The Perks of Being a Wallflower, written by Stephen Chbosky, is a novel written in first person in the form of letters. The main character, the author of the letters, is Charlie who we can tell by his dialect is not all mentally there. He is writing to an anonymous "friend" almost everyday about his freshman year in high school. He lives in Pittsburgh in the 1990s. In these, Charlie records every single event, thought, and emotion that comes to his mind.
The novel mostly focuses on him and his group of friends: Patrick, Sam, Mary Elizabeth, Alice, and Bob. Their friendship is unique because Charlie is just a freshman, but everyone else is a senior. It is also about his sister and his inspiring English teacher, Bill.
Before Charlie starts school, he is sitting down with his sister and her boyfriend. They get into an argument and his sister starts to make fun of her boyfriend. He gets so mad that he winds up and hits her across the face. Charlie is shocked but doesn't realize how big of a deal that is so he just lets it go. This same boyfriend gets his sister pregnant a few weeks later but denies it's his. This results in Charlie's sister getting an abortion without her parents' consent.
Bill is Charlie's advanced English teacher who is the only person who truly believes in Charlie's academic ability. He starts giving Charlie books to read and write thoughtful essays about. They then discuss the books in Bill's classroom after class. They become very close and Charlie grows to really like Bill.
Charlie meets Sam and Patrick at a football game and they later become the best of friends. A few weeks later, they bring him to a party where he gets extremely high unintentionally. This is when he first finds Patrick and the star quarterback, Brad, hooking up. He promises to keep it a secret and this is when Patrick truly accepts him. Patrick later toasts to Charlie saying, "He is a wallflower. You see things. You keep quiet about them. And you understand."
Charlie soon falls in love with Sam, who already likes someone else. She is his best friend who loves him, but not like that. She is, however, his first kiss. But shortly after, Mary Elizabeth develops a crush on him and asks him to the school dance. He accepts because Sam urges him to. He eventually loses his virginity to this girl that he doesn't even like. Mary Elizabeth is very talkative and doesn't really care what Charlie says, as long as he agrees with her. He starts to get fed up with it. A few days later, they go to a party together and Patrick initiates a game of Truth or Dare. He dares Charlie to kiss the prettiest girl in the room. Without thinking, he leans over to Sam. Not Mary Elizabeth, his girlfriend. The whole group, besides Patrick, becomes very angry at Charlie and tells him to stay away for awhile. They shut him out for about 3 weeks.
Even before the end of the first week, Charlie goes to Bob for company. This is where Charlie learns that Patrick is not in a very good place at the moment. This is because Brad's father catches Patrick and Brad in bed together. He picks up Brad and starts beating him with his belt. Patrick has no idea what to do, but after Brad repeatedly tells him to get out, he finally does. After this, Brad doesn't come to school for a few weeks. When he eventually does return, he and Patrick get into a fist fight after Brad calls him a "faggot". Patrick throws the first punch and they wrestle on the ground for awhile. Soon, Brad's football friends are beating up Patrick. Seeing this, Charlie steps in and saves him. Sam and the rest of the group are very grateful so they forgive Charlie and all is resolved.
Jump ahead a few weeks and Patrick, Mary Elizabeth, Alice, and Sam are graduating high school and moving on to the college of their choice. The night after the ceremony, Sam hosts a party. While everyone left, Sam asked Charlie to stay behind and help her pack. They are in her room and she starts telling him about Craig and how she was sexually abused by her dad's boss. Sam then states that she wants Charlie to not just have a crush on her, but to act on it; to do something. Charlie finally does what he's wanted to do since he met Sam: kiss her. But then it moves on from kissing and Charlie suddenly stops Sam. It's not that she was going to fast, it's that it felt wrong. It felt wrong because Charlie's aunt Helen used to do the same thing to him for long periods of time when he was just seven years old. Sam doesn't know what's wrong, so Charlie just leaves the room and sleeps on her couch. When he wakes up, it's time for Sam to leave Pittsburgh for Penn State. They say their goodbyes and Charlie goes home. He feels so alone and depressed. His letter ends with him saying that "... all I can do is keep writing this gibberish to keep from breaking apart."
In the epilogue, Charlie explains that he was in the hospital for two months because his parents came home and found him sitting on the couch naked, watching TV, which wasn't even on. He also said that he wasn't speaking to anyone for a few weeks, not even Patrick. The doctors finally tell Charlie's parents what his aunt did to him. They are devastated. Although some of Charlie's last letter is events, most of it is his thoughts and how he feels about the subject. He accepts what happened and doesn't think he should dwell on it too much. He states, "I'm not the way I am because of what I... remember about my aunt Helen." Charlie believes that "... we are who we are for a lot of reasons." Charlie continues to be positive throughout the entire passage and says he isn't afraid of going to school for sophomore year. He ends his letter saying, "... things are good with me, and even when they're not, they will be soon enough."
