PART+TWO

Part Two: Pages 50-100 in Perks of Being a Wallflower

Summary:

In part two Charlie brings up again about the party Sam and Partick took him to. He began to talk about one of the girls he saw there, Mary Elizabeth. Also Charlie was told the full story behind Patrick and Brad. Brad and Patrick first hooked up at a party when they were both drunk. Then at school Brad would always say he was so messed up he did not remember anything that happened at the party. Every friday they would all go to a party and the same thing kept happening, Brad and Patrick would hook up and Brad would say at school he was so messed up he did not even remember what happened at the party. Brad's way of hiding his feelings about Patrick was by drinking and smoking a lot. At one of the parties Patrick called Brad's parents to come pick him up because he was worried about him. Brad's parents decided to send him to rehab because his father did not want him to lose his chance at a football scholarship. After the summer was over and everyone went back to school Brad avoided Patrick a lot. However, one night Brad and Patrick finally talked and Brad told him they had to keep what was going on with them a secret. Patrick was sad about that but he still understood.

Charlie also brings up that he might decide to be a writer when he grows up, since he really loves his english class and is trying harder in english. He also started working for a fanzine called "Punk Rocky" which Mary Elizabeth is in charge of.

It becomes more obvious how Charlie feels about Sam and how special of a person he thinks she is. Even though Charlie knows he is not supposed to have these feelings for her because she has a boyfriend and she was the one who told him he can't like her he can't help but notice that she deserves someone better. Sam takes Charlie aside at one of the parties they were having at there house and asks him if he has ever been kissed before. He told her no and she said, " I want to make sure that the first person you kiss loves you" and she kissed Charlie.

Through out part two Charlie talks a lot about his disfunctional family. Everytime his family gets together there is always fighting. However, the one thing that really brings there family all together is watching Charlie's brother play football on TV. Everyone is just so proud when they see him walk on the field they drop everything they were fighting about. That is the one thing they all have in common is football, it makes them all proud to watch him. Charlie and his mom are a lot alike, she never really says much because she does not like confrontation, so she picks her battles.

Charlie's Reading Books: Charlie's teacher Bill meets with him often and gives him books to read since he is so intelligent. To stay away from the everyday problems of his life, he re-reads these books over and over. When he doesn't want to think about things, immediately after finishing a book, he will start it again. For example, he re-reads The Catcher In The Rye at least four times.

Charlie took LSD: "I don't know if you've ever felt like that. That you wanted to sleep for a thousand years. Or just not exist. Or just not be aware that you do exist. Or something like that. I think wanting that is very morbid, but I want it when I get like this. That's why I'm trying not to think. I just want it all to stop spinning. If this gets any worse, I might have to go back to the doctor, It's getting that bad again" (94). ---Charlie

--After taking LSD, Charlie went border-line crazy. He ended up falling asleep in a snowbank and was found by policemen. His family picked him up from the emergency room and then after they got home, his whole family were acting unusually nice to him. His dad kept giving him "love pats" and they were all smiling at him and being kind. Then his sister offered to fix his hair because he had apparently cut it all crazy when he was under the influence of LSD.

Thanksgiving and Christmas with the Family:

Charlie's family is what some may call disfunctional. They fight when they're together and all of them keep secrets from one another. Thanksgiving and Christmas are always rough times for Charlie. Since Charlie's birthday is on Decmeber 24th, Christmas Eve, all of these events get shoved together and throughout the majority of the celebrations, Charlie is sad due to the death of his Aunt Helen. She went out in a snow storm on his birthday to get his present and got caught in a snow storm and died when he was seven. He blames himself because of the reason she went out that day.

Charlie's relationship with Sam:

Charlie is in love with Sam. He writes to his friend, " To tell you the truth, I love Same. It's not a movie kind of love either. I just look at her sometimes, and I think she is the prettiest and nicest person in the whole world. She is also very smart and funny."(47-48) However, she has geared her love and affection towards another man in her life. The man she is dating is named Craig and he is "cut and hunky." Charlie also decribes him as a very creative person, a photographer and a male model for JCPenny. Charlie wants Sam to stop liking Craig. He claims he is not jealous, and the reason he wants Sam to stop liking him is because Craig doesn't listen to her when she talks. Charlie explains his difficulties of oberserving their relationship. "I just think it's bad when a boy looks at a girl and thinks that the way he sees the girl isbetter than the girl actually is. And I think it;s bad when the most honest way a boy can look at a girl is through a camera. It's very hard for me to see Sam feel better about herself just because an older boy sees her that way."(49) Charlie also mentions how Sam used to have a reputation as a blow queen, and it pains him to put Sam and blow queen in the sam category. At this point, all that Charlie can say about his and Sam's relationship is that, "I am really in love with Sam, and it hurts very much." At this point, Sam and Charlie are just friends, but he is craving more.

media type="youtube" key="ID-1IoLMoeM" height="344" width="425" This beatles song "Something" was Charlie's gift to Sam for Christmas. The record was given to Charlie by his Aunt Helen, and he used to listen to it all of the time when he was little and was thinking about grown-up things. Charlie would listen to this song for hours, and it giuded him to come to the decision that when he met someone as beautiful as the song, he would give to to them. So, he gave it to Sam. After to given her the album, Charlie writes, "Sam looked at me soft. And she hugged me. And i closed my eyes because I wanted to know nothing but her arms. And the kissed my cheek and whispered so nobody else could hear."(69) Sam said to him, "I Love you." Charlie knew she didn't mean it romantically but that didn't bother him at all. He was not shown affection often, and hearing those words from anyone meant a great deal to him. Sam had given Charlie a typewriter and told him to write about her sometime. They sat together for a moment, and he typed on his new typewriter, " I love you, too." Sam then asked Charlie if he had ever kissed a girl and he answered truthfully and said no. Sam then shared the tale of her first kiss. She was seven years old and it was with her friends dad. This event hurt Sam, and that bothered Charlie which indicates how much he cares for her. She said something to him that he will never forget. " I know that you know that I like Craig. And i know that i told you not to think of me that way. And I know that we can't be together like that. But i want to forget all those things for a minute. Okay?" She continues, " I want to make sure that the first person you kiss loves you Okay?"(70) As Sam continues to cry, they kiss. And to Charlie, " It was the kind of kiss that that made me know that I was never so happy in my whole life." Sam is what makes Charlie happy, and her presence and attitude keep him whole. their relationship is an intricate one.

Charlie's relationship with his Aunt Helen: Charlie and his Aunt Helen were extremely close when he was a young boy. However, on Charlies seventh birthday, tragedy struck. The date was December 24th 1983, and his Aunt Helen told him she was going to get his birthday gift. She never returned. Unfortunately, she was killed in a car accident during a snow storm. This affected Charlie is countless ways. He wishes his Aunt Helen were with him throughout his journey, especially on Christmas. Aunt Helen was one of the few who ever told Charlie they loved them, and for that all he could do was love her more. Although it seems Charlie never had closure with his Aunt Helen. He writes, " I remember not being allowed to go to the funeral. I remember never saying good-bye to my Aunt Helen."(91) This must have affected Charlie but that never changed his love for her. He learned much about her life. Things he learned about her along the way were that she had many problems with men and boys, drank a lot and took a lot of drugs, and finally that she was molested by someone who was very close to her. Aunt Helen was the only one who ever Hugged Charlie, and that alone defines they relationship they shared.\

Charlie's Struggles: Charlie truly has some emotional and psychological problems deep inside him that stem from a troubled childhood. He has had to see a psychologist on more than one occasion, and deals with his problems mostly by writing his letters and talking to his english teacher Bill. Some of the things that Charlie has had to deal with are losing his best friend Michael, and his favorite Aunt Helen, both in tragic, heartbreaking deaths. And on top of that, Charlie does not really have many true friends in high school, and even in the earlier years of his life. It was not until Charlie met Sam and Patrick at the football game that he really started hanging out with anyone. Not having friends alone is a good enough reason to cause a mental breakdown in a child, but thrown at Charlie is also the tough challenge of having to deal with two very important people in his life dying. Michael committed suicide. Charlie's teachers told Charlie it was because he was upset and had no one to talk to and that's why he killed himself, and this statement makes Charlie very angry and apprehensive because Michael had Charlie to talk to. After Michael died, Charlie did not handle his death very well and had to see a doctor for his emotional problems. Aunt Helen's death was just as brutal as Michael's; she died in a fatal car accident on the snowy night of Charlie's birthday. It was the day before Christmas and Aunt Helen was going out in the snow storm to buy Charlie his birthday present when she was killed. Charlie and Aunt Helen were extremely close, and she always bought Charlie two presents that time of the year, whether she could afford it or not, one for Christmas and one for his birthday. Since Charlie's birthday is the day before Christmas, only Charlie's parents and Aunt Helen buy him two presents, everyone else just buys him one. Charlie took responsibility for his aunt's death because she was going out to buy him his birthday present when she died. After his Aunt Helen's death Charlie had to again see a doctor to help him overcome his emotions. As he grows older, each year on his birthday he gets very sad thinking about his Aunt Helen and her death. And Charlie cries a lot, about many different things. He has a lot of issues bottled up inside of him.

<--Relates to Charlie seeing a psychologist.