Module 15: Censorship
Issues
Book: The Perks of being a Wallflower
Author: Stephen Chbosky
Plot
Charlie narrates his story by
sending letters to an acquaintance that remains nameless to the reader.
Charlie, a very quiet and emotionally sensitive teenager is about to enter
highschool with a backpack full of internal demons. Lacking in friends, Charlie
meets Patrick and Sam who befriend him and thus becoming a part of their
circle. Charlie then experiences many life altering moments that leads to a
break down that shines a light on the darkness of his past but allows him to
gradually heal and move on.
Impression of the Book
I love the book.
The character were endearing and the story was honest. It taught me many
things, some of which were in any given moment when we have epiphanies, “we are
infinite”, “ we accept the love we think we deserve”, and to “participate in
life”.
Implementation in
Library Setting
Because the book
is a commonly censored book and deals with controversial issues, the
implementation of teaching this book in a Library Setting would
just have to be when one is dealing with censored books; i.e. censored book
week. Or, a comparison and contrast of what Greek 15 year old mythological
characters go through in the Greek Mythologies versus that of Perks…and then Shakespearean characters
versus Chbosky’s characters.
Reviews
“Charlie
has issues. His favorite aunt passed away, and his best friend just committed
suicide. The girl he loves wants him as a friend; a girl he does not love wants
him as a lover. His 18-year-old sister is pregnant. The LSD he took is not
sitting well. And he has a math quiz looming. Charlie is the high school
freshman protagonist of The Perks of Being a Wallflower,
by Stephen Chbosky, a 29-year-old screenwriter. Published by MTV, it is one of
a new generation of novels geared toward teenagers, for whom such subjects are
increasingly just part of growing up.
Young-adult novels, as the genre
used to be called, still center on disenfranchised adolescents who could be
direct descendants of Holden Caulfield. Now, though, says Stephen Roxburgh,
president and publisher of Front Street Books, "the heat has been
turned up." Front Street helped bring so-called bleak books to
early teens in 1997 when it published one book set in a
juvenile-detention facility (Adam Rapp's The Buffalo Tree) and another in which
a 13-year-old sleeps with her mother's boss (Brock Cole's The Facts Speak for
Themselves). They were followed by Melvin Burgess's even more graphic Smack, a
British novel imported by Henry Holt, which details a middle-class
15-year-old's descent into the world of heroin addiction and prostitution.
These books and others that
feature stark themes, complex plot lines and ambiguous resolutions are edging
out the happy endings and conventional morals of the old-style teen
"problem" novels, which would obsess over something like a divorce,
or an accidental pregnancy, for 120 pages. "The formula has been
broken," says Eliza Dresang, author of Radical Change: Books for
Youth in a Digital Age.
Now
in its fourth printing, The Perks of Being a Wallflower
has developed a cult following since it was released in February. "It
reminded me of me and my friends, totally and completely," a teen reader
reported on an AOL message board. Said another: "I don't read books
by choice too often, but I really loved this one."
Book merchants and publishers love it
too. Amazon.com has designated a special area for teens online; chains like
Borders and Barnes & Noble have begun to do the same in their stores (hint:
look for teen racks near the coffee bar). To make the books more
attractive to young people, publishers are printing them in larger sizes and
illustrating their covers with bold colors and stylish graphics. They're also
promoting the books on TV shows and in magazines that are popular with
youngsters, as well as on websites.
Teen fiction may, in fact, be the
first literary genre born of the Internet. Its fast-paced narratives draw upon
the target demographic's kinship with MTV, which has a joint venture with
Pocket Books, and with the Internet and kids' ease in processing
information in unconventional formats. Smack is told by multiple narrators.
Monster, the latest novel by veteran children's book author Walter Dean
Myers, is recounted in the form of a screenplay. Louis Sachar's Holes, last
year's Newbery and National Book Award winner about a boy erroneously
sent to a juvenile detention center, shuttles between past and present.
The Perks of Being a Wallflower
is presented as a collection of letters the narrator has written to an
unspecified recipient. Nearing the end of his freshman year, Charlie realizes
what he likes about a certain book, and his description serves to
explain the appeal of his own narrative: "It wasn't like you had to really
search for the philosophy. It was pretty straightforward, I thought, and the
great part is that I took what the author wrote about and put it in terms of my
own life."
Teen books may not be able
to compete with the visuals of The Matrix, but they do provide a few hours of
what teens may need most: time to think. And there's nothing bleak about that.”-
Spitz, D.
APA Citations
Chbosky, S.
(1999). The perks of being a wallflower. New York: Pocket Books.
Spitz, D.
(1999). Reads Like Teen Spirit. Time,
154(3), 79.
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