The Cons of Reading (about) a Wallflower

Written by Stephen Chbosky and published in 1999, the novel “The Perks of Being a Wallflower” can in many ways be considered a controversial book. The story follows 15-year old protagonist Charlie as he retells his everyday teenage life through anonymous letters, covering everything from his attempts at socializing to the many issues in his life stemming from his mental unhealthiness. Because of these issues and more I believe this book should not be forced upon teenage students to read.

To start off, the story being written from Charlie’s perspective combined with his age being very close to the average teenage student’s can make the book emotionally draining to read. As a 17-year old myself, I found myself engrossed in the book, but simultaneously repulsed at the thought of having to answer questions relating to it due to the sensitive and uncomfortable topics they relate to. Through Charlie’s perspective, the reader gets an uncomfortably deep look into his depression, his inner torment and borderline mental damage, the ladder mostly stemming from his dear Aunt Helen passing away when he was young. As quoted from the book, “I remember telling him how Aunt Helen was the only one who hugged me. [...] I remember not being allowed to go to the funeral. I remember never saying good-bye to my Aunt Helen.” (December 26, 1991). The core issue with this book isn’t that it’s poorly written, on the contrary, it’s that it’s TOO well written, and can easily cause readers to get emotional while reading it due to what is being described.

Second, aside from the somewhat uncomfortably detailed description of Charlie’s mental state, the book depicts many of the worst sides of teenage society and society in general. Throughout the book Charlie describes rape, alcohol, cheating, drugs, toxic relationships, homosexuality, PTSD and abuse, and many of these issues are directly related to Charlie himself. Charlie’s Aunt Helen who, as described earlier, was the person Charlie treasured the most, but she was later revealed to have sexually harassed him, the memories of which Charlie suppressed after her death. “I had this dream. My brother and my sister and I were watching television with my Aunt Helen. [...] ...she was doing what Sam was doing [i.e, putting her hand down his pants]” (June 22, 1992). The situations and their consequences are described disgustingly well, and the effects they have on Charlie caused me, a 17-year old reader, to have to take several mental reading breaks in the bathroom while making my way through the book.

It can be argued that the book shouldn’t automatically be deemed inappropriate for older teens simply because it discusses heavy themes. We as people are all different in tolerance to the kind of subjects our media discuss and choose ourselves what we want to delve into: I’ll even admit myself that I’m probably more sensitive than most teens of my age. The problem, however, lies in when books of this nature become mandatory assignments from schools, essentially forcing students to read about sensitive topics they may not be comfortable with tackling yet. According to several sources, including an official interview with Chbosky himself, the book has already been banned from several american schools and has frequently appeared on the American Library Association's official list of 10 most-frequently-challenged books, with the most recent challenge taking place as recently as in 2016. Like it or not, it very clearly contains subjects not all readers are comfortable taking part in, and I thus do not believe the book is well suited for a required reading assignment with no other alternatives.

In conclusion, The Perks of Being a Wallflower is far from a bad book, but it is also far from a welcoming one. It faces very sensitive and controversial subjects head-on, describing them and their consequences in great detail, while also being written in such a way as to show the mentally troubled main character’s issues in a disturbingly personal way. Things like this do not affect the book’s quality, but rather its accessibility, and I do not believe it should be read by teens not prepared to handle the ride ahead.