that he does not suffer any long term harm from this event. He does however show little care for what happens to his body. He put his own physical health at risk just because he wanted to lie down. This sort of neglect is similar to that of Patrick’s and it shows not only how substance abuse will damage physical health, but also how it can cause people to inflict physical harm to themselves. The LSD has further impacts on Charlie’s health as the novel progresses. At one point, he speaks about the trance he experiences and says, “Once you do it, you remember how things looked on it” (101). Charlie’s mind remembers how LSD affects his vision, and he is still experiencing after the drug wore off. This information, combined with the knowledge of the environment he was in, leads one to infer that he had a bad trip. A bad trip can have a major impact on the mental state of an individual. In the case of Charlie
In the movie Silverlining Playbook, directed by David O. Russell, Patrick Solatano who is diagnosed with bipolar disorder who is released from a mental institution and partners up with tiffany in the hopes to get back with his wife. In Perks of being a wallflower directed by Steven Chobsky, Charlie suffers from depression after his best friends suicide and PTSD due to being sexualy abused by his Aunt Karen at an early age. Both directors effectively depict these varying mental disorders in american society by accurately portraying the mental disorder symptoms, relating the conflicts to the audience, and by challenging previous negative stereotypes.
At least one person committed suicide after becoming an unwitting subject of a CIA LSD test, crashing through a highstory plate-glass window in a New York hotel as his Agency guardian watched. (Or perhaps the guardian did more than watch. In June 1994 the victim’s family had his thirty-year-old corpse exhumed to check for signs that he may have been thrown out that window.) Numerous others lost their grip on reality.
Perks of Being a Wallflower has been on a plethora of schools “What-To-Read” list for students because of the straight-forward but explosive dialogue that any student would be able to understand. The vulgar situations and obscene details that take place in the narrators experiences can easily be overlooked by any reader who pays attention to the gripping storyline that Chbosky writes in a sad but upbeat
The movie, The Perks of Being A Wallflower, released in 2012, is based on the book written by Stephen Chbosky, which was originally published in 1999. The book is all about the main character, Charlie, as he deals with his first year in high school, after the tragic death of his Aunt Helen. The movie opens with Charlie writing in a journal, which is a part of his therapy for the mental illness he suffers from on account of his Aunt 's death. The past year or so before this, Charlie had been suffering from memories and flashbacks of the way his Aunt died in a car accident. He is hopeful that high school will bring new things for him, but after the first day, is disappointed after the bullying and neglect he finds from other students. Things
At the end of stories the reader sees the usual "and they lived happily ever after" phrase, but not all stories have happy endings. It is believed by some people that the fictional story "The Yellow Wallpaper" written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman had a happy ending and that the narrator was liberated, but it’s unknown if narrator eventually gets her sanity back. The ending of "The Yellow Wallpaper" doesn’t have a happy ending because the author never mentions if the narrator gets her sanity back eventually and she also doesn't mention other important details that would show that she gets liberated.
The Perks of Being a Wallflower was brought to screen in 2012 by author and director Stephen Chbosky. The movie is about a 15 year old adolescent named Charlie who is beginning high school with a little more baggage than the normal freshman. The viewer quickly discovers that Charlie’s best friend, Michael, committed suicide during May of their 8th grade school year and the viewer later learns that Charlie’s aunt Helen molested him as a child. Charlie begins school determined to make some new friends and is befriended by step siblings Patrick and Sam during the first week of school. The movie spans for Charlie’s entire freshman year and shows the struggles he has with relationships, bullying, risky behaviors, as well remnants from his past trauma. He has a lot in common with Sam and falls in love with her, but accidentally ends up in a relationship with another one of the members of their clique, Mary Elizabeth. His relationship with her ends poorly and he is exiled from the clique for a few weeks. Upon the school year ending, Charlie is faced with the harsh reality that his group of friends, including his love Sam, are all seniors and are all going on to college. Charlie has a mental breakdown, but is able to reconcile many of his past struggles with the help of a doctor and the support from his parents and siblings. The movie ends with Sam and Patrick coming
The role of identity plays an important role in all adolescence which can help shape their future. In psychology, identity is the conception, qualities, beliefs, and expressions that make a person or group. The movie, “The Perks of Being a Wallflower”, illustrates how teens struggle with identity. Charlie is an anti-social freshman who is befriended by a group of high school seniors, who introduces him to the world of drugs, love, sexulatity, friendship, and lies. His friends play a huge role in his development. Throughout the movie, Charlie was able to build upon his character and develop friendships that gave him a new perspective that life needs, to live life rather than watching it.
In one scene, Mr. Anderson is asked by Charlie why people stay with others who are wrong for them, speaking of Sam and her boyfriend, and he responds with his famous quote, “We accept the love we think we deserve.” That statement is very powerful and makes a lot of sense in the world of psychology. It is shown that many of the characters in the film accepted the love they thought they deserved whether it be Sam with her boyfriend, Patrick with Brad, or even Charlie with Mary Elizabeth. However, with the ability of change, they all stood up for themselves and one another and started to embrace pure love and friendship and accepted nothing that defies that. The Perks of Being a Wallflower is a very emotional and influential movie that could easily be used for a psychological analysis. (Halfon, Malkovich, Smith & Chbosky,
The coming of age novel, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, by Stephen Chbosky, follows the self-discovery of an introverted 15-year-old boy named Charlie. The novel is written in a series of letters to an anonymous person, which he sends, as he needs someone to talk to after his best friend’s suicide
The Perks of Being a Wallflower is a coming of age film that chronicles the life of a boy named Charlie. Charlie is 15 years old and has just begun his first year of high school. He will give a detailed account of the joys and pains of his freshman year in high school. He begins by writing letters to an unknown stranger, but then, you realize that stranger is you. Through these Charlie tells his story from his perspective. He will experience many highs and lows related to the adolescence phase. The highlights of the paper will focus on the biological/physical, psychological, social, spiritual, cultural issues, as well as his strengths and challenges.
In the movie, The Perks of Being a Wallflower the audience learns a great deal about, Charlie, the main character’s life and how his past traumas affect him psychologically (Chbosky, 2012). Charlie is a 15-year-old boy who is coping with his best friend’s suicide, in addition to struggling with Posttraumic Stress Disorder (PTSD) (Chbosky, 2012). When Charlie was younger, his favorite Aunt, Helen, raped him, although he did not seem to fully understand that until he was hospitalized (Chbosky, 2012). However, Charlie was not hospitalized until right after he learned his best friend, Michael, committed suicide. Charlie is also shy, therefore has difficulties making friends. At the beginning of the movie, Charlie is writing to a new friend and
If you were to walk into a high school lunchroom, what is the first thing you would see? Groups, cliques, friend circles, and separations. Tables split up in detached formations, almost completely unaware of the other surrounding pupils nearby. The most common groups in high school are the populars and the outcasts. The kids who have endless friends, engage in team sports, and meet the ideal teenage standards, against the ones who are quiet, solitary, and unconventional. The ones that are outcasts fall into the second description. They don’t line up with society's norms therefore, they tend to be looked upon as bizarre and atypical. Outsiders are too often misjudged and misunderstood
“It would be very nice to have a friend again. I would like that even more than a date,” (21) Charlie remarks when he feels lonely. In the novel, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, by Stephen Chbosky, the author uses the theme of friendship to help Charlie overcome obstacles. The novel is about a friendless boy named Charlie who struggles with some demons from his past. Charlie finds a group of friends, sort of misfits like himself, who take him under their wings and introduce him to experiences that are common in teens, including parties, drugs, and sex. His new group of friends gives Charlie something precious that he has never had before, a sense of belonging. After Michael 's death, Charlie is eagerly craving any sort of social interaction.
Depression is an extremely delicate topic. In the novels “13 Reasons Why” by Jay Asher and “The Perks of Being A Wallflower” by Stephan Chbosky do an outstanding job hitting the topic depression. Both novels cover depression in its own style. In one, someone commits suicide while on the contrary, the other person surpasses depression. Support systems are vital during depression, lack of communication as well as self-expression all lead to an easy way out. Anyone who is suffering from depression should have at least one confident to be able to communicate to. Depression is a heavy weighed disease in which one needs all the support one can get. A voice is needed as well, in which many people are scared of having. In each of the novels each fictional
The perks of being a wallflowers is about Charlie, a 15 year old freshman student that is about to start his high school year. He lives with his parents and older sister. Charlie has as an older brother too, but he lives away because he is attending college. As the movie starts goes, it is implied that when Charlie was a kid he was molested by his aunt, who later dies in a car accident on Christmas Eve, (which is also Charlie’s birthday). His family seems to have a strong bond, they each follow a role, and they support each other. During some scenes in the movie, Charlie seems to be having internalizing problems. As the movie progressed, it is revealed that Charlie had a friend that committed suicide, and this event made Charlie to feel sorrowful. When he enters high school, Charlie appears to be very concern of what others may think about him, as well as