Belle Matthews's Key Ideas from The Perks of Being a Wallflower
by Stephen Chbosky

The crucial moment happens the night before Sam, the friend Charlie has a crush on, needs to go to college. He confesses that he still hasn’t lost feelings for her and doesn’t know what to do.

Sam said that she didn’t like about Charlie how he never took the chance. He is mostly just listening and doing what people told him to.

He is trying to please everybody and be a good friend but Sam criticizes that he wasn’t honest enough.

If someone isn’t honest and not showing their true self, their friends don’t know who they are friends with, so Sam encourages Charlie to do whatever he wants.

When Charlie takes Sam‘s advice and starts kissing her because he wants to, he suddenly stops as the situation develops into being more intimate.

Charlie is confused, he doesn’t understand what’s wrong, is getting upset and doesn’t notice his surroundings anymore. He wants to go home.

At home, his parents find him naked sitting in front of the television which is turned off. They bring him to a hospital

Charlie went seeing a psychiatrist twice in his life. Once before the happenings of the event and a second time when his deprsssion came back during the events of the book.

He points out that he finds it weird, that his psychiatrist is always asking „stupid“ questions about his childhood.

Charlie loves his dead aunt Helen. He visits his grave often, thinks of her and feels so guilty of her death.

His favorite memory is when his aunt Helen used to live with them and was watching television on Saturday evening when his parents weren’t there and let him stay up longer.

As he wakes up in the hospital, he remembers a dream he had. He was doing the same thing with his aunt Helen as with Sam last night while they are watching TV every Saturday.

He realizes that this wasn’t a dream but he was molested by his aunt every Saturday which is why the experience with Sam brought up trauma.

The psychiatrist realizes and tells Charlie‘s parents, who never knew.

She was the only one giving affection to Charlie in his family. You can see that his family is rather cold and fights often in the scenes where they visit each other for special occasions like Christmas.

He doesn't blame his aunt Helen, because for him, that didn't lead anywhere.

(Everyone has their own way of dealing with Trauma ⚠)

For him, it is important to remember it and to be aware that this shaped his character.

Nevertheless, there are many things that make you who you are. Two people could grow up under the exact same circumstances and turn out to be completely different people.

You‘ll never know all of the reasons why you are the way you are, but that also means your character isn't defined by where you come from, but where you want to go.

(Being impacted by your past is not a bad thing ⚠)