The perks of being a wallflower

02 January 2021

16:25

I just finished reading this book and it was a great read. I loved reading it. It is about a teenager, Charlie who is writing letters to a person who isn't known. Every letter starts with dear friend and ends with love always, Charlie.

It takes place in two years, 1991 and 1992, of which a lot of things happen. Charlie happens to be this special kid who one time is called wallflower simply because he gets told to keep peoples secrets and does. He never tells anyone about them. At first I considered going to the dictionary to check about this word but then I changed my mind. I think I have it all figured out. I take it a wallflower is always on the wall witnessing all activities happen without telling anyone afterwards that they happened. So you might eat pizza were someone had mac and cheese and it won't say a thing about it to anyone. So yes, Charlie is a wallflower, he gets to know people's secrets not wanting to but keeps them anyway. Not many people are like that.

 

But, i hate how Charlie could do things for people and how they couldn’t do them for him. I know it's for the obvious reason. But then I just wish these people had some interest in him but on the same time I don’t blame them for being as they were. Charlie wasn’t much in the company of people. He loved to read a lot and it calmed his mind. He read a lot more than most students, so much that one of his teachers, Bill, could give him book after book to read and write some book report on  it or an essay. Charlie explains how most of the books were similar. I wouldn’t know because I haven't read them. Just in case you want to read them, some of them are'; The Catcher of Rye, The Stranger, Peter Pan, Hamlet, Naked lunch, Walden, The Great Gastby and, well.. Can't quite remember the others. But I recommend the first one. And peter pan because am planning on reading them. We could read together.

 

Charlie had a lost memory of him being kinda molested or something by his dead aunt Helen who died when he was seven. He remembers all this after so many failed attempts because of what happens some on this night. He was with Sam and then he kissed Sam. Sam did the same. Sam is a girl going to college and Charlie is starting his sophomore year at high school in a few months. But Charlie likes this girl and no other girl and the girl likes him as a very good friend and not in that way. So on this night as Charlie is watching her pack her stuff ready to go to college. They start kissing and one thing leads to another. But before it could all go too far, Charlie gets uncomfortable and Sam thinks it's because he is not ready for the whole thing but the fact is that Charlie doesn’t know what it is until he dreams about it that night.

He remembers what his aunt did to him and that leaves him all bad because some days later, his parents find him on the couch in the living room watching blank tv and all naked but somehow not responding to anything. Not even the brutal slap from his dad. He is hospitalized for some time and some psychiatrist asks him questions which he answers and somehow clears things and makes him understand something.

 

Somethings happen and for different reasons. Charlie is told. You can't tell someone to stop crying because someone else's cry is better than theirs for some reason. You can't false someone to finish food by telling them that someone in china doesn’t have the food. He tells a story of two brothers who had an alcoholic father and how one became a very successful carpenter while the other, much of a drunkard. When they were asked why they ended up where they are, the drunkard said it's because of his dad and the other one also said it was his dad, how he didn’t want to be like him. Aunt Helen did what she did to Charlie because when she was little, it was done to her. Charlie's dad never beat his children because he knew how it felt by how it was done to him by his step dad when he was little.

 

Some things lead to other things but there are ways of making sure things are a lot better. Even if we don’t have the power to choose where we come from, we can still choose where we go from there. We can still do things. And we can try to feel okay about them. Sometimes one ought to accept the past is as it is but the future could be different. 

Some lines I liked from the book

...we accept the love we think we deserve

...never use thought not to participate in life

...you could die for someone but really never live for them. Live for you. That’s the best you can do-I think

The idea is that every person has to live for his or her own life and then make choices to share it with other people

...let the quiet put things where they are supposed to be

 

Another thing I liked or got interested about as I was reading was the zen idea. I wondered. Not necessarily that, but well, imagine being one with nature and everything around. It made me think of some days were I actually feel like am one with everything and everything makes sense. The sun shines brightly and I feel like am doing the same. The trees dance to the sound of the windy music and they go about swaying as they please and whistle. Sometimes I feel like just being carried away by the wind. I wonder just where it would drop me. Of course I would tell it to promise to get me back here because I don’t want to be among its folks when there are mine to be with. But I would appreciate it, knowing what it's like.

 

Sometimes when I close my eyes, I would like to imagine that everything is just an illusion. Nothing really is. That am a dream and I will wake up some place in another dimension where am 14 and am at a different high school where I have so many friends but don't have any friend. Just kidding. When I close my eyes, I see my garden that is surrounded by white. The center of it has all these flowers and green plants of all kinds growing in amazing ways my eyes haven't as much seen. I want to really see it, some day. Perhaps I should make one like it or similar or just some garden as long as I get to enjoy its company.

 

Charlie had a big brother and sister. They liked to fight but well, isn't that what you will see most siblings do? It’s fun. it's love. I just don’t know exactly what. The two don’t really talk to Charlie who is an oddball. It's not his fault. But occasionally, the sister needs him and he comes to the rescue. Like the one time when he had to escort her to the clinic to get an abortion. He never tell his parents about it. 

 

I loved Charlie's friends, Sam and Patrick who are brother and sister. Despite being senior, they are really good to him and one time, Charlie saves Patrick when he is being bet by some guys after he got pissed by being called a faggot by Brad who was like his gay partner, secretly and all that.

 

It’s a great read really. It's like as you are learning about all these people, you are learning something about yourself or just some knowledge that one day you just discover you know and guess what, it saves your life.

I just learnt that a harmonica is this instrument with holes in it. So you get to blow it and close some of them to produce certain sounds. All this time I didn’t know that it's not just a flute that’s there. Or maybe the flute is also called a harmonica. I will have to find out.