Book Review !

“The Perks of Being a Wallflower” is an epistolary novel written in the 1990s by the novelist Stephen Chbosky. He was born in 1970 and grew up in Pittsburgh. Chobsky studied to be a screenwriter at the University of Southern California. Today he lives in New York City, and “The Perks of Being a Wallflower” is his only novel.

The story takes place in a country of Pittsburgh in 1991. The leading actor is a boy named Charlie who tells us in many letters how it’s like to grow up in high school. He’s confronted with many conflicts, like the first trip on LSD or the first date with a girl. In high school he got friends like Sam, Patrick and Mary Elizabeth. With this people starts a new episode for him. But nevertheless plays “being an outsider” always a central role. He’s not actually involved in things, but he recognizes a lot. For instance, things that people want to hide or feel ashamed about it. But on the contrary he doesn’t know that he also takes a problem around.

All in all I like this book very much, because many emotions are mixed together. Sometimes it’s very sad, but later on, it turns into very funny. While I was reading, I sometimes compared my personality with Charlie’s. So I could understand what he really feels. First I thought it’s a kind of boring book, but later on, it turns into a very interesting story. Everytime I wanted to know how it ends. Honestly, it’s one of the best books I’ve ever read. It’s a pity that Chobsky wrote only this book.

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Describing Charlie !

Charlie is a very shy boy. Many pupils in high school called him “Outsider” or “Wallflower”. He’s honest and also very clever, because he ended up with straight A`s the first school year. I think he recognizes many things that people want to hide, like when his father was crying after the M*A*S*H movie and he saw him in the kitchen. Charlie is very sentimental and sometimes he gets to a point where none of all seems real to him. He just opens his eyes and sees nothing. I believe that he’s a little bit crazy too, but I can understand what he feels. His favourite band is called “The Smiths” and he likes to make mix tapes for his friends or to eat with fingers and off napkins. He loves his parents and his grandmother very much, but the most favourite person was his aunt Helen. His birthday is also very special, because it’s on the 24^th of December. At this day, the whole family puts luminaria up to the street, what he really likes to do. In his letters he also tells us that he likes Brandy and Twinkies and reading books and music magazines. He often reads a book once again, for instance, “To kill a Mockingbird”. His family is consisting of an older brother, an older sister, three cousins from Ohio, two aunts and one uncle. There is also a grandfather in old people’s home and a grandmother, who bakes the best cookies. So all in all I think he’s a very great boy, although they call him “Wallflower”.

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ESSAY CORRECTION

Today people are alarmed about all the violence in our society and in the media. Many experts are wondering why it is increasing and they are searching for some solutions. I will address these issues.

I totally agree with Medved when he exposes the four big lies of the media. It simply isn’t true that violent movies are just harmless entertainment and don’t influence society, says Mr. Medved, a British author. And I claim he’s right, because he also gave a convincing example. “On the one hand it doesn’t influence everybody, but on the other hand this does not mean that it doesn’t influence anybody”, he said. For instance a young couple who shot two people, because they saw the film “Natural Born Killers” and thought it was a great movie. And I also thought, duty like Mr. Medved that this couple are nit the only copycat killers out there. Another point is that movie industries suggest that the violence that we see in TV is like the daily violence around us. Mr. Medved talked to a crowd of people who ever witnessed a murder and only one hand went up. Then he asked who recently witnessed a murder on TV- and everybody put their hand up. So this short demonstration shows that real life is no part of a Hollywood movie. And therefore I agree with Michael’s opinion. Nevertheless, the film industry often says that they only give the public what they want. However Mr. Medved doesn’t understand why they praise the violent stuff and not the family entertainment. And he’s right, because I also think that it will be more important to praise the family entertainment.

Now why I think there’s so much violence in our world is, because I think that violence is something that we learn. We hear about it, see it and imitate it. So for me it’s a product of a learning process. Many people learn not to hurt others, but to take it out on things, for example, slam the door. But likewise we can also find harmless ways of acting out our violence, for example in sport. In addition, I also think that violence is a little bit an instinct which we all have, because it’s necessary for survival and always with us. In contrast to these arguments, many scientists say that violence is a result of frustration. When we don’t get what we want, we become frustration and then it will turn into violence. I think that’s not true, because everybody can control himself and we forget very fast what we want but don’t get. So all in all I think that violence is a feeling which we all have.

Many theories claim that children get more violent and that’s simply true. Vandalism and burglary has dropped since 1997 and the most important thing in helping children reject violence is the family life. There should also be more punishment for people who sell alcohol to children, says the “Commission for children and violence”. Alcohol also increases the violent attendance drastically. There should be also a better social environment in which the children can grown-up in peace.

So all in all I don’t think that the world will turn better, because it’s too late. There’s too much destroyed by us human.

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