The Perks of Being a Wallflower, is a very interesting book. Charlie is a wallflower because he is an unconventional thinker. In the beginning of the story he is shy and unpopular, but as we are reading on he starts to make friends. I thought Charlie was a little weird when he sort of just blurted out that his sister was being abused by her boyfriend.It was a good thing that his sisters boyfriends does not hit her anymore,but just the way he blurted out this huge secret to someone. He did not even feel that bad for breaking her trust. I would have told someone just like Charlie, but i would have had a more difficult time breaking a promise with my relative.
I thought the quote "We accept the love we think we deserve" is a very good quote. I have a friend that is in a not so good relationship. However, she will not leave the guy because she thinks he is the best she can do. She thinks the way he treats her is what she deserves. However, she deserves much more love than what he gives her. Right now she is so engulfed in her relationship that she cannot see what is actually going on. She just accept the love he gives her, because that is how much she thinks she is worth.
I thought it was so interesting when Charlie got so mad when he saw the guy that sexually abused the girl, when he was sitting in the room during his brothers party. I was not sure if he was mad because he also saw his sister treated poorly. Or i thought it could have been he felt bad for letting that happen to her and not stop or help her. That was another relationship that the "we accept the love we think we deserve" quote can be applied to. It is obviously not a healthy relationship, but at the dance this couple is still dancing together.
It was interesting that they called Charlie a wallflower. The dictionary says a wallflower is "a person who, because of shyness, unpopularity, or lack of a partner, remains at the side at a party or dance". In the party he was the center of attention after getting stoned? Is Charlie still a wallflower?
I like this book and i like being read to :]
2 comments:
B,
While you're clearly responding to the novel thoughtfully, you haven't thought about your reader in writing this post. One long paragraph makes the various ideas difficult to discern, and there are a few sentences that just aren't clear. Don't forget to edit your writing here just as you would in any other venue.
I can see that you took the quotation that stood out and made a personal connection as well as a couple within the novel--well done.
Charlie has a different point of view than most of the kids his age that you know, which sometimes makes him seem unbelievable, but remember that his different point of view is what allows us to see ourselves (sometimes literally,) another way, which is why this novel is so revealing. He responds to what he sees and hears with a genuineness that's not adulterated (yeah, I used that word purposely) by being immersed in the crowd. So when he's in the center of the crowd at Bob's house, remember that he's still with what he calls the not popular crowd; perhaps he's still a wallflower with respect to the popular kids, even though he's finding a place with the misfits (and I mean that word literally).
See next time if you can use your observations to explore what you don't presently understand: Why do we accept what we think we deserve? Why do we accept the kind of behavior that Dave, the boy in the coat room, demonstrates in "convincing" his girlfriend to engage in sexual behavior with him? There are others that you gesture at, but you get the point, yes?
~Maretzki
Oh, and I think being read to ends far too early in our lives; I'm glad you're enjoying it!
~M
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