Analysis Of The Perks Of Being A Wallflower By Stephen Chbosky

As Mahatma Gandhi once said, “The greatness in humanity is not in being human, but in being humane”. Being human can mean many different things, such as being able to feel emotions, having the five senses, or making decisions and plans for oneself. No one really takes into consideration the social, emotional, or mental aspects of being not only human, but also humane. People are generally humane in their relationships with others, which is why the loss of people they care about is difficult to experience. Situations they are in and their personal experiences cause them to feel countless emotions throughout their lives, and the choices they make can immensely alter their future and who they are as a person. Shared humanity is analyed in How
As Charlie, the narrator, is writing his first letter to any anonymous friend, he says, “So this is my life. And I want you to know that I am both happy and sad and I’m still trying to figure out how that could be” (Chbosky, 2). Humans are able to feel more than one emotion at a time. Charlie tells his friend that he is both happy and sad, and he does not understand how since happy and sad are opposite emotions, and feeling both at the same time is a paradox. However, it is completely normal for him to feel both emotions because even though he is content with how his life is going at the moment, his depression lingers and the recent loss of his friend Michael causes him sadness on top of his happiness. Relationships in The Perks of Being A Wallflower display how humans put the happiness of those they care about ahead of their own happiness sometimes. Charlie is explaining in another letter what this one photograph of Sam looks like. It is a picture that Craig, Sam’s boyfriend, took of her. After attempting to describe the photograph, Charlie confesses that he wants Sam to not like Craig anymore, his reasoning being that, “Craig doesn’t really listen to her when she talks. I don’t mean that he’s a bad guy because he’s not. It’s just that he always looks
In How I Live Now, Daisy and Piper work on a dairy farm and drink unsterilized milk because it is the only way to survive. Daisy makes the tough choice to shoot their goat, Ding, when they find him nearly dead in a barn to end his suffering. In The Perks of Being A Wallflower, Charlie cannot comprehend how he feels both happy and sad at the same time and puts Sam’s happiness before his because he cares about her. Forrest, in the film Forrest Gump, has to feel grief after the sudden loss of his wife, Jenny, and keeps his promise to Bubba, even though Bubba died, because he believes that people should keep their promises. Humans possess all six shared humanity characteristics, but each person portrays them in different ways. For example, everyone has relationships with other people, but their relationships are all unique. Their morals, emotions, losses, and choices are diverse