The Perks of Being a Wallflower- Theme

The book "The Perks of Being a Wallflower" by Stephen Chbosky is about a boy named Charlie who has older siblings, and he witnesses and faces many different things in the book such as rape and drinking. In this book, there are a lot of themes in this book. Different characters go through a lot of things throughout the book.

One of the themes in the book is rape. In the beginning of the book, the main character witnesses rape during his older brothers party. He was sitting in his room because his brother sent him up there for the duration of the party. There was a drunk couple who came into the room and asked if they could use it. He didn't know what they were going to do. The boy was making the girl do many things that she didn't want to do. When she refused he forced her to do what he wanted her to do or he did it himself. "She was still crying... I had to stop watching at this point because I started to feel sick, but it kept going on, and they kept doing other things, and she kept saying 'no'." This proves that rape is a theme in the book.

Another theme in the book is language. Throughout the book, there is a lot of cursing and sexual language that Charlie is appalled by. It comes up a lot in the book but it comes up at different times and of course for different reasons.

The last theme that I am going to describe is immoral acts. These include drugs, sex, and drinking. The theme of drinking happens at Charlie's brothers party. This is what causes Charlie to witness rape in his room. Another example of immoral acts is  sex. This happens at some of the parties that occur during the story. The last example of immoral acts is drinking. At this party that his brother takes him to there is a lot of drinking. Also, Charlie's brothers friend gives him a brownie with liquor in it. These are examples of immoral acts in the book.

All in all, I can understand why parents and teachers would challenge or ban this book. There are a lot of themes in this book that are graphic and to some very inappropriate. There are many parents that would not let their child read this book.