Perks of Being a Wallflower

The Perks Of Being A Wallflower

        I just read The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky.  It's about a 14 year old boy who is just starting high school, and is socially inactive.  But he wanted to turn things around.  His first day wasn't successful.  But he met 2 seniors, Sam and Patrick.  They became friends with him, and showed him fun.  They were misfits, just like Charlie. (The main character.)

        Charlie changed personalities, and lifestyle.  For example, he made friends who he could trust, and that loved him.  That can be so uplifting, especially after being a person as lonely as him.  Also, he started doing drugs such as L.S.D. and Marijuana.  It had only been a few months, not even!  I can't even imagine changing that fast.

        Some people think that Sam and Patrick were bad influences.  In some ways they were.  They got him into smoking, and drugs.  But luckily, that didn't take over any of their lives.  They were nothing more, nothing less, than great, loyal, friends.  And that's all anyone needs.  When I'm down, I go to a friend, and they cheer me up.  If you don't have that, life can be harder.  Loneliness can wreck you inside, but having friends you can trust is even more powerful.

Scared To Proud, Boy To Man

Scared To Proud, Boy To Man

        I just read A Jew Grows In Greenwich by George Tabb.  It's a life memoir of George Tabb's.  In it, he is a protagonist.  George had a very rough childhood, and it really messed him up.  His parents went through a rough divorce when he was very young, and his dad moved to Greenwich with George and his two brothers, Luke and Sam.  George, being the oldest.  Lester, their father, beat them almost every day for stupid reasons.  They hate their step mother Cybil, who also joins in on the beatings.

        Through his whole childhood, the conflict made him a scared and uncomfortable person.  But it didn't stop his confidence for that long.  This is how he changed.  He decided that the only way to get out of his uncomfortable position in life was to take it like a man, and make the best of it.  To be stronger than what pulled him down.  That's really hard to do for me.  It takes a lot of confidence to face a position as horrible as the one that he was in.

        The last few the lines of the book displayed his reverting to his confident old self.  He shot his father with a pellet gun in the back of the neck, and his father never knew that that was what happened.  

He always thought that a bee or a wasp stung him, but what he should have known, is that his son triumphed against the one thing that forced him down, and changed his life forever.

        It must have been hard living with someone so close to you, who hated you, and made your life crap.  Parents aren't meant to be like that.  Parents are supposed to give you advice and guide you through life.  Lester was just a selfish jerk who wanted nothing but a giant home, sex, and his several million dollars.  And almost everything but his three lovely kids.

Am I Blue Reading Response

Am I Blue?  Reading Response

        I just read "Am I Blue?" by Bruce Coville.  It's a short story about a 16 year old boy who's still trying to figure out his sexual orientation.  He gets bullied a lot by a boy named Butch Carrigan because he's a "faggot" or "fruit", according to Butch.  One day, after Butch beat him up, a fairy godfather appeared next to him.  The fairy godfather (Melvin) had had experiences the same as the boy's.  He thought he could help him out.  He tried to teach the boy how cruel this world could be to gay people, but it wasn't until later that he actually realized.  In the end, the boy realizes that Butch Carrigan is gay, and is very surprised.  He realized that trouble with your identity can turn you completely against yourself, and other people like you.

        Some people feel bad for the people who hate their identity.  Including me.  But with people like Butch Carrigan, I don't tolerate it.  If you have problems about yourself, don't take it out on people similar to you.  People like that are trying to stay as far away from their identity as possible.  But you should embrace your identity, and if you don't like it, than don't make yourself believe it's other people's faults.  For example, Melvin gave the boy a Gaydar for a day.  He made it so that every gay person the boy saw would appear blue.  While the boy was watching TV, a homophobe politician was blue.  And when he sends Melvin to go turn Butch Carrigan blue, he was already "blue as a summer sky".  These people think they're protecting themselves, but they're only hurting themselves.

        This kind of hypocrisy is used every day.  But it's usually unnoticeable.  When people are hanging out talking, and someone says something insulting about something, sometimes, people agree with it, just so that they won't be the odd one out.  But the truth is, no one is the odd one out, most of the time.  The person who says the insulting thing is sometimes the hypocrite.

        Hypocrisy is going on every day in everyone's life, sometimes for good, and sometimes in anger or fear of people themselves.  Sometimes you have to ask yourself, is it better to be a hypocrite, or to come out and embrace your identity, and not live with fear and shame.