English Essay: Analyzing Character Arc in Wallflower Novel

This essay provides a detailed analysis of the character arc in Stephen Chbosky's novel, "The Perks of Being a Wallflower." It examines the transformation of the protagonist, Charlie, from a traumatized teenager to an individual who confronts and accepts his past, ultimately choosing to move forward constructively. The essay utilizes the TEEL framework (Topic, Explanation, Evidence, Link) to dissect Charlie's characterization throughout the novel, highlighting his vulnerability, self-awareness, and eventual resilience. The analysis emphasizes the moral lessons derived from Charlie's journey, particularly the importance of accepting past experiences as a key to personal growth and a positive future. The essay concludes by underscoring the effectiveness of character arcs in illustrating character evolution and conveying meaningful themes.

Running head: ENGLISH ESSAY
English Essay
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1ENGLISH ESSAY
Character arc is a term that refers to the inner journey or transformation of a character
as it unfolds, over the course of a novel or a story. The character at the beginning of the story is a
particular individual who then transforms gradually into a different person by the end of the story
as a response to the changing developments that occur in the story. Character arcs are used by
authors as these assist in the evolution of a character or person in a story (Weiland 2017).
Writers utilize the character arc to describe the journey of a protagonist from a location of
comfort to a situation of rapid change followed by a return to the place of comfort once again,
thus taking the shape of an arc (D’Adamo 2018). This essay is based on the novel, “
The Perks
of being a Wallflower” authored by writer-director Stephen Chbosky. The character arc in the
novel is evident from the actions of the story’s protagonist, Charlie, who at the start of the novel
writes letters about the traumatic experiences that he undergoes as a fifteen year old, with the
recipient of these letters being unknown. The novel outlines how Charlie falls into bad company,
is tempted to do drugs and have unprotected sex but ultimately backs out of all of this and at the
end of the story, comes to terms with his abusive past, following which he decides to participate
actively in life, bringing his letter writing to an end. The following essay will analyze in detail
how the character arc has been made use of by Stephen Chbosky to showcase the transformation
of Charlie, from an abused and traumatized fifteen year old to a person who accepts the ills and
darkness of his past and establishes his decision to move on constructively and proactively in the
present. The essay then proceeds to explain the moral lessons that can be learnt from the
transformation of Charlie, which is that, acceptance of the past, and negative experiences are key
to moving on and engaging in positive experiences for the formation of a positive future.
The TEEL framework can be well utilized to discuss how the character of the protagonist
Charlie in “The Perks of Being a Wallflower” is indirectly or directly characterized during

2ENGLISH ESSAY
orientation and complication. TEEL stands for topic, explanation, evidence and link. The topic
here is the gradual character transformation of Charlie from an abused and vulnerable child who
writes letters to someone unknown in the hope of venting his feelings of trauma and locating
some outlet of comfort to an individual who agrees to come to terms with what has happened to
him and move onto a brighter and positive future. The explanation of this particular
transformation is that Charlie who is initially hounded by the demons of his past and the trauma
of his childhood, finally gains the maturity and the understanding that is needed to break away
from this and embrace a better future. The evidence for this lies in the journey of Charlie as has
been portrayed throughout the novel, from a person who is surrounded by bad company, difficult
company, and who is tempted with doing drugs and having teen sex, to being abused by an aunt,
to somebody who faces the demons of the past, accepts them and takes the decision to move on
the past. Thus, the characterization of Charlie takes the form of an arc, beginning a certain way
and evolving to a certain stage through transformation (Kotimah and Mayasari 2018).
The self-awareness that takes place in Charlie through the course of his experiences in the
story, especially when he witnesses bad behavior in his friend circle and sees his friends engage
in drugs, right until the self-awareness that dawns on Charlie in the end, that harping on the past
is no good encourages readers to think remarkably of Charlie. Indeed, the change in the character
of Charlie positions readers to feel and think that negative situations in life can definitely be
overcome and moved on from, and that the example of Charlie is that of an abused individual
who efforts to move on from the darkness of his past is laudable (Caldwell 2018).
The character of Charlie is far more vulnerable at the start of the story than it is at the
end. The high level of self-awareness that takes place in Charlie makes him realize that he can
move on from the trauma and abuse that the experience of molestation by a relative in his

3ENGLISH ESSAY
childhood had brought on. This positions the audience to think of Charlie as a strong individual
with a strong resolve (Kotimah and Mayasari 2018).
The moral lesson that can be inferred from the story is that traumatic experiences
do not have to plague an individual his whole life and can be moved on from. Where there is a
will, there is a way. The moral of the story is especially applicable for school children today,
who frequently fall victim to drug and sexual abuse and who need to learn how to overcome such
situations to lead lives as healthy individuals (Caldwell 2018).
In conclusion, it can be stated that the character arc is a most useful tool to understand the
transformation or evolution of a character in a novel from one specific state or position to
another, as is evident from the case of Charlie in ‘
The Perks of Being a Wallflower” by
Stephen Chbosky.

4ENGLISH ESSAY
References
Caldwell, C., 2018, August. Story: it's not just for writers... anymore!. In ACM SIGGRAPH
2018 Courses (p. 4). ACM.
D’Adamo, A., 2018. The Library of All Stories: Purgatory, Therapy and Character Arcs in Dante
and in Great Expectations, One Hour Photo, The Third Man and Sunrise, in Camus’ Novel The
Fall, and in Edgar Allen’s Poe’s Short Stories. In Empathetic Space on Screen (pp. 109-127).
Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.
Khotimah, S.K. and Mayasari, L., 2018. AN ANALYSIS CHARLIE’S PERSONALITIES IN
THE PERKS OF BEING A WALLFLOWER BY USING PSYCHOANALITICAL
APPROACH. Tell: Teaching of English Language and Literature Journal, 5(1), p.62.
Weiland, K.M., 2017. Creating Character Arcs: The Masterful Author's Guide to Uniting Story
Structure, Plot, and Character Development. Smashwords Edition.