“The Perks of Being a Wallflower,” by Stephen Chbosky

As creatures of the earth, sexuality has always been deeply intertwined with human beings. In “The Perks of Being a Wallflower,” by Stephen Chbosky, explores the ways this theme of sexuality is present in the lives of young people. The novel follows the story of fifteen year-old Charlie, who enters high school still trying to cope with the suicide of his middle school friend Michael. To help ease his anxiety and overwhelming thoughts, he begins to send letters to an anonymous confidant whom he has never met yet has been told is trustworthy. He soon finds a friend in his english teacher, as well as in two seniors, Patrick and his step-sister Sam. Throughout his freshmen year, Charlie experiences love, drugs, and certain buried memories regarding the sexual abuse he suffered as a child from his Aunt, for the first time. In the book, there are many examples of sexuality having major positive and negative impacts on the young people in the novel.

In the book “The Perks of Being a Wallflower,”  Stephen Chbosky explores the ways in which young people experience sexuality in a beneficial way. When Charlie kisses Sam, it is a magical moment. “She kissed me. It was the kind of kiss that I could never tell my friends about out loud. It was the kind of kiss that made me know that I was never so happy in my whole life.” Chbosky writes. This is the type of experience we often picture ourselves having with another, one that is pure light and joy. Charlie experiences healthy intimacy for the first time with sam, someone he trusts, cares about, and admires. It’s in this vein of healthy sexual encounters that we see Charlie feel a kind of happiness that feels enormous (“It was the kind of kiss that made me know that I was never so happy in my whole life”). This kiss gives both the reader and Charlie hope that he will overcome the sexual trauma of his past and live free of that burden. It’s that hope and contentment that illustrates impactful and healthy sexuality. Another example of the effects of sexuality as exemplified in the text is Charlie’s friend, Patrick’s relationship with his boyfriend Brad. “they ended up fooling around right there in the basement. Patrick said it was like the weight of the whole world left both their shoulders.” Patrick and Brad are exploring their sexuality in a different way than Charlie or most of the other kids in the book. They are trying to navigate a world that says their love is something to hide and be ashamed of. It is through their sexuality and through each other that they are able to finally feel comfortable in their own skin. The way in which Brad and Patrick are able to forget what their peers may think and feel intimate with each other exemplifies the impact sexuality has in Chbosky’s book.

In “The Perks of Being a Wallflower,” by Stephen Chbosky, sexual encounters, while often shown in a positive light, also impact the characters in negative ways. The most obvious way this idea manifests itself in the novel is the sexual abuse Charlie endured as a child at the hands of his Aunt Helen. Chbosky writes in the text about Charlie’s Aunt Helen: “even if she were here, I don’t think I could talk to her either.Because I’m starting to feel that what I dreamt about her last night was true.” In this scene, Charlie begins to realize that his aunt really did sexually abuse him, that he wasn’t just having a recurring nightmare. Throughout the novel, Charlie seems disconnected from life. The events of his past were so traumatic that he repressed the deep enough to feel unreal.  Unlike his peers, he is hesitant to jump into social and sexual encounters because of something that he feels is holding him back. We understand eventually that a large contributor to Charlies disconnectedness and rather orthodox views on sex is the buried trauma of what his aunt subjected him to. “It was like everything made sense. Until she moved her hand under my pants, and she touched me. [...] It felt good actually. [But] I didn't know what was wrong.” This excerpt illustrates a way in which Charlie’s past is holding him back. Because of his history of sexual violence, Charlie finds it difficult to be intimate, even with someone he adores as dearly as Sam. The fact that, as a result of a sexual encounter, Charlie is being held back from having a healthy sexual relationship clearly shows the destructive impact sexuality can have on teenagers that is illustrated in the text.

In “The Perks of Being a Wallflower,” by Stephen Chbosky, a book about young people trying to find themselves in an adult world, the characters are greatly affected by the many sexual encounters they find themselves in. We live in a society that demonizes sexuality, hides it behind a curtain of mystery, especially for teenagers. This only creates a deeper sense of urgency for young people to experiment and ponder intimacy in many ways. The constant pressure for teens to act more adult than they are contributes in many ways to the sometimes rushed ways they explore sexuality with each other, and often pushes them to do/say things they are not yet ready to deal with. Perhaps if we were more open as a collective people about sex and how it affects us, people with pasts like Charlie’s would feel as if they could speak about their history without shame.

Martin Espada

It has been a common occurrence throughout history for power to be abused at the expense of minorities. Martin Espada is an acclaimed poet known for writing about the societal struggles of hispanic people in the past and present. Three of his poems, “Two Mexicanos Lynched in Santa Cruz, California, May 3, 1877”, “The New Bathroom Policy at English High School”, and “Revolutionary Spanish Lesson” discuss the way in which minorities, specifically hispanics, have been abused throughout American history by people in power.

In “The New Bathroom Policy at English High School,” Espada tells the story of spanish speaking high schoolers who were banned from conversing in their native tongue after he believes that the students are speaking ill of him in the bathroom behind his back. This piece clearly shows how can and has been used in irresponsible and unjust ways. In the poem, Espada writes “The only word he recognizes/ is his own name/ and this constipates him.” The principal is so paranoid about his students gossiping about him in a language foreign to him that he decides to take away their free speech. This exemplifies how unfamiliar cultures will often trigger a certain fear in those who don’t understand them. People, like the principal,  in positions of power have the ability to act on that fear and satisfy their vulnerability. This is a clear abuse of privilege, as it is the right of the students in that school to speak in whichever language they choose, especially amongst peers, without repercussions from an insecure principle. An educator's job is not to be reassured that he is well liked, it is to protect and care for the students, making sure that they are educated in a way that the students are most comfortable. The actions of the principal in this story clearly exemplifies how Martin Espadas poem illustrates abuse of power.

In the poem “Two Mexicanos Lynched in Santa Cruz, California, May 3, 1877”, Martin Espada shows how abuse of power can be revealed not only in teachers or politicians, but in the everyday white person. In the piece, two Mexicans are lynched by a band of citizen vigilantes. Espada writes “ Remain the faces of the lynching party: / faded as pennies from 1877, a few stunned/ in the blur of execution/… but all crowding into the photograph.” This lynching party, comprised of caucasian townspeople, was given power to carry out what they saw as a twisted form of justice,by the government and by the apathy of everyone around them (among other factors). The murder victims did not have the privilege of the gang of vigilantes, for whom it was acceptable to kill on their own whim despite not having the right to alone decide the punishment of another person. This is therefore an illustration of an upper hand being smacked down on those of less advantage.

“Revolutionary Spanish Lesson” is yet another poem by Martin Espada that exemplifies the age long struggle between people with power and those without. The poems speaker describes a fantasy that is prompted by someone mispronouncing his name. “I want to buy a toy pistol/ put on dark eyeglasses/ push my beret at an angle/… hijack a busload of republican tourists/…” Espada then writes that he wishes to force these tourists to “chant anti-american slogans/ in Spanish.” Martin Espada is illustrating a way in which privilege manifests itself in ways that we don’t often see. It is the privilege of white people to not have their identity overlooked and blended into another, which is the case for many minorities. The mispronunciation of Espadas name symbolizes the erasure of his culture in America. In order to reclaim his culture, he makes it known in the only way many white Americans can understand, a common dramatic caricature of a hispanic person. This shows the way in which privilege is shown in ways other than what we may immediately recognize.

These poems are all references to societal power and how it is directed towards one group over another, to the other groups detriment. Race has long been a sensitive topic of discussion in America.  SInce its beginning, this country has been founded on the backs of minorities forced into submission by the luckier few. Espadas poems show how this is still pervasive today, the ways in which opportunity is taken from some so that it may overflow in the hands of others.

Gaokao Exam: too Much for Students to Handle?

So much of human energy is spent anxiously deliberating on the future. Our own futures, in addition to being in the forefront of our own thought, were once and may still be the constant worry of our parents, and theirs before us. In China, your entire future rides on one moment, one test, the

gaokao, discussed by the article “China’s Cram Schools” in Upfront. The test, taken by high school seniors in June every year, determines your entrance into China’s best colleges. For most, this means a life outside of factories and fields. Maotanchang, one of China’s many “cramming schools” guides with military precision as students study stressfully for the high-stakes test. While many would believe this test to be a fair and favorable way to assess the readiness of students for college, the test is only a harmful, cruel way to strain the minds of China’s high schoolers.  

The gaokao is immensely stressful and unfair for the millions of students taking it. One way in which the exam is pernicious for the students is the enormous strain it puts on the teenagers mental and physical health. In the article “China’s Cram Schools”, the author writes that students walk into class at “6:20 in the morning and returning to his (the students) room only after the end of his last class at 10:50 at night.”  That means the students of Maotanchang school are studying for over 16 hours, leaving only seven and a half hours for sleeping, eating, and homework. The average adolescent,  according to nationwidechildrens.org, needs nine to nine and a half hours of sleep a night. Therefore, students cramming for the gaokao would not get enough rest even if they spent their entire time outside of school sleeping. That lack of sleep can lead to various health issues, including, but not limited to, complications with cognitive ability, heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, and depression. The start and end times of schools that specialize in studying non-stop for the gaokao illustrates the disastrous impacts on students health this test has. Mental health is another element of Chinese students well being that is being infringed upon by the exam. Upfront addresses this matter by relating that “ teenage suicide rates tend to rise as the gaokao nears.” It’s no wonder that the unbelievable pressure of the gaokao can be overwhelming, so overwhelming that many students take their own lives. Many students may feel that they will not pass the test and therefore will be condemned to a life of hard labor, or that they just can’t bear another day of cramming. The fact that the lives of teenagers are being stolen by this test is an incredibly significant example of how detrimental this exam truly is.

Many would argue that reform would result in China’s young people not attaining the scores that universities require of them. After the Chinese government began to push for a reduction in student workload and consideration by the colleges of factors other than the gaokao, many parents resisted the changes. As illustrated by Upfront, parents “fear that easing the pressure could hurt their children’s exam results and jeopardize their futures.” However, in addition to the drastic health effects, many students are already not given equal opportunity in preparation for the exam. The author of Upfront writes “rural students are at a severe disadvantage. Villages… have poor schools and untrained teachers.” While some can afford the costly tuition to schools like Maotanchang, those students who can’t are thrown under the bus when it comes to preparing for the gaokao. Those parents that are most vocally against test reform are not taking into account those who will be at a disadvantage should the test remain in it’s position of importance. Adding on to the plethora of reasons to support reform, parents who are concerned about the effect reform may have on their children’s test scores have misplaced their anxiety. Firstly, if the government decides to pull back on rigorous test prep, students will have more time to relax, getting more sleep and boosting cognitive performance and perhaps even raising gaokao scores. Additionally, if the reforms are put in effect, then the gaokao will not be the only factor determining admission to university. Therefore, even if test scores drop, the decrease will not hold as much weight as it would have previously.

The expect teenagers to cram for a test like the gaokao is unethical. While the schooling young people are compelled to take in America can often seem like an overwhelming burden, they are surely no match for what Chinese students are subjected to. The overpowering pressure and stress students are compelled to accept as part of daily school life preparing for the gaokao is unlike any most American students have ever experienced. It is when education mutates from being supportive to infringing on the health and well being of the students that it is clear that something is deeply wrong.

Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson

Throughout life, everyone is forced to have hard conversations. In the novel Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, Melinda Sordino struggles to have that hard conversation and bear he
heavy secret. At a party the previous summer, Melinda called the police after she was raped by another student, marking her a social outcast as she enters her freshman year at high school. For the duration of the book, Melinda struggles to come to terms with her experience and gain back some old friends who still hold a grudge for the night of the party. She also attempts to complete her yearlong art assignment that involves creating a piece of work centered on a tree. In the text, the author creates many symbols that help to illustrate Melinda’s isolation and growth.





Exemplifying the plethora of symbols in this text is the janitor’s closet at school. On page 25 of the book, Melinda stumbles upon the closet, saying, “This closet is abandoned-it has no purpose, no name. It is the perfect place for me.” She personalizes her new sanctuary and goes there often to escape the horrors of her school, putting up drawings from art class or favorite quotes to make it even more like her. She describes the closet as having no purpose or name. Melinda feels that she has no purpose and no name because she is hated by everyone. The janitors abandon the closet, like Melinda was abandoned by all of her friends. The closet is remote and quiet, allowing Melinda to escape from her worries as she relates to its isolation and it’s loneliness. This illustrates how the closet is a symbol, like others, of Melinda herself. However, the closet is not only a symbol of Melinda, it is also a symbol of her hiding the secret of her rape. On page 50, Melinda writes, “The first thing to go is the mirror. It is screwed to the wall, so I cover it with a poster of Maya Angelou.” This is when she discovers the closet and is making it her own. Her deciding to remove the mirror shows that she is unwilling to face herself or her past, hiding from her own reflection. This happens inside the closet, which is a popular image used to represent a big secret being kept, to illustrate that Melinda hides from herself and others in both the literal closet and in the emotional closet in which she cages up her story. Over all, the janitor’s closet is a major symbol in Speak.





Another symbol, maybe the most important in the whole book, is the symbol of the tree that Melinda works on creating throughout her school year. In the text, Melinda’s art teacher challenges them to work on creating artwork centered around one object that they pick at random out of a hat. Melinda chooses a tree, and struggles to create an interesting and lively work of art until the end of the book. Mr. Freeman, Melinda’s art teacher, tells her, “you are getting better at this, but it's not good enough. This looks like a tree, but it is an average, ordinary, everyday, boring tree. Breathe life into it. Make it bend - trees are flexible, so they don't snap. Scar it, give it a twisted branch - perfect trees don't exist. Nothing is perfect. Flaws are interesting. Be the tree.” In the beginning of the book, Melinda struggles to create the tree as she struggles to come to terms with her violent violation over the summer. She becomes introverted, quiet, just and uninteresting, sad, and wilting as the trees she draws. The tree symbolizes her growth and progress in learning to deal and tell others her story. At the end of the book, Melinda begins to clean out her janitors closet when Andy, her rapist, comes in and attacks her once more. The lacrosse team hears her screams and goes for help, finally speaking about her experience. After the encounter, she finishes her tree painting in art class, “My tree needs something. I walk over to the desk and take a piece of brown paper and a finger of chalk. Mr. Freeman talks about art galleries and I practice birds — little dashes of color on paper. It's awkward with the bandage on my hand, but I keep trying. I draw them without thinking — flight, flight, feather, wing. Water drips on the paper and the birds bloom in the light, their feathers expanding promise.” As shown in this quote, after telling her peers about her experience and accepting that it happened, Melinda is able to finally create a tree she is proud of. Therefore, the tree is a symbol of Melinda’s journey, as like her it is only able to grow and be beautiful is when it is fed with acceptance. Melinda is popular and happier than she ever was that year after she spoke about the violent encounter she had that summer, she blossoms and buds like a tree in spring, as opposed to when she was as immobile as a stump when she kept her story inside her heart. Thusly, the tree symbolizes Melinda’s growth and journey.


Melinda’s story is aided by the use of many symbols that help us to better understand her pain and her struggle to accept what happened to her. While it certainly seemed to her that she was, Melinda is one of many young rape victims around the world. Unfortunately, however, most of these victims’ stories never see the light of day. As we see in this book, often survivors of sexual abuse never discuss their tragedy for fear of further alienation or shame. Perhaps this novel has inspired, or will inspire both victims to accept their encounters and others to treat them with love and not skepticism or cruelty.

The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne

People do things they regret, mistakes are a natural human element. In The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Hester Prynne lives in a conservative Puritan town in Boston where she’s convicted of adultery. As punishment for her misstep, in addition to single handily raising the child of this affair, Hester is made to wear a scarlet letter A at all times. As she raises this child, Hester grows to accept the letter and even wear it with pride. This book helps to illustrate some clear differences and similarities between how adultery is treated today and was treated in towns like this long ago.

There are many common elements of the treatment of disloyal wives in 19th century Boston and our current culture. One clear example of this is the law’s involvement in the sentencing of Hester Prynne. In The Scarlet Letter, Hester Prynne is punished by the law for her mistake. Hawthorne writes, "The magistrates are God-fearing gentlemen, but merciful overmuch,—that is a truth," added a third autumnal matron. "At the very least, they should have put the brand of a hot iron on Hester Prynne's forehead. Madame Hester would have winced at that, I warrant me. But she,—the naughty baggage,—little will she care what they put upon the bodice of her gown! Why, look you, she may cover it with a brooch, or such like heathenish adornment, and so walk the streets as brave as ever!" This clearly illustrates that the punishment of the scarlet letter was placed on Hester by the law. It references merciful magistrates, that being a civil officer or judge that administers the law. Obviously then, if a civil officer is punishing Hester for her crime, it is treated within her town as a violation of law. This is a link between the punishment of adulterous women today and in the time of the setting in which Hester Prynne resides. According to usatoday.com, 21 states in the U.S. list cheating on your spouse as being punishable by a fine or jail time. Despite being categorized as a misdemeanor crime in most states, some, like Wisconsin and Michigan, categorize adultery as a felony. In Massachusetts, the place in which Hester’s town is set, adultery is punishable with up to three years in jail. Massachusetts today and Massachusetts in the 19th century both see adultery as a crime in the eyes of the law. While a modern government would not submit an adulterer to such an obscure punishment as wearing a scarlet letter on your chest, it still considers the personal affairs of married couples the law’s business. Today, however, these local governments are acting on morals not mainly driven by religion, as opposed to the Puritan magistrate in The Scarlet Letter.  Hester Prynne, had she lived in today’s Boston, would have still faced punishment from the law. This is an example of a similarity between modern and 19th century adultery in America.

While there are similarities between modern and historical adultery, there are also many things that set them apart. One of these distinguishing differences is who the adulturer has betrayed in the act. In the text, Hawthorne writes “Ah, but let her cover the mark as she will, the pang of it will be always in her heart.” This quote is referring to the constant shame the magistrate is hoping Hester will endure as a result of her scarlet letter. After all, the idea behind the punishment is to make her feel humiliated by the rest of her neighbors. But why is the idea of the shame of Hester’s neighbors such an intimidating and worthy punishment in this town? Because of the strict Puritan ideas in this community, a sin one member commits is made to be something that the whole town should look down upon. In chapter two, five “goodwives” come upon Hester in the marketplace, heckling and harassing her, “If the hussy stood up for judgment before us five, that are now here in a knot together, would she come off with such a sentence as the worshipful magistrates have awarded? Marry, I trow not!” One of the many reasons these women, and the rest of the town, care so much is that Hester, in the eyes of her townsmen, has not only betrayed her husband but in turn betrayed the town as well. Whereas today a lack of faithfulness would normally be something private between you and the people directly involved, the way religion links the people of this town and their ideals together has made it so that the betrayal is not isolated. This is also one of the numerous reasons as to why the shame of Prynne’s neighbors was thought to be a worthy enough punishment, it would be comparable to the shame of your spouse and family today. Therefore one example of the differences between modern day punishment for adultery and that of 19th century Puritanical Bostoners is the placement of betrayal on only those directly involved in the incident versus the entire community.

Hester Prynne's journey is that of a woman trying to accept her mistakes in a society that never forgives and never forgets. In examining this text it was a natural thing to do, as someone from a different time, to compare her journey then to those similar to hers today. While, at least in America, religion’s hold is perhaps not so firm on the way our government prosecutes, we do have a similar set of morals that determine what is acceptable behavior. There is a universal understanding of what is right and what is wrong, what we should and shouldn’t do. It’s those standards that determine what we view as a mistake that can be forgiven or an unjustifiable crime. Humans will always have morals, just as humans will always make mistakes, but it is clear in reading The Scarlet Letter that we have progressed at least as far as to say that some mistakes are personal and forgivable. Perhaps behaviors or deeds that are treated one way now will be treated much differently in the years to come.

On the Subject of Banning Books

Dear Ms. Berner,

In order for students to expand and learn, they must be exposed to the stories and information that challenge them to think deeply and analytically about the world, themselves, and others. It

has come to my attention that parents of some students in the school community are concerned with the impact they believe select pieces of literature are having on their children. These concerned parents are asking the administration to remove books they see as unfit for students to read because of what they understand to be inappropriate content. It would be unwise for you to carry out these parents’ requests, as it is unjust for schools to limit student’s access to select books.

The reasons as to which students should not be denied access to books are numerous. For example, books with explicit and controversial content can teach students about difficult situations before they catch themselves in a similar plight as described in a text. Ala.org’s list of the top ten challenged books in 2013 lists many books that were banned because of sexually explicit content. Some of these novels include The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison, Looking for Alaska by John Green, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, by Stephen Chbosky, and The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie. While these books do include sexual themes and circumstances, they can teach children, specifically teenagers, the effects of what they do in sexual situations and how to navigate sexuality. In The Perks of Being a Wallflower, lessons are taught that range from what masturbation and oral sex really are to consent to sexual abuse. Books that express teenage life with the reality of drugs, sex, and other “inappropriate” subjects remove the mystery and replace it with facts that will prevent children and teenagers from making mistakes in the future. Knowing the negative effects acid had on Charlie in The Perks of Being a Wallflower will protect children from making the same mistakes in the real world, whereas someone who has not been taught the unpleasantness and ramifications of such substances will go blindly forward into addiction. This is a reason why keeping controversial books in schools and libraries can positively impact students.

Many people would say that children and teenagers should be sheltered from books they deem unsavory for their age group, and that these books should be removed from libraries and classrooms. Chelsea Condren writes “Banning books is about individuals who believe they have the right to decide how we think what we see, and especially about individuals who believe they are protecting our children by attempting to bar them from reading certain books.”This belief that parents should be able to restrict certain books for all children is unjust. Young people have different levels of maturity and comfort, as does everyone, no matter their age. This is valid and should be respected. A child who cannot handle a book about murder should not be forced to read a book that includes mention of murder. Some children suffer trauma and could be triggered by content in literature. However, if you ban a book from a school it means that students who can handle such books will be unable to read and grow from them, and that is completely unfair. this is why trigger warnings should be put in place on books. The Oxford Dictionary defines “trigger warning” as “A statement at the start of a piece of writing, video, etc., alerting the reader or viewer to the fact that it contains potentially distressing material (often used to introduce a description of such content)” Trigger warnings offer a way for children and parents to fairly decide what books are appropriate to read. Because everyone is not prepared or mature enough to handle all material, trigger warnings would allow an understanding of the possibly damaging content without forcing the literature out of other kid’s hands.

As has been illustrated, the prohibition of books in schools is unfair and should not be permitted. Perhaps parents who are prompting the administration to remove books should have a conversation with their children about what cooks they can or cannot handle. These parents must ask themselves how their actions affect other students who would learn from challenging books. It is important, not just in regards to this issue but with all things, that we practice empathy for others while still recognizing personal requirements.

Bibliography:

"Frequently Challenged Books of the 21st Century." Frequently Challenged Books of the 21st Century. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 Jan. 2015. <http://www.ala.org/bbooks/frequentlychallengedbooks/top10#2013>.

"Trigger Warning." : Definition of in Oxford Dictionary (American English) (US). N.p., n.d. Web. 07 
Jan. 2015. <http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/us/definition/american_english/trigger-warning>.

Condren, Chelsea. "Why Do We Ban Books, Anyway?" The Hub RSS. N.p., 27 Sept. 2013. Web. 07 Jan. 2015. <http://www.yalsa.ala.org/thehub/2013/09/27/what-makes-a-book-ban-