The novel “Perks of Being a Wallflower” by Stephen Chbosky is about a teenager named Charlie who has lost his place in society. When Charlie was a young child, his aunt molested him but it was a memory he pushed aside. His aunt died when he was seven and he grew up believing that his aunt didn’t actually molest him. Charlie hid this secret for a very long time but what triggered the memory was when his best friend committed suicide in 8^th grade. Walking into high school for Charlie was terrible. He was completely lost – a mess inside. One night at a football game, Charlie meets a boy named Patrick and a girl named Sam. They become Charlie’s best friends and family. Charlie learns that each of them has a secret. When they share their secrets with each other, one by one, they realize that this brings them closer.

At school, some kids prank Patrick by calling him “Nothing”. To call somebody “nothing” makes him/her feel isolated and unimportant. Calling somebody “nothing” means that you don’t want him/her to have anything to do with your life and you don’t respect him/her. This word represents how Charlie, Patrick and Sam live and move in relationship to the rest of the high school world. They each have a secret that the rest of the school doesn’t know about. The reason I like the character Patrick is because he rejects the name “Nothing”. Patrick hides his secret from the public but not to his close friends. Patrick loves the star football player who loves him back but doesn’t want anyone to know that he is gay.  Therefore, Patrick is loyal and can’t tell anyone about his true feelings for this boy. “And nothing told these kids, ‘Listen, you either call me Patrick or you call me nothing.’” This shows that he isn’t afraid of what other people think of him. He is an independent person. It is only out of loyalty and love that he doesn’t share this secret.

When painful or traumatic secrets are shared with trusting friends, it’s a way to heal and feel better about yourself.  Each one of the characters has a secret. In one scene, after they’ve become close, Sam shares her secret with Charlie. Her father’s boss would rape her repeatedly. Charlie never shares his secret with his friends but they know that something is wrong. “Sam and Patrick looked at me. And I looked at them. And I think they knew. Not anything specific really. They just knew. And I think that's all you can ever ask from a friend.” Only good friends can communicate with just a look. Sam realized that something bad had happened to Charlie when he drew away from her touch the night they kissed. Charlie’s secret is that his aunt molested him. This memory digs deep into his heart. It is not clear if aunt Helen did molest Charlie in the book. The only reason we know for sure that the aunt molested Charlie is because in the movie version this is what is depicted and made clear. In the book, Charlie holds in all of these feelings and the author does not explicitly state that sexual abuse takes place between the Aunt and Charlie.

In conclusion, everybody has secrets and sometimes they get shared with close friends. Charlie realizes that he is not alone anymore. Charlie finds intimacy with his friends. Charlie is no longer lost and can now share his feelings. This helps him cope with his 8^th grade trauma and the abuse he suppressed around his aunt. Sometimes friends are the best therapy you can get.