The Perks of Being a Wallflower Book Report Essay

Submitted By angxelica
Words: 1071
Pages: 5

9 January 2013

We Are Infinite
The title of the book I read is The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky. Its copyright is 1999 by Stephen Chbosky. The setting is unknown and the time is 1991.
In this book Charlie, the protagonist, is a sincere and sensitive incoming freshmen who writes anonymous letters to an unknown “friend” as a way to deal with being sexually abused as a child and the recent loss of his best and only friend, Michael, who recently committed suicide. Charlie’s Aunt Helen was his favorite person as well as the person who raped him as a child. Bill, Charlie’s English teacher, sees the potential Charlie has and he assigns him extra books to read and discuss as well as some significant advice. Charlie tries to participate by making new friends so he reaches out to Patrick, who is a very funny senior and is gay, and Sam, who is Patrick’s stepsister, is a senior as well, as they both do their best to take him under their wings.
The story starts off with Charlie’s first week of his freshman year of high school and him trying to deal with being alone because his best friend committed suicide. Charlie does not have many friends, although he is noticed by his English teacher, Bill, who sees his ability to become a great reader and assigns him extra books to read and advises him to try to participate more. Charlie takes Bill’s advice and approaches a student who is in his shop class named Patrick at a football game he goes to. Patrick introduces himself and his stepsister Sam. After the game they go to a local dinner and Sam and Patrick ask Charlie a lot of questions to get to know him better. They become really close friends and Charlie is introduced to the rest of Patrick and Sam’s friends. The next time they go to a game, Sam and Patrick invite Charlie to a party, in which Charlie is given a brownie with marijuana in it. Charlie stumbles around trying to find the bathroom and discovers Patrick and Brad, promising them not to tell because Brad is still keeping it a secret, he heads back to the party. Patrick realizes Charlie is special and he and the rest of the people at the party toast him for being a Wallflower. He spends much time with all his new friends and gets especially close to Mary Elizabeth who soon turns into his girlfriend.
The conflict begins because Charlie feels very conflicted because he truly loves Sam so he decides to let her know while the whole gang is playing Spin the Bottle and he is dared to kiss who he thinks is the prettiest girl. When Charlie kisses Sam, Mary Elizabeth runs out crying and Sam gets mad at Charlie then runs out after Mary Elizabeth. After that Charlie is told by Patrick that it would be best he stay away for a while so Charlie finds himself alone. Charlie start going to a very dark place and is pulled back when he hears that Patrick got caught with Brad by Brad’s dad. Charlie sees Patrick trying to talk to Brad when suddenly Brad gets mad and calls Patrick a faggot. Patrick gets really mad and punches Brad who starts fighting back. Then Brad’s five buddies get involved and Charlie gets involved even though he has not talked to Patrick in a long time. Charlie takes out all five of Brad’s friends and then tells Brad if he ever does that again he will tell everyone his secret. Patrick and Brad’s buddies get suspended but Brad and Charlie get a warning.
The climax is when Charlie becomes friends with Sam, Patrick, and Mary Elizabeth again. Charlie spends a lot of time with Patrick and soon the school year is coming close to an end. Charlie sits back and sees all his friends starting to plan for prom, graduation, and college which that makes him depressed. When graduation comes around Charlie sees all his friends graduate and he