Characters & Plot |
There are 3 characters in this book that I consider the main Characters. Charlie, Patrick, and Sam. The book is about Charlie's life as a high school student who has been battling depression and has been through a lot of things. It takes us through about a year of his life and tells us his experiences and struggles going through on an everyday basis. Kind of ties every high schooler's life into one book. I would be surprised to hear someone tell me that they couldn't find any way to connect with this novel. It has books, music, abuse, rape, drugs and alcohol, sex, friendships, relationships and so much more tied into the plot.
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Important Themes & Signals |
Throughout the novel, there is one thing that really stood out to me. You don't find out until at the end of the book. They describe it in a really strange and confusing way and I had to research a lot to finally understand what actually had happened between Charlie and his aunt. Charlies aunt has always meant a lot to Charline. She passed away in a car accident and that really crushed Charlie. Another thing to notice is that the whole book is like a journal. Charlie is just telling us about all that's happened in his life. And a lot has happened. Charlie's friend committed suicide and he talks about that (pg. 2) A lot of other things happen throughout the book and not all of them necessarily involve him, but they do affect him. Charlie says (pg 9) that he wants to be anonymous. But ends up telling us the names of everyone that comes up in his life. Maybe he felt guilty for writing about other people even if he was the only one reading it, but then came to realize that it did not help having so many confusing details that needed more depth, so he began spilling everything. On page 56 Charlie talks about how he's very interested with his family. I think that could be a symbol or important theme. Charlie never has been really good with his social life, so maybe having people interaction is interesting and he enjoys it.
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