The Perks of Being a Wallflower

"And in This Moment"

Author's Note: I wanted to do a small fictional narrative for this book, because this book was so inspiring there is no tell in how much you could learn from it.  This piece is about finding yourself and who you could be.  In this piece I will use repetitive language to add a sense of poetry, similes, personification, and quotes from the book.  For this piece I wrote in the form of a stream of consciousness.

I'm an artist -- painting a mural on this empty wall.  There are always those moments of doubt that I feel when I do this, because when I dip my brush in this bucket over and over and over again, I think, when will I be done.  Although, I do see that when you have a dream as big as mine, "I think it's very important to try."  Even when things are most challenging, you must always push through.  My brush dances across the empty wall in pure genius.  Bursts of energy surge through my veins, and I can feel the piece coming alive with the most gleeful golds, chilling crimsons, and luxurious limes.  I feel like a scientist who is coming up with something that would change the meaning of life.  Not only that, "I feel infinite."  My life started nowhere and now it's going somewhere-- somewhere big and brilliant.  These are the moments for which we all search.  Those moments which impact us really do matter.  In those moments we see who we are not the people in the mirror, not the people that everyone else sees us as.  Just us.  Our lives are like ladders, and if we keep climbing we'll be able to reach the top of our painting.  The simple things like that are what make us who we are.  At the end of the day, that's all that will matter.  "So, I guess we are who we are for a lot of reasons. And maybe we'll never know most of them. But even if we don't have the power to choose where we come from, we can still choose where we go from there."

A Movie In a Book

Author's Note: I read the book and saw the movie, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, and this piece is a comparing and contrasting the two.  In this piece I will try to use clear transitions, imagery, parallel patterns, and try to create one sentence that has more than forty words. 

The lights are slowly dimming as the previews keep us in suspense of the film.  I can hear the crinkle of popcorn in the rows in front of us, while I sink into the comfy red, velvet armchair; I'm relaxed but eager for the movie to start.  Another day, I sit in my bedroom -- the world around me silent.  Leaves outside my window rustle in the cool breeze.  Both scenes are calm, but there are still differences in the times that were so alike.  Pages of the book turn, scenes of the movie end, and a part of me realizes something.  A book is a movie of words.  In all those novels and films there are always new discoveries waiting to be found.  Though two things can be so alike, there are subtle things that make them diverse.

A lot of things in a book go unnoticed and some things aren't mentioned at all; in those times, my mind defaults to certain images and creates a picture that I can understand.  Developing the look of all the characters was difficult in this book, because there wasn't any descriptions about the appearance.  Charlie, the main character's  brother and sister didn't even have a name in the book; that made the picture even harder to paint in my mind.  Also when I was reading, I thought the sister would be blonde.  She is a brunette in the movie, although I can't say that the movie was wrong or right because it was never mentioned.  How you imagine the setting of a book depends on your creativity and personality.  That's why comparing a book from your point of view to someone else's can be difficult.

Usually, there are some things that you will see the same as someone else.  In this book and movie, there were a lot of things that were portrayed exactly how I imagined, for example: the football game, the Christmas party, the fight in the cafeteria, and the day where Sam and Patrick go to college.  There is something in common with all of those scenes; they were key points of the film and novel.  In these scenes, there are conflicts, new beginnings, the highest points in happiness, and the deepest, darkest elements of Charlie's life.  The importance of these chapters is so great that they have to be alike.

Although, you can always spot a few differences here and there.  First of all, most of the differences aren't very important when you look at the big picture.  To me, there was one thing that stood out, the poem;  there was one poem in the whole entire book, that was supposed to be read out loud during their Christmas party, and I loved it so much, so I was kind of disappointed when it didn't make its appearance.  I'm pretty sure that Charlie's sister was called Candace in the film, but was not given a name in the novel.  There are always subtle differences between the two.

As I am staring at the frame of moving pictures, I notice another screen next to it.  The screen turns to the other side.  There are pictures for each of the thousand words, but there are faint things that make them diverse hidden in the many things that make them similar.  Films are digging in the same spot for gold over and over and over again; the only thing that keeps you from leaving is the possibilities.  Those are the things that make movies worth watching -- finding something new.

Author's Note: I recently read The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky.  This book is very unique, because it is written in the form of letters, which I love.  There is one poem in the book that is amazing, so I decided to make a parallel poem to it.  The poem in the book did not have a title and neither will this one.

Once on a warm spring day with humming crickets

She found a book

And it was titled Flowers

Because that's all it was about

And  it was attached to a package of seeds

And she read the book

And loved it

And her father gave her a pot

Where she watered the flower

That was the year her best friend,

Got a new bicycle

And she rode it around the neighborhood

And her new house was built

With yellow walls and many windows

And her family sang a lot

And the boy down the street babysat for

Their family every month

And she told her mother that they got to watch a movie

And her mother smiled even when she didn't care

And she always would have

Once on a blazing summer day with soaring butterflies

She found a book

And it was titled Popsicles

Because that's all it was about

And it came in a kit with popsicle sticks

And she read the book

And froze the popsicles

And her father never helped her

Because it was supposed to be a surprise

And all the siblings hid

With a tray full of popsicles

And surprised their parents

And enjoy the beautiful day

That was the year her best friend got a baby brother

With jet black hair and blue eyes

And the boy down the street watch them

Every other week

And she finally realized why

Her family sang a lot

And her mother always laughed

When their family started to sing

Then smiled and sang along too.

Once on a chilly autumn day with scurrying rabbits

She found a book

And it was titled Changing Leaves: Why They Change Color

Because that's all it was about

And it came with a pencil and paper

And she read the book

 And etched the leaves

And her father raked a pile

Where they jumped in and tossed it in the air

That was the year her best friend moved

And she remember the last day

Of their adventure together

And she found a lucky penny

To wish upon

And her family bought a piano

To sing along to

And the boy down the street

Went to college

That made them very gleeful

Because he had bright future

And he earned it

And she went to bed at happy

Her mother still smiling

That's why on a frosty winter day with prancing deer

She found another book

And it was titled The Snowman

Because that's all it was really about

And she tossed it aside

and grab a notebook from the drawer

And scrolled through all her memories

Because this year she knew

She could write one herself.