Literature Analysis #1 (The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky)

I. What drew me to this particular book is the main character, Charlie. He's a socially awkward Freshman with no friends, little do we know it was because of his dark childhood that not even his parents know about. I want to be able to connect with him and feel what he feels throughout the story. What kept me reading after the first ten pages was how real the style of the book was written. The whole book is in the format of Charlie writing letters anonymously to a woman in which his dead aunt said was a good listener. He writes exactly how he talks which makes it a lot more understandable to the reader. I also really enjoy that the mood is set right off the bat and you can tell exactly how he feels. My reading habits depend completely on the book. If I like the book I'm reading I will stay up all night reading it and if it doesn't really fit my fancy then I'll read about a chapter a month or never finish it at all. I also read quite slow, I'll read it over and over until I retain all that it's trying to say but then again if it's boring then I'll skim it and say good enough.

II.
1. Briefly summarize the plot of the novel you read, and explain how the narrative fulfills the author's purpose (based on your well-informed interpretation of same).

• The Perks of Being a Wallflower is about a socially awkward teenage boy who struggles with anxiety and depression after his aunt and favorite person in the world dies and after his only friend commits suicide. After entering high school, he meets two people who befriend him and show him the beauty of life and friendship, one in which he ends up falling in love with. Though the feeling isn't mutual she asks him one night if he has ever kissed a girl before and when he says no she tells him she wants his first kiss to come from someone who loves him. When they kiss, he flashes back to when he was a child being molested by his aunt. By the end of they year he becomes so emotionally screwed up that he gets emitted to the hospital to treat what we can guess is PTSD.
• This novel is written in the format of a letter. Charlie writes anonymously to a woman his aunt used to know. I think the way the author wrote this book helped fulfill his purpose by the main character developing himself as we read, we are strung along by Charlie's point of view and the way he expresses each sequence of events.

2. Succinctly describe the theme of the novel. Avoid cliches.

The theme of this novel is one of the most famous quotes straight from the book: "We accept the love we think we deserve", and that is shown in almost every character in the book. They all put up with horrible things from others because they don't think they're worthy of a true kind of selfless love. 

3. Describe the author's tone. Include a minimum of three excerpts that illustrate your point(s).

What I understand is that the author expresses his tone through the bipolar sequence of events. One part of the book can be really joyful and make you want to cry out of happiness and then next will make you want to cry because it's just plain depressing. I think the author also wanted to stress the idea of abuse in all forms because the book has a lot if it and the idea of accepting the love we think we deserve and therefore accepting the possible abuse and heartbreak that may come with it. Which also deals with loss of innocence and the main character has a really hard coming to terms with that and realizing the people around him aren't the people he used to know. Something else that we can guess that author was trying to get at is that not everyone is bad and a neither is everyone moment, great moments and people come into our lives making everything worth it.

• "...Then, he looked at her. And he wound up and hit her hard across the face. I mean hard. I just froze because I couldn't believe he did it. I was not like him at all to hit anybody. He was the boy that made mixed tapes with themes and hand-colored covers until he hit my sister and stopped crying." (Page 11) Charlie's sister's boyfriend hit her.
• "He reached to take off her pants, but she started crying really hard, so he reached for his own. He pulled his pants and underwear down to his knees."... "He raped her, didn't he?" (Page 30-33). Charlie witnessed a guy raping his girlfriend at his brother's party when he was young.
• "When we got out of the tunnel, Sam screamed this really fun scream, and there it was. Downtown. Lights on buildings and everything  that makes you wonder. Sam sat down and started laughing. Patrick started laughing. I started laughing. And in that moment, I swear we were infinite." (Page 39) 
• "...my father came in and sat on the edge of my bed. He lit a cigarette and started telling me about sex. He gave me this talk a few years before, but it was more biological then. Now, he was saying things like "You can't be too careful these days" and "wear protection". " (Page 123) Charlie got his first girlfriend and is beginning to lose his innocence.
• "She took a deep breath and brushed off the hair that was sticking to her face. That's when she told me she was pregnant."(Page 116) Charlie's sister tells him she's pregnant and she's getting an abortion. Her innocence is gone in his eyes.

4. Describe a minimum of ten literary elements/techniques you observed that strengthened your understanding of the author's purpose, the text's theme and/or your sense of the tone. For each, please include textual support to help illustrate the point for your readers. 

• Motif: "He's a wallflower." ... "You see things. You keep quiet about them. And you understand." He's is thought of as a wallflower because he's the quite one of the group who listens and notices everything. (Page 37)
• Symbolism: Charlie starting to smoke cigarettes as a symbol of his transition from childhood to adulthood.
• Irony: "My Aunt Helen was my favorite person in the whole world." (Page 5) It's ironic because she was the root to his mental troubles growing up.
• Epiphany: "...I had this dream. My brother and my sister and I were watching TV with Aunt Helen. Everything was in slow motion. The sound was thick. And she was doing what Sam was doing. " In other words, when Sam was touching Charlie was when he remembered that his Aunt Helen molested him.
• Metaphor: "And in this moment, I swear, we are infinite." He feels like they are forever young and invincible if you will.
• Anecdote: "I told Sam that dreamt that she and I were naked on the sofa, and I started crying because I felt bad, and do you know what she did? She laughed." (page 21-22)
• Characterization: "My Aunt Helen lived with the family for the last few years of her life because something very bad happened to her. Nobody would tell me what happened even though I always wanted to know. When I was around 7, I stopped asking about it because I kept asking like kids always do and my Aunt Helen started crying very hard." 
• Personification: "Things were worse an hour ago, and I was looking at this tree but it was a dragon and then a tree, and I remember that one nice pretty whether day when I was part of the air." (page 94-95) He was explaining one time when he was tripping on LSD.
• Imagery: "When we got out of the tunnel, Sam screamed this really fun scream, and there it was. Downtown. Lights in buildings and everything that makes you wonder. Sam sat down and started laughing. Patrick started laughing. I started laughing." (Page 39)
• Suspense: Throughout the whole book, Charlie is writing to a stranger anonymously and we wonder who it is but that person is never revealed.

1. Describe two examples of direct characterization and two examples of indirect characterization. Why does the author use both approaches, and to what end (i.e., what is your lasting impression of the character as a result)?

• Indirect Characterization: "Mary Elizabeth is a very interesting person because she has a tattoo that symbolizes Buddhism and a belly button ring and wears her hair to make somebody mad, but she's in charge of something, she acts like my dad when he comes home from a "long day." (Page 47)
• Direct Characterization: "Craig is cut and hunky. He is also a very creative person. He's putting himself through the Art Institute here by being a male model for JCPenny catalogs and things like that. He likes to take photographs and I've seen a few of them, and they are very good." (page 48)
• Indirect Characterization: "This boy who likes my sister is always respectful to my parents. My mom likes him very much because of this. My dad think he's soft. I think that's why my sister does what she does to him."
• Direct Characterization: (Charlie's sister) She is a part of the Earth Day Club here in high school, and that is where she meets the boys. They're all very nice to her, and I don't really understand why except maybe for that fact that she is pretty. She really is mean to these boys." (Page 10)

The author uses these approaches to create an overall better dynamic and better personality to the book. Some of these characters we can got out and say they are like this or like that and others we can guess how they are based on the author's diction. Each character is different but overall I would say the descriptions are so direct that they're indirect so it's hard to decipher which one a certain one is.

2. Does the author's syntax and/or diction change when s/he focuses on character? How? Example(s)?

When the author isn't focusing on a character, he develops the story gradually by telling the action/events and throughout the whole plot when focusing on the characters he delves into their descriptions to make us better understand what's happening action wise and why it's happening.

3. Is the protagonist static or dynamic? Flat or round? Explain.

The protagonist is a dynamic and therefore round character because he starts out as being a shy, lonely and sightly depressed boy who has no friends and burgeons into something so much more, he inspired everyone around him and now has friends who adore him. He changes completely from the first page to the very last page. He's a complicated character, while reading you have to wonder about his background and what he will do next and where he will be emotionally.

4. After reading the book did you come away feeling like you'd met a person or read a character? Analyze one textual example that illustrates your reaction.

After reading this book I definitely feel like I know the protagonist because the author writes it in such a way that you can relate to him, feel what he's feeling and connect to the book on a personal level. I can't chose one example because from page one you feel like you're getting to know the characters because they develop so fast. The whole book is written like this. It was one of those books that you put yourself in and don't want to say goodbye.