The bestselling novel, "The Perks of Being a Wallflower", by Stephen Chbosky was published February 1st, 1999. From the moment it was published everyone loved it, mostly because everyone, young or old, can relate to the story. The book is about the life of an ordinary teenager who has been through "the worst of times" and "the best of times." The book expresses the idea that if you want to lead an extraordinary life, then you have to be the one who makes it extraordinary. Most modern day teenagers (including me) find the book extremely relatable and inspiring. I have always been the one to sit on the sidelines and watch, rather than play, much like Charlie in "The Perks of Being a Wallflower" until he met his two best friends. In the book,
This book shows that you can do anything you want to if you set your mind to it. Jordan was dedicated to playing football and put a lot of time into it. I liked how the book tied in love with the main theme of if you have a goal, you can reach it, by bringing in Henry and Ty. Once I read that Jordan was the starting quarterback on the football team, my first hypothesis was that she was going to be picked on and made fun of, only to realize that they accept her as one of the guys. I think that the book had a good ending and didn’t leave the reader questioning what will or would happen in the future.
Each event in the story was felt emotionally and gave me insight into the mind of Jeanette (The Main Character). Another reason I think this book is popular is because the story is based off of the authors childhood
In fact, teens can relate to the book because they probably have felt sad or depressed before. In the book Billy experiences PTSD from being in the war. After the war he comes home and goings into a veteran hospital where his mother visits him “She upsets Billy simply by being his mother. She made him feel embarrassed and and ungrateful and weak because she had gone to so much trouble to give him life, and to keep that life going, and Billy didn’t really like life (pg 102).” Billy is in a veteran hospital trying to cover from the war he had to stay there for six months to recover.
People in general also have great feeling for dystopian novels not just teenagers, but mostly teenagers in this case. Fahrenheit 451 by: Ray Bradbury and Anthem by: Ayn Rand are two dystopian novels that modern day teenagers can relate to. To start things off with Anthem by: Ayn Rand is a good example of a dystopian novel. An excerpt from Anthem that shows how
The book follows the life of a teenage
Many American teenagers complain that they hate their life because their parents took their phones away for the weekend and/or their closet does not have enough clothing in it. Beah’s childhood makes our childhoods seem like paradise. It is important for American teens to read this novel because then they can understand how grateful they should be for the things they have. Beah had to undergo war, and that had many negative effects which some privileged teens would say only happens in books.
going on in the movie/novel to their own personal lives. These are the reason that I think teens like dystopian stories. So evidently I think teens relate to dystopian novels/movies like “Anthem” or “The Maze Runner”, because of the relatability of them to their own personal lives. How can modern teens relate to the dystopian novel “Anthem By: Ann Rand”?
I saw it as growing up to become whatever I might want to be. I saw that it was about all the choices you have to make for yourself that no one else had a say about. From a very young age, this book helped me to distinguish that everyone can make choices about themself and their futures
The life of a Teenager of this society tends to be kept and shown to be over protected by the Olds. Honestly, I’ve notice from people around me who parents are strict while being wily about everything they should not be exploiting. On the other hand, the Teenagers are being safeguarded because the story states “The Olds like to say its because we are children” (Link 674), that statement shows Teenagers somewhat despises hard they are looked down on, but they do not understand that the Olds just care and love hard, when it comes to their children. In addition, the Teenagers are viewed in the society as being irresponsible; They show this with the incidents and recreations everyone be involved in; For example, “Plus, the Olds got mad about one of the chairs […] The unicorn broke the back to kindling”
There was not quite enough descriptive adjectives used to describe the characters in the novel and often left the reader feeling left out or confused. In this quote “Before they got into their parents’ cars, Sam and Coop asked ben if he wanted them to come over once they got out of their gear. ”(p 103) there is little to no emotion given from the characters Sam and Coop even though they just lost their important football game it leaves the reader feeling like they didn’t care instead of being disappointed which they were a few paragraphs before. The main protagonist Ben is described as being 11 years old short and respectful but the cognitive process of the child is matched to one of an adult. In the Main conflict Ben helps Shawn become a better quarterback despite wanting to be the starting quarterback and this is often quite unrealistic because at that age most kids are more worried and focused on themselves and would rarely go the extra mile for others while at the same time giving himself a disadvantage.
The primary issue I had with the book involved the believability of its characters. While the characters range in age from 16 to 40, they speak and behave as one would expect of those 10 to 20. The main character--a recently engaged adult who is advanced enough in her career to be entrusted with emergency keys and codes-- is prone to impulsivity and fits of temper typical of a 13 or 14-year-old. The 16-year-old, while a frequent victim of bullying, shows a meekness more appropriate for a 10-12-year-old. For me, these inconsistencies proved a continual distraction from the
Many people also feel that this book is irrelevant to student’s lives. However, kids should learn what life would be like for kids at their age in a different time period. Like what was stated before, in a history class, when we learn about the history, we learn about the straight facts, not as much of the personal lives of people living in that time. Since the novel is showing the personal recollections of one boy in the time period, students can identify the similarities between the two lessons. Since the similarities will be present, the students could make connections to both of the
The novel The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky, is about a boy named Charlie who is a freshman in high school. He writes diary entrees of his daily life, and events that go on between him, his family, and friends. Charlie is a very quiet boy and keeps most things he sees and hears to himself. He talks to no one his age at school, but is friends with some seniors, and his English teacher, Bill. This book takes readers on an exciting yet risky journey with Charlie and his friends.
This novel was exceptionally peculiar, which made the book nearly impossible to predict and held my attention until the very end. Matthew Quick was able to write a story I could easily relate to because of my passion towards basketball and common hardships teenagers endure. Moreover, frequent scenarios within the novel showed realistic struggles within violence that are very relatable and realistic in the 21st century. For instance, the internal struggles of high schoolers such as jealousy and trying to fit in. On top of this, it was astounding to see all three dynamic characters, Russ, Erin, and Finley develop throughout the story, as all three grew their friendship and learned from one another leaving you breathless.
I would recommend this book to any teenage girl who won’t mine wasting tissues for tears and will not mine getting angry at characters. I would recommend this book to a teenage girl because of all of the romance and usually boy aren’t in to those things. If you are up for the challenge, I will recommend this book to you. All I have to say if you decide to read this novel, fasten your seat belts and enjoy the ride through a page-turning journey, the loops the author puts you threw from her described word choice and the swift pace you’re put on by the