The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Use these links to supplement and complement students’ reading of the work and to increase their overall enjoyment of literature. Challenge them to discern parallel themes, engage through visual and aural stimuli, and delve deeper into the thematic possibilities presented by the title.

Recommended Texts for Pairing

“Asleep” by The Smiths

• a 1985 song by the British band The Smiths that Charlie references
• a song about wanting to die
• connects to the theme of coming of age and moral ambiguity, and the motif of music

The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger

• a classic novel from 1951
• compare and contrast with Charlie’s journey, especially as he becomes more and more emotionally unstable
• connects to the theme of coming of age and moral ambiguity and the motif of books

“Speaking of the Future, Hamlet” by Mary Jo Bang

• a poem referencing Hamlet, which Charlie reads
• connects to themes of family, friends, and identity and coming of age and moral ambiguity
• compare and contrast with Charlie’s journey as he transitions from childhood to adulthood

The Color Purple by Alice Walker

• an epistolary novel published in 1982
• echoes themes of the secrecy of abuse and molestation
• like The Perks of Being a Wallflower, it also appears on the American Library Association’s 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books 2000-2009 list