The Perks of Being A Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

The Perks of Being a Wallflower
Stephen Chbosky
Fiction
# of pages read this week: 50/213

Summary

This week I read another 50 pages of "The Perks of Being a Wallflower." It is coming up to Christmas and Charlie is introduced to a new "tradition" that his friends have been following for the past few years. He also meets a new girl called Mary Elizabeth; she also hangs out with Patrick and Sam. In the book he states that "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..." (Chbosky, pg. 47). Mary Elizabeth also has her own "fanzine" called "Punk Rocky." Charlie helps out by sometimes writing for the magazine. Every year for Christmas Sam, Patrick, Mary Elizabeth and some of their other friends do something called "Secret Santa." This is where each person randomly selects someone whom they will buy a present for that year. Charlie is the Secret Santa for Patrick and decides to make him a mix tape including some of his and Charlie's favourite songs. He hopes that Patrick will like it very much. Charlie's Secret Santa gave him a nice suite that Charlie liked very much. Not only is Charlie excited for Christmas and Secret Santa but also about the Christmas holidays, this is because his brother said he was coming to visit. Even though Charlie wasn't Sam's Secret Santa he still wanted to give her a gift. He gave her a card and inside was a record from The Beatles and it was called "Something." Sam loved it very much and gave Charlie a big hug and whispered that she loved him in his ear. She meant it in a friend way and Charlie new that. Sam was also very thoughtful and gave Charlie a gift. It was an old typewriter that had a ribbon around it. Sam proceeded to write "Write about me sometime." Then Charlie wrote "I will" and "I love you too" back to her on the typewriter. After that Sam asked him if he had ever kissed a girl he said no. Even though she had a boyfriend she kissed him, she said she did it because she wanted his first kiss to be with someone that he loved and that loved him back. Once Christmas was getting nearer and nearer Charlie and his family went out to buy presents for everyone. Charlie's birthday is in fact on Christmas day but on that day Charlie is always reminded of a tragic memory. On his birthday was the day that Aunt Helen died. Charlie loved Aunt Helen very much, she was his most favourite person in the world. She died on the way to getting Charlie's birthday gift and that is the reason why Charlie blames her death on himself. Because he feels that it is his fault he couldn't cope but to make it better his mom went and put some flowers on her grave.

Response

Overall I feel that the part of the book that I read this week was pretty positive. Charlie really gets to show how much he loves and cares for Sam and it's nice that Sam really appreciates Charlie as a person. Charlie also experiences many new things in this part, he has his first kiss, he meets new people such as Mary Elizabeth, and also has his first Secret Santa. The only sad part of what I read is when it explains how Charlie blames himself for the death of Aunt Helen and how he sort of had a "breakdown" because of it.

Passage

"We both put down flowers and sometimes a card. We just want to know that we miss her, and we think of her, and that she is special."

I chose to use this passage because I can relate to it. The relation is that my grandma passed away when I was nine and I always think that I want her to know those exact things. We also leave flowers on her grave whenever we visit.