Reading Response # 4: The Perks of Being A Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

Yousef Abou Areda                                                                                        Class 811

         Reading Response # 4: The Perks of Being A Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

Every parent feels a strong responsibility to some degree to protect their child from harm’s way, and do right by them by doing what’s best for them. However, what happens when parents become to overprotective of their kids? Banning books from school libraries is a very controversial topic. The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky takes place in the 1990s, and is about a 15-year old boy named Charlie and his experience throughout his freshman year of high school.  With a brother who recently left home to attend college and a sister that pays more attention to her boyfriend than her brother, Charlie doesn’t really have anyone to talk to you. Chbosky creates this idea of Charlie being a “wallflower”, which is a term that describes an independent person who likes to keep to themselves. Charlie embarks on an adventure that includes awkward first dates, family issues, and new friends. Charlie faces many hardships throughout the story, such as saying yes or no to drugs and alcohol. Throughout the course of the book, the audience can see many reasons as to why parents/ teachers are so adamant about  removing these books from school libraries. Parents, teachers, and/or schools try to ban or purposefully exclude these texts from their bookshelves because of the suicide, death, violence, and drug abuse as common themes seen throughout the course of the book. However, children 13 years and older should have the right to read it because exposure to these issues are key and help frame their understanding of these topics.

To begin with the first issue, parents/teachers/schools want to keep these books from school libraries because of the death/suicide in the book. This can be conveyed in the scene where Charlie is talking about the suicide of his best friend, Michael and the great affect it had on him emotionally and psychologically. Michael was Charlie’s only friend ever since he was young boy. Charlie feels guilty about his best friend’s death. In the text, it says, “Then I started screaming at the guidance counselor that Michael could have talked to me. And I started crying even harder. I never did stop crying” (page 4). Children can easily have mixed feelings when it comes to serious issues like death/suicide. If they’ve ever had a loved one that committed suicide, they might feel a sense of blame and burden themselves with the endless questioning of how they could have prevented it or what signs they missed that could have driven that loved one to this last resort. Children of 13 years of age have matured enough to have some sort of an understanding of what suicide is. Michael obviously meant a lot to Charlie, and the death of a loved one is difficult for anyone to cope with, especially on children, which is why it’s so hard for them to understand. Another example that portrays death is when Charlie is talking about his Aunt Helen’s death. His Aunt Helen was his favorite person in the whole world. Every year, she got him two Christmas presents instead of one like the rest of his siblings. On her way to getting him his second Christmas present, she dies in a terrible car accident. Charlie feels guilty about her death because he knows if she hadn’t gone to buy him a second birthday present, she would still be alive. In the text, it says, “Despite everything my mom and doctor and dad have told me about blame, I can’t stop thinking what I know. And I know that my Aunt Helen would still be alive today if she brought me one present like everyone else” (page 92). Death is a very serious topic, and kids can’t be thinking that they are to be blamed for the loss of a loved one as death is something that we can’t control. This is why parents/teachers/schools want to ban these books. They could convey the wrong messages to children who don’t understand. A 13 year old had matured enough to understand a topic such as death, and how it’s uncontrollable.

In addition, parents/teachers/schools are trying to ban these books because of the violence throughout the book. One example of violence is portrayed in the scene where Charlie is talking about how his dad was treated as a kid. Him and his family were abused by Charlie’s father’s step-father. In the text, it says, “And finally they got married. He turned out to be a terrible person. He hit my dad and Aunt Rebecca all the time. And he really hit my grandma. All the time. And my grandma couldn’t really do anything about it, I guess, because it went on for seven years” (page 86). His father and his family had to live in hell for seven years. Violence is an austere topic that children should understand. Parents would never want their children to be exposed to any sort of violence, especially in literary texts. Children can interpret yelling as violence and it goes further than that. Violence, depending on the severity, can be illegal in many social contexts. This is why kids 13 years of age and older should be the ones reading these books. They understand violence and know that it’s a severe topic that needs to be taken with caution. This can lead kids to believe that women can’t speak up for themselves since Charlie’s grandmother didn’t report anything about the abuse. It can lead them to believe that there is no escape to a person abusing them. These are wrong messages to teach kids, which is why parents/teachers/schools want to ban these books from libraries.

Moreover, parents/teachers/schools want to ban these books because of the drug abuse discussed in the story. This can be conveyed in the scene where Charlie is talking to his best friend, Patrick. Patrick is gay, and he’s venting to Charlie about his relationship with Brad, another gay boy who doesn’t want others to know of his orientation. Brad eventually took drugs and got drunk so he can be with Patrick, and temporarily run from his problems and reality. In the text, it states, “But Monday in school, Brad kept saying the same thing over and over again. ‘I was so wasted. I don’t remember a thing”. It got to a point where Brad was getting stoned and drunk before school. It wasn’t like him and Patrick were hooking up. He just didn’t want to face his problem” (page 44). This portrays two things. One, you need drugs/alcohol to get rid of your problems, and two, it’s wrong to be gay. Brad was taking the drugs so he can forget about the fact that he was gay because he was ashamed of it. Abusing drugs in an unhealthy way doesn’t solve your problems because you’re just running away from it and not facing it head on. Drugs just temporarily let you leave this world to forget about your problem, but they certainly don’t solve anything. In fact, they make the matter worse. There was no reason for Brad to feel ashamed that he is gay because there’s nothing wrong with him being gay. Young children won’t understand this message. Putting the idea that drugs and alcohol will solve your problems is the reason why adults want to purposely ban these books from school libraries.

This text teaches me that there are a lot of social issues in our society that teenagers conform too. However, it is wrong for parents/teachers/schools to ban these books. Without learning from other people’s mistakes, how will we, as young adults, ever know that drugs, violence, and guilt from death is wrong? Little kids might misinterpret these messages because they’re not old enough to comprehend what it means. However, teenagers do understand the messages that the author is trying to convey throughout these novels, which is why authoritative figures shouldn’t ban these books from children 13 years or older. Teachers and parents should encourage students to read these books because they have the right to know about what goes on in our world, and kids should have the right to read whatever they want to read without any restrictions.