Schulz 1
Hannah Schulz
Dr. Michael Martin
ENG-356
February 3, 2018
Critical Response #1
While most scholars of Young Adult literature see "The Perks of being a Wallflower" as a
entwicklungsroman novel, arguably should be seen as an epistolary novel that also follows the
bildungsroman's pattern throughout the text. The reader will begin to understand the
bildungsroman's pattern throughout the epistolary novel through letters that the narrator, Charlie
presents; that are focused on social interaction, growth and development.
Concerning social interaction, Charlie the narrator, usually keeps to himself. In school,
Patrick, on of Charlie's friends, said, "He is a wallflower." (37). A wallflower being "a passive
participant in his environment who observes and learns from the people around him, yet who
avoids becoming an active member of his community." (Matos 3). The first letter of the book is
where the problems start to begin, when we find out that his friend Michael has committed
suicide, learning that from, "Dave with the awkward glasses" (3). Charlie is writing letters to an
unknown individual in his first year of high school, not having to show social interaction with a
psychiatrist that his parents would like him to see. The bildungsroman's pattern is where it,
"denotes a novel of all-around self-development." (Hader), whereas entwicklungsroman is "a
story of general growth rather than self-culture." (Hader).
The bildungsroman patterns that we see in "The Perks of being a Wallflower" are
scattered throughout out the epistolary novel. You can begin to see these through Charlie's letters
Schulz 2
in the book, going into depth about pot, LSD, molestation, abortions, and everything in between.
Instead of Charlie trying to make it through adolescence, he writes these letters to try and
transitions out from being a wallflower "to an active participant." (Matos 3). "The Perks of being
a Wallflower definitely has its problems throughout the novel, which is a part of
bildungsroman's pattern. "The Perks of being a Wallflower" shares multiple characteristics of
bildungsroman such as, growing to a mature mentality state through the letters that he has written
to the unknown individual that is receiving all of the letters that Charlie is sending them.
Instead of going from childhood to adulthood in the growing stage of bildungsroman, the
novel takes place in Charlie's first year of high school. The reader can see the immaturity that the
first ten or so letters are like compared to the ending of the novel's letter that are more
sophisticated, meaning that it showed growth through his year of writing. With Charlie's writing
style at the beginning of the novel such as, "Now, she acts a lot dumber in the hallways,
especially when boys are around. And I think it's sad because Susan doesn't look as happy." (6-
7). You can see in Charlie's beginning writing that he does not properly know how to use
sentence structure, but towards the end of the novel, you can see his writing progress towards a
more mature state of mind. This is seen in one