End of Perks of being A Wallflower!

I am almost done re reading this book and It has been great. I mean Holden and Charlie are similar in so many ways and it fascinates me, from their crushes to their families. Yet, the most interesting way to me is how they develop from boys to men. After being sort of let down and taken advantage of by their heros, the boys are able to really find themselves. Holden takes a terrible fall but then realizes the mistakes of his phony ways. And Charlie is able to remember the abuse he encountered when he was small and grow from it and accept it and finally get over it. I would recommend this book to anyone! It is fantastic i read it for the first time in 6th grade and I have loved it ever since. It reminds me of myself in some ways and it helped me to better see the whole world around me. Best of all it gives teenagers the hope they need to get through these rough times:)

The Perks of being A Wallflower the middle!

Progressing in this book has been great! The first time i realized a connection between Perks and the Catcher in the Rye, it has just kept me on the look out for more connections and because this is not the first time i had ever read either book, I discover new ideas every time. So at this point in the novel, Holden and Charlie are both out of place, desperate for someone to save them because neither of them feel they can run their own lives. Charlie has just started high school, scarred by his friends death, and confused about probably everything around him, while all he can seem to do is cry. He does not always know why he is crying, he just realizes he wants to be saved. Holden too is failing out of school, he has tried wondering around alone but it is just not working out for him, he too needs a freind, an older friend with advice and guidence. Charlie discovers Patrick. He is not the most popular boy but he has freinds, he fits in which is all Charlie wants to do at this point based on his insecurity and the fact that he has no idea who he is. And Holden goes to see an old teacher, Mr Antiloni, a professor who he adored, the man who was brave enough to carry away the dead body of the boy who took his own life. All the boys talk to their heros, they learn, they for the first time feel safe and accepted. Yet in both cases, eventually, a strange happening takes place. Both Patrick and Mr Antiloni make a sexual pass at the vulnerable boys. Now i do not believe that both men are homosexual, yet heros as they often do take advantage of those who look up to them. Now Charlie and Holden must move on in their lives, seemingly alone but are they really?

The Perks of being A Wallflower

Just to be honest, this is my favorite book of all time, so to end off the year I had to read it again. It outlines what everyone around us is going through, high-school, told by the letters of Charlie. Who is he giving the letters to? No one knows, but he just seems to be so stuck between trying to live his life and running away from his past pains that he muddles up inside and just seems to be too immature to understand. To be honest, this book in the beginning reminds me so much of the Catcher in the Rye, a book we read just this year that i loved! They both begin as a teenager being pushed around, not where they want to be an having witnessed pain in their life that they are bottling up. One detail of both books that really stood out to me was their Friends sudden suicide. Charlie discusses right from the beginning one of his Friends from middle school killing himself because he was picked on, tortured by his piers, and just how harmful that could be. This child, one of Charlie's only Friends took his own life, and Charlie was plagued by the fact that he could do nothing to stop it. In Catcher in the Rye, Holden remembers a time when a pier of his was being picked on. They were not that close but they knew each other and he had lend ed the boy a sweater. One day, a bunch of jocks sexually molested the boy and he was so disgusted he simply could not live with himself and jumped out the window. He was wearing the sweater Holden had lent him, yet he too could do nothing to stop it. Holden and Charlie both are in need of a Friend, someone brave, to stand up for them, to stop them from drowning, but what will they get! Cannot wait to Finnish this book!