Embedded Files
How Chbosky Wrote:
Topics
Chbosky covers a variety of themes within the novel that express an overarching theme. The main character has to navigate the challenges of starting high school and the typical experiences that come along with it such as friendships, parties, and relationships. At the same time, Chbosky explores a deeper issue of the struggles that come along with mental health, which shows how past trauma can shape someone’s experiences when growing up.
Characters
Chbosky creates characters who are outsiders but form deep, supportive friendships that feel real because he displays hardships that they face. A similar dynamic can be found in Wonder where the relationships between the main character Auggie and the people around him focus on themes of growing through accepting differences. The friendships that surround Charlie strongly impact him because they help him feel less alone and influence his emotional growth.
Epistolary Style
Chbosky utilizes a letter format (epistolary style) where Charlie writes to an anonymous, “Dear friend,” which makes the story feel personal, almost like you’re actually inside of his thoughts. This structure allows readers to see and feel his emotions in real time. This especially applies to times where Charlie hadn’t let the people around him know the absolute struggles that he has, but he didn’t even know that he had himself. But through the letters, the reader can pinpoint exactly to how he is feeling and make inferences about his character. There are moments where he admits his personal struggles or that he feels like, “a big faker because he had been putting his life, “back together, and nobody knows.” By including honest, sometimes reflected fragments, Chbosky reveals Charlie's ability to mask his feelings and how his environment and friends around him influenced him to grow.
Emulation
Dear friend,
I'm writing this from a bathroom at a party because my thoughts are getting bad again. The music is so loud that I can feel it in my chest. I think I have been here for a while now, but I'm not really sure how long. Time feels stagnant even though everyone is continuing to do what they do at parties like drinking and gyrating, but that doesn’t really seem fun to me.
Rachel brought me here. She said that I should come and that it would be good for me to be around people. But I don’t know these people and they don’t know me, so I don't know how that would work. She says things like that in a way that makes them sound so simple, like there is an obvious answer to anything even though it doesn't make any sense. When he’s around, things feel better. Like there’s a path for me to follow even if I don’t understand it.
Earlier, She brought me with her in the kitchen for a bit and she was clearly out of it. She introduced me to a few people, and I think I said the right things because everyone gave me one of those short smiles. She offered me a drink and I obliged. She handed me a red solar cup with a mysterious liquid and I took a swig. It tasted just how hand sanitizer smells. After I swallowed my whole face clenched and the back of my throat burned.
“What is in this?” I asked
“Idk man!” she shouted back. Rachel swung an arm around my shoulder and stumbled. “Aren’t you having fun?!”
I yelled back, “Yeah, I guess!”
She then wandered back to his other friends and they all seemed hysterical to see her again. I began to get dizzy so I went to sit on one of the couches in the living room. Most of them were filled by occupied couples or smokers but I found an empty one.
From the couch I could see Max in the kitchen pouring a drink. I like Max a lot. But last week I did say some things about her relationship that made her really upset but I didn’t mean to. I mean she looks happy now. I think. She always used to parties like this I guess. She also seems to have a lot of friends too, even though she isn’t even that popular as other girls and I don't understand how that is. But she is really smart and funny, so I guess I do understand.
Rachel had come to find me and sat on one side of me and Max had sat on the other side. They were bickering in a “friend way”. But I couldn’t really make out what they were talking about because my bad thoughts are starting to come back again. And I don’t understand why these thoughts keep coming back if I am happy now.
And I think that’s why I haven’t left yet, that I don’t really understand a lot of what’s going on, but it could have been what I had drank too. Not the party, but them being here. They don’t expect me to be different, but they acknowledge that I am.
Love Always,
Chloe
Explanation of Emulation
Topics
I used the setting of the party to show that Chloe is unfamiliar with high school experiences. And when she is at this party she reflects upon the mental struggles that she is having. And similar to how Chbosky describes Charlie, I made Chloe seem overall like an isolated and disconnected character beginning to grow with the great newfound connection she has with her friends.
Characters
Rachel is supposed to mimic Patrick's character of being sort of a reckless friend, but still is a solid figure that is present for Charlie in Perks. Max is supposed to reflect the complex love interest that Charlie had with Sam in Perks. Chloe reflects upon her connection with Rachel and Max even though she is severely struggling with the mental health that she can’t even grasp herself but they are there for her regardless.
Epistolary Style
I used the format of the letter that Chloe writes in the bathroom of the party to reveal that she is writing to cope with the bad thoughts she is having. Like most of the letters written in perks, Charlie is reflecting upon his emotions based on what has happened. Just like Charlie, Chloe doesn’t fully understand her mental health, but she just writes whatever to cope from the harsh feelings she’s getting again.
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