The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Charlie starts the letter by saying that he doesn’t like high school. He says, “The cafeteria is called the ‘Nutrition Center,’ which is strange” (6). He mentions Susan, a girl in his advanced English class. He knew her in middle school because she dated his friend Michael. In middle school, she was fun to be around, but “over the summer she had her braces taken off, and she got a little taller and prettier and grew breasts,” (6)and now she acts ditzy around all the boys. She doesn’t talk to him anymore, and he thinks that she looks a lot sadder than she used to. He says that Michael and Susan were best friends like he and his aunt Helen used to be.

A kid named Sean tries to pick on him, and he tells Sean that he seems unhappy. This makes Sean mad, and he hits Charlie. Charlie reacts by doing what his brother taught him to do: “Go for the knees, throat, and eyes” (7). He ends up really hurting Sean, and this makes Charlie cry. He knows that despite being small, he “could have hurt him a lot worse” than he did and remarks that he’s “pretty emotional” (7).

He ends the letter by saying that his older brother is away at Penn State playing college football, and his house feels a lot lonelier now.

Charlie explains that he doesn’t have much time to write because his advance English teacher assigned him To Kill a Mockingbird, and he likes to read a book twice. He says how the purpose of writing this particular letter is because he saw his brother on TV: “I don’t normally like sports too much, but this was a special occasion. My mother started crying, and my father put his arm around her shoulder, and my sister smiled, which is funny because my brother and sister always fight when he’s around” (9).

Seeing his brother on TV was the highlight of the past two weeks, and Charlie realizes how much he liked his brother’s presence in the house:“I miss him terribly, which is strange, because we never really talked much when he was here. We still don’t talk, to be honest” (9).

Charlie continues to talk about his daily life, what happens both at home and at school: “I have finished To Kill a Mockingbird. It is now my favorite book of all time, but then again, I always think that until I read another book” (9). His advanced English teacher asked Charlie to call him “Bill” when they’re not in class, and he gave Charlie another book to read. Bill tells Charlie that Charlie is skilled at reading and understanding language, and he wants him to write an essay on To Kill a Mockingbird.

Charlie says his sister is part of the Earth Day Club and that’s where she meets boys. He also says the boys are all nice to her even though she’s mean to them. Charlie concludes the boys must stick around because she’s so pretty. One boy with long brown hair in a ponytail constantly makes her mixtapes. One is called “Autumn Leaves.” It has “many songs by the Smiths” (10)and a hand-colored cover. His sister, unimpressed, gives Charlie the tape. He loves the music, especially a song called “Asleep.”

The boy who likes Charlie’s sister is always respectful to their parents. However, one night, his sister and the boy are fighting. His sister is yelling and the boy is crying. His sister says, “You see. Even Charlie stood up to his bully. You see” (11). This makes the boy hit her across the face. Instead of getting upset, she just “looked at him very quietly” (11)and asks Charlie to leave the room. Afterwards, she says that they’re going out now and asks Charlie not to tell their parents about him hitting her.

That weekend, Charlie is reading but decides to take a break and watch TV. When he opens the door to the basement, he sees that his sister and the boy are both naked: “He was on top of her, and her legs were draped over either side of the couch” (12). She calls Charlie a “pervert” (12) and tells him to get out.

Charlie writes that he’s in shop class, which is his favorite class besides Bill’s English class. He wrote the essay for Bill, and they’re supposed to talk about it tomorrow at lunch. He says that the point of this letter is to talk about “a guy in shop class named ‘Nothing.’ I’m not kidding. His name is ‘Nothing.’ And he is hilarious” (13). He got his name because kids used to call him “Patty.” He told the kids they could call him Patrick or nothing, so they chose the latter. Charlie says that Patrick is new to the school district because his dad married a woman in the area. Later, Charlie notes how his sister wanted him to return the “Autumn Leaves” mixtape and that “she listens to it all the time now” (13).