Answer and Explanation: The Perks of Being a Wallflower is not a true story. It is classified as a novel, so it is, by definition, fictional. However, it was inspired by the author's actual experiences and people he knew while he grew up in Pittsburgh and attended high school there.
As Charlie uncovers more memories of the abuse, it becomes clear that Aunt Helen's sexual molestation was a regular occurrence. While the extent of the abuse is not detailed, it is certain that Aunt Helen touched Charlie inappropriately during her weekly Saturday visits with their family.
Patrick seems to be surviving on coffee, cigarettes, and caffeine pills. Patrick and Charlie go to the golf course, drink wine, and gossip. Patrick kisses Charlie at the end of the night, but Charlie doesn't get mad, because he understands that it's just a symptom of Patrick missing Brad.
What is the story behind The Perks of Being a Wallflower?
The Perks of Being a Wallflower is a 1999 book by Stephen Chbosky. It follows Charlie during his freshman year of high school as he makes and loses friends, experiments with drugs and his sexuality, and comes to grips with his past.
THE PERKS OF BEING A WALLFLOWER - The Most Authentic High School Film Ever Made
Did Charlie and Sam sleep together?
At the end of the novel, Sam and Charlie start to become sexually involved, and, for a brief moment, events seem to have lined up for Charlie in a moment of romantic glory. However, this glory is interrupted by Charlie's repressed memory of abuse coming to the surface.
Did Charlie's aunt abuse him in Perks of Being a Wallflower?
What Charlie does not realize until the end of the book is that his Aunt Helen molested him when he was a child. We also find out that Charlie's Aunt Helen was molested by a family friend a long time ago. Because she never resolved her own abuse, she let that cycle of abuse continue and became an abuser herself.
What mental illness does Charlie have in The Perks of Being a Wallflower?
The writer found that Charlie, the main character of the novel, is suffered from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Furthermore, the symptoms of PTSD affect Charlie' personality. By avoiding people or memory related to traumatic experience, it makes Charlie as an antisocial person.
What is the hidden message of Perks of Being a Wallflower?
Throughout The Perks of Being a Wallflower, people can only fully develop into the fullest versions of themselves when they take charge of their lives and learn how to stand up for themselves, rather than either standing off to the side all the time or lying down and letting others walk all over them.
Which kind of mental illness does Charlie have in The Perks of Being a Wallflower?
Charlie's life is very full of depression, anxiety, and trauma because he is a teenager who is traumatized by the abuse done by his aunt and knows his best friend committed suicide.
They begin to engage sexually, but Charlie suddenly grows inexplicably uncomfortable and stops Sam. Charlie begins to realize that his sexual contact with Sam has stirred up repressed memories of him being molested by his Aunt Helen as a little boy.
On Charlie's seventh birthday, Aunt Helen died in a car accident. The last thing that Aunt Helen had said to Charlie was that she was going to buy him his birthday present, so Charlie can't help but blame himself for her death. Charlie thinks that if his Aunt Helen hadn't loved him so much, she would still be alive.
Aunt Helen was the only person in Charlie's household that really showed affection to him. She always gave him books to read, always gave him two gifts for his birthday and Christmas, and always “watched TV” with him.
What was the last thing Aunt Helen had told Charlie before her accident?
He told them that Aunt Helen had died in a car accident. The last thing she said to Charlie before she left was, "I'm going to buy your birthday present" (2.13. 19). Charlie has lived with this guilt ever since.
Why does Charlie feel bad about Aunt Helen's death?
Seeing as though Aunt Helen died on the way to pick up a present for Charlie, Charlie decides to shoulder the death and take the burden of her death as his fault. Her death impacts the relationships that he has through the guilt that he has and the remembrance of his sexual abuse at the hands of his beloved aunt.
Apart from mentioning sexual abuse, “Perks” has LGBTQIA+ themes, mental health, substance abuse, profanity and sexually explicit descriptions. The book was published on February 1, 1999. It was first banned in 2003 in Fairfax, Virginia, by the group Parents Against Bad Books.
What happens at the end of Perks of Being a Wallflower?
Charlie forgives the memory of his Aunt Helen, and the novel ends with Charlie writing that he is planning to stop writing letters and to start participating fully in his life.
Who is Charlie writing to in Perks of Being a Wallflower?
The story is told in a series of letters written by Charlie, a freshman in high school, to an unnamed “friend.” Charlie doesn't know the person he's writing to, and the friend's identity is never revealed.
When he finally starts talking again, he answers a new doctor's questions. Charlie says he doesn't want to talk about the questions and his answers, but he explains that with this doctor's help, he realizes that Aunt Helen molested him as a child every Saturday while they watched TV.
Michael, who was Charlie's friend, had committed suicide (killed himself) but the reason behind it is never explicitly said in the novel. The school counselor guessed that he might have had "a problem at home" but nobody to talk to, so he felt desperate and lonely.
Charlie does not have autism in The Perks of Being a Wallflower. An argument could be made that he might be on the spectrum due to his intelligence versus his social interactions, however his growth throughout the book suggest these qualities are situational rather than character traits.
Why does Charlie blame himself for his aunt's death?
He experiences intrusive flashbacks that affect his cognition which leads him to blame himself about his aunt's death. He develops behavioral patterns such as avoidance when he has a flashback episode and tries to shut it off.
Was the person who told Charlie's parents about his sister's boyfriend abusing her?
Though they are eventually forbidden from dating once Bill tells Charlie's parents about the abuse, they date in secret until Charlie's sister accidentally becomes pregnant.
