Post #12: The Perks of Being a Wallflower - Finished.

First, let me say that I thoroughly enjoyed the book.  As stated in my previous post, it brought me back to being Charlie's age.  I felt myself relating my teen years to his.  Many of my experiences resembled his (the older friends, the smoking, the thoughts on girls, etc.), though he experienced things that I never have (suppressed memories, LSD, anxiety, etc.) Ultimately though, Charlie's letters contained a lot of my personal experience int hem, and many teens would feel the same way.  The end of the book was interesting.  I didn't expect the revelation that came about (to both Charlie and the reader).  I'll discuss that  more on Brittany's NiceNet posts, becasue discussing it here would involve spoilers, and I'd hate to spoil the ending of such a good book.

Now, I'll touch on some topics from Dr. Cole's response:

As for Charlie's writing improvements... I'm really not sure.  There is one point in the middle of the book in which Charlie states that his teacher has noticed improvements.  This made me think that I was noticing them, too.  Whether or not it was wishful thinking on my part or actual improvement on Charlie's is something upon which I am yet undecided.  I'll have to reread the first couple of chapters and juxtapose them with the last few, to see what turns up.  This is something I plan to do, though I can't say when.  I will say though, that at the time I was reading, I thought that I noticed it.  It seemed at the time that the transitions were smoother, the writing was less choppy (when I started the book I thought that it was broken up a lot, with short sentences and fewer, for lack of a better term, "big words").  Like I said, I'll have to look into it more; I'll let you know when I do.

When I'm reading a book where an unknown person is addressed directly (this happens with the Spanish picaresque novels that we discussed in 103), I like to think that the reader is the unknown person.  However, it becomes difficult to make such an argument in this case because Charlie seems to know specifics about the person to whom he is writing:  they are older, wiser, and didn't try to sleep with someone even though they knew they could have, and he heard about the person through a friend.  On the contrary, Charlie describes that manner in which he writes his reports for Bill as creative.  He puts himself in the shoes of Thoreau when writing about Walden, for example.  There is part of me that feels like Charlie could have been doing the same thing for his diary; however, there is a scene in which he mentions the actual mailing of his last letter, so again, this might be improbable.  I suppose that if the addressee of the letters is not intended to be the reader, it must be the person whom Charlie describes.

In terms of Charlie's reliability... I think that he is reliable, and here is why:  He's writing these letters to vent, essentially.  He seeks no response, no advice, and shows no interest in communicating with the recipient beyond telling his story.  He specifically states that he will not include a return address, because he doesn't want the recipient to know him or his friends.  I think that if he were seeking the acceptance of the recipient of the letters, he might be unreliable, but since he is only seeking an outlet, I don't see why he would lie.  Also, there are moments in his letters where he seems cool, where he seems naive, where he seems high strung.... he goes through nearly every aspect of adolescence (and to some degree, life) before our eyes.  If he were lying, I think that it would be hard for Charlie to capture what is really ghoing on around him.

The pop-culture references were one of my favorite parts of the book.  For one, they offer a lot of material beyond the text, were I ever to teach this book.  Two, I've heard  most of the songs, read about half of the books, and seen some of the movies, and they all highlight some aspect of Charlie's personality.  For example, Walden highlights Charlie being able to see the beauty in nature and enjoy solitude.  The Fountainhead highlights Charlie's individuality, or lack there of, as its characters seek personal fulfillment, often at the expense of others.  TKaM highlights Charlie's loss of innocence.... an argument (or multiple arguments) could be made for each and every item on each of the three lists, I'm sure.  In terms of whether these references date the text... I think not.  Most of the pop culture references are of classic songs movies and books.  Each of the pieces mentioned are timeless in their own right, so I think that using them to highlight Charlie's personality traits adds to the books transcendence.  If anything, the book gets dated to adolescence, no a particular time when a particular generation grew up.

As for Charlie Brown... I don't really know anything about Charlie Brown.  I've read a few comic strips and saw one play when I was young, but other than that, I have no basis for comparison.  That's something that I'll have to look into.

As a final comment, I did notice one thing that I found interesting.... its kind of random.  One of Charlie's letters is dated April 29, 1992, which happens to be the date of the L.A. riots.  I wonder what Chbosky's intention was there.   Perhaps he was making a subtle reference to the riots, perhaps it was just another pop culture reference (Sublime has a song called April 29, 1992, and its about the riots), or perhaps it means nothing at all.  I'll have to read that letter again to see what the topic was.

On to Rand's Anthem!