Charlie Character Analysis in The Perks of Being a Wallflower Essay Example

No matter how hard you pretend, it will never be the same as if you participate. In The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky, that is especially apparent when we look at the development of the main character, Charlie, throughout the book.  Charlie likes to sit on the sidelines, he is a wallflower, somebody who just kinda hangs around, takes everything in, and understands it, but isn’t always fully present and doesn’t really connect with people. Most of the time he feels like he’s just pretending around other people.  Over the course of the book, as Charlie feels more understood, he goes from not going out much and not engaging fully,  to admitting that he doesn’t really know what he’s doing in social situations and saying he will try to actively participate, to actually going out there doing stuff and being fully present, even if he is still a bit of a wallflower for some of it. Chbosky is trying to show that when people are accepted for who they are, they are able to make changes and show their true selves. They can stop pretending and participate instead.

Charlie has never had a lot of friends, and his one good friend died right before high school.  his family isn’t super nice either, they don’t exactly hate him but some of his family members can be pretty rude to him.  Going into high school, he doesn’t have any meaningful connections to other people.  Charlie is alone and lonely. He’s not really unhappy, but as high school begins, Charlie is aware of this and he wants to change it. Charlie ties to force a change in himself by pretending to participate with the people around him. Near the beginning of the book, Charlie finds himself at a high school football game. His now-dead best friend and he used to go to them all the time. However, this time Charlie was alone. He admits to us “I went to the high school football game the other day and I don’t know exactly why” (Chbosky 18). This is a great example of Charlie making an attempt to participate early on, even though he ends up just pretending and faking his way through it. Not knowing where to sit Charlie looked around the stadium until he saw Patrick or as he knew him at the time “Nothing” Charlie tells us: “normally I am very shy, but nothing seemed like the kind of guy you could just walk up to at a football game even though you were three years younger and not popular” (Chbosky 19). Charlie telling us that he didn’t know exactly why he was at the football game is the perfect example of Charlie, despite being unsure of his social skills, putting himself out there even if he doesn’t really know what he is doing. He doesn’t have a plan when he gets there but realizes soon enough that he can pretend to be friends with Patrick/Nothing to make it seem like he’s participating.  Thankfully for Charlie this time it worked out. He walked up to Patrick and Sam. Patrick made a quick comment about Charlie being in a class with him and then told him to sit down. They later went on to talk to Charlie about his life and ask him questions and really make an effort to get to know him. But the whole time Charlie is just sitting there pretending.  Outwardly he is participating, but inwardly, he is still being a wallflower. Charlie at this point in the story is still just pretending, but he at least is putting himself out there, even if he doesn’t really know anybody or what he is doing.

Charlie is trying to participate by being more present around people but he is still not fully engaged. As we progress further through Charlie’s story we find that he has actually shared with Sam and Patrick that he is just pretending. Since Sam and Patrick are very nice and accepting friends they are okay with it as Charlie tells us: “the great thing about Sam is that she doesn’t think I’m crazy for pretending to do things. Patrick doesn’t either” (Chbosky 29). While he may still be at the stage where he is still pretending, this is a major step for Charlie already. His sort of fake but becoming real friends accept him for who he is. Therefore, now instead of Charlie pretending to participate, he can slowly adapt to be more involved.  Once he feels understood and accepted by Sam and Patrick, it starts becoming easier for him to be himself but he’s still not ready to really participate with people who don’t accept or understand him as much.  For example, later in the story, Charlie has a dance to go to. Unfortunately, Charlie is too much of a wallflower to ask Sam to the dance. So instead he ends up saying yes when he is asked by Mary Elizabeth “That’s when Mary Elizabeth asked me to the Sadie Hawkins’ dance” (Chbosky 63). This is a problem because Charlie doesn’t really like her, he is just too scared to say it. So Charlie being his wallflower self goes to the dance with Marry Elizabeth then on a date, then on another, and their relationship continues on and on with Mary Elizabeth trying to connect with Charlie and Charlie just sitting there saying yes to anything she says.  While Charlie can be real with Sam and Patrick, he is still pretending with Mary Elizabeth. He isn’t ready to be honest and open with her.  

At the end of the story, we see that Charlie is in the final stages of his pretending and he actually gets comfortable enough with Sam to drop it all and stop pretending and just tell her what he really thinks and really put himself out there. Sam asks Charlie “on the dance floor, did you want to kiss me?” to which Charlie responds “Yeah” (Chbosky 113). Here we can see instead of making something up, some excuse or reason Charlie tells the truth and actually admits to Sam that he wanted to kiss her. They go on and on the rest of the night with Sam finally prying some real feelings out of Charlie. And at the end of it, Charlie finally steps all the way out of his wallflower bubble “But after everything she said, I figured that I should just do what I wanted to do… So, I kissed her.” (Chbosky 114). Finally, Charlie’s evolution has reached its peak. He fully opened up to Sam because he trusts her and loves her because she is accepting of him. Most importantly however he was honest with himself. All this time throughout the course of the book he has been not only pretending around others but also pretending to himself.  For example, he convinces himself that he liked Mary Elizabeth, convincing himself even that he didn’t like Sam at least not “that way”.  But once he feels accepted for who he is, he is able to be honest with himself.  Charlie still has some work to do before he opens up to the rest of the world as he does with Sam but at least he was able to participate truthfully with one person.

In conclusion, Charlie spends most of the book pretending to participate and being untruthful with himself and others.  But he fakes real participation and winds up meeting people who are accepting of him and who he really is.  As he begins to feel connected to them, Charlie is able to open up to himself and others and really participate in his own life.