The Perks of Adolescent Development

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In my Adolescent Development class, we have been reading YA (young adult) literature to further understand the adolescent experience, their tastes, and appropriateness of topics.  In my experience so far of reading The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky, I have found that the pairing of YA literature and the study of adolescent development particularly useful in analyzing and connecting the behaviors of the characters to what I have learned from my textbook.  Although I still have about a quarter of the novel to finish, I have noticed many examples from the text that perfectly illustrate behaviors and scenarios typical to teenagers.

Because The Perks of Being a Wallflower is an epistolary novel, or a novel written in the format of letters, the reader gains the perspective of solely the narrator and main character, Charlie, who is writing to his anonymous "Friend."  As we have learned in Adolescent Development, teenagers like Charlie, have a heightened awareness and anxiety about what their peers think about them.  They create a "personal fable," or warped image of themselves where they exaggerate the truth to impress others.  This concept brings up the idea when reading that part of what Charlie is writing could be falsified to impress his "Friend," creating a disconnect between the reader and narrator where I am unsure how much of the story to believe as true, and how much to discount as Charlie's personal fable.  With Charlie's perspective being the only information given, it must be regarded as true; however, I still find it interesting to consider how the events Charlie describes may be different if they were given through the perspective of multiple characters of the novel.  When Charlie calls his sister moody and annoying, she probably is thinking the same thing about him.

As far as what Charlie does describe matches up with what our textbook claims to be typical scenarios and behaviors teenagers often face.  For instance, Charlie describes witnessing a teenage rape at his brother's party when he was too young to understand what it meant.  When he reflects upon this with one of his best friends, she explains that this is often something girls at their high school must face in order to remain popular.  Our textbook describes that teens often engage in sexual behaviors at premature ages due to a false idea that "everyone is doing it."  Even though the girl in the scene protested her boyfriend's advances, the boy most likely considered what he was doing to be okay because they were dating and their peer structure led him to believe that all teens in relationships have sex.

 Similarly, Charlie begins to experiment with alcohol and marijuana at parties with his friends.  He describes one awful experience he had after a party where he passed out outside and was found by a police officer.  The reader is led to assume that this happened due to smoking and drinking at the party, but Charlie later reveals that he had tried LSD.  Our textbook explains that teens are more likely to take risks when in groups of friends that they are close with because it is a way to impress their peers.  Charlie, being a good student who loves reading and writing essays does not necessarily fit the profile for someone who does drugs, yet, since he is at an age where his decision making skills are not fully developed in combination with being around his peers, he would be more likely to try them.  Additionally, our textbook describes how teenagers often have a change in personality that occurs where they become more moody or depressed.  After Charlie's parents found out about a police officer finding him, they were oblivious to the idea that he might have taken drugs as he has a history of depression after his aunt's death.  Even though the traumatic event may have caused his mood shift, it is heightened by his age.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower is the perfect text to apply to adolescent development because it is simply the story of adolescent experience.  Charlie describes his day to day life.  If I had been reading the book without this background knowledge, sure, I still would enjoy it, but it makes it a lot more interesting to me to have an understanding of why the characters act and say what they do.  This proves to me that it is a quality book because the author has made it authentic in that Charlie is supposed to have written it.  Chbosky must have put research into adolescent development to create this novel, which is truly a perk of a good book. 

Comments

  1. Excellent post! It is particularly interested in your commentary re: your experience based on the vantage point or persective of you as a teacher education student.

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  2. I appreciate the connections you make between Charlie and the idea that adolescents have heightened awareness while creating personal fables. I think it's crucial for teenagers to be able to see the other point of view that they are often blind to. I also liked your discussion regarding the risky decisions adolescents tend to make. Having a novel that makes teenagers aware of the consequences of certain actions is important. Enjoy the rest of the book!

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