The perks of being a wallflower

“The perks of being a wallflower” presents the life of a young man Charlie who’s a freshman and undergoing a lot of issues in life. His personality is greatly influenced by his past psychological background which helps us understand what he is going through. Charlie has suffered abuse in the past inflicted by a close person to, an experience that is reignited when he gets cozy with Sam. One reviewer of the movie on goodreads.com, Amy infers that Charlie exhibits symptoms of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and social anxiety maybe due to his childhood experience that he tries to block but then again they memories come crushing him down later with the sexual encounter with Sam. However, Charlie is naturally shy and introverted, qualities that are not a perquisite to PTSD or any other disorder since at the begin he makes clear that he wants friends before he meets Sam and Patrick.
Charlie suffers a lot from the death of his aunt Helen which he blames himself for, however, having suffered a traumatic experience caused by the same aunt and by the fact that they had a pretty strong relationship, Charlie represses all memories and thoughts that truly molested by a person he felt so close to. The aspect of being awkward and a freak have been aggravated by the fact that his best friend committed suicide a while ago in 8th grade.
Sam suffers low self-esteem; this may be due to the surrounding she’s confined in and the nasty experiences in relationships with boys. She seeks approval hence her engagement in drugs and partying (Bruner 2012).

Her step brother Patrick suffers from extreme depression since he is protecting the secret of being gay. He has dealt with bullying and harassment which in turn makes him abuse drugs and alcohol.
The instability of Charlie’s mind and emotions is somewhat restored when he meets Sam and Patrick and also the relationship he has with his English teacher. Further, Charlie is kept sane by the letters he writes which is a way of venting; venting the emotions he has of his aunt’s death. He has social anxiety since there is much that he keeps to himself though it disturbs him as he tries to be nice to everybody. Despite the situations that happened to the relationships of ponytail Derek and Candace, Patrick, and Brad, he kept them all secret out of the fear of being rejected or abandoned. Charlie’s emotional state is balanced when he finds confinement on love, and when he feels that he is losing any sense of love, he lapses again as seen when Sam has to move away to a place nearer to her school. The separation brings back all the bad memories, and the fear of being abandoned creeps him.
The story line of ‘The Perks of being a Wallflower’ is like a therapy session for Charlie since from the beginning he is in constant battle with himself. The story line clearly identifies with the psychological phases that teenagers in high school go through. According to Skip Young (2014), the movie gives an impression that a large number of adolescents are on the verge of psychiatric hospitalization, suicide, drug abuse and abusive relationships which are clearly portrayed by the lives of Charlie, Sam, and Patrick.
Works cited
Bruner, A. ‘AP Psychology: The Perks of Being A Wallflower’. October 2012. Web
Skip D.Y. ‘The Perks of Being Wallflower. May 27, 2014. Web