Throughout The Perks of Being a Wallflower, many different themes come about and are mentioned. While some are discussed more than others, all of them are equally relevant. A few examples of these themes are:
LoveLots of different types of love is displayed by this story. This includes the love between family members, friends, and a teenager and his first huge crush. Feelings in general are a hard and confusing thing to express for everyone, but it seems as if Charlie has a rather unusually difficult time with it. This is most likely due to his lack of social interaction and being a member of a family adverse to physical contact. However, not only does high school teach him the core subjects, such as math and English, but it also teaches him a lesson he wasn't expecting: learning to love and be loved.
Sex Since us humans are not amoebas, without sex we would not be here. Unfortunately, here in The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Charlie seems to only experience and see the negative manner of human sexuality. Not only was Charlie molested as a child, a memory that he immediately represses, but he also witnesses a date rape, takes his sister to get an abortion, and watches as his friend gets together and hooks up with numerous different guys. Together all of these events wound up Charlie mentally and colored his views of the world of human sexuality. These are the types of things that teachers don't teach you in Health class.
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Coming of AgeIt is with no doubt that all through the novel Charlie is talked about as if he has the mind of a little kid. His grammar and spelling within his letters reveals some of his child-like state of mind, as well. As mentioned in the title of this book, he is described as a wallflower. The actual description of a wallflower is basically a late bloomer. Other one's include: a person who see's the world for what it really is, all the beauty and the ugly; someone, usually in high school, who sees everything, knows everything, but does not say a word; and someone who could be called shy and who doesn't feel comfortable around other people. Charlie's freshman year really is a life-changer and starts his period of growing up due to various new experiences he is exposed to from beginning to end of his amazing story.
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