The Perks of Being a Wallflower : Should it be Banned from School Classrooms?

            Homosexuality. Rape. Drugs. All of these things happen and exist in the real world. The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky portrays these topics and more. Because adults find that its content is too mature for teenagers, the novel has been challenged to be taken off of bookshelves at schools. Despite mentioning sexual content, drug abuse, and more, The Perks of Being a Wallflower should not be banned because it serves as an educational text, as it does portray events that occur in the real world.

            One reason why the novel should not be banned is because it teaches teenagers how to communicate with those who come from different backgrounds and have different experiences from them. Garth Stein, an author of a challenged book, says “You’re only diminishing a young person’s ability to go off into the world and interface with people from all walks of life” (qtd. in The Wilds of Education). This suggests that if you ban The Perks of Being a Wallflower because of its “mature” content, teenagers will not be able to communicate with people from different backgrounds in an effective way. You will not understand what they are talking about and might end up offending someone because of your lack of knowledge. In the book, Brad, Patrick’s ex-boyfriend, was brought up with the belief that being gay is wrong. Without any other knowledge or viewpoints of homosexuality from books or other sources, Brad did not know how to communicate with homosexuals, such as Patrick. Brad would get drunk, have sex with Patrick, and claim he did not remember anything (Chbosky 45-47).Brad did not know how to communicate to Patrick his feelings because of his limited knowledge of the situation. This shows that the novel can teach teenagers how to communicate with all types of people.

            Another significant reason why The Perks of Being a Wallflower should not be banned is because it shows different situations that teenager might experience. The book has been challenged because of “profanity…drug use, sexual behavior…” (Banned Books Awareness). These are situations that occur in life. As teenagers enter high school, they are going to start encountering such events as to why the book was challenged. Instead of having a teen walk into a situation like this, not knowing what to do and what decisions to make, why not give them a heads up? Why not let teenagers be aware of what they might encounter? Although adults might think that these situations are too mature for teenagers to read about, they are going to happen. Teenagers are going to find out about these things, whether it is from firsthand experience or a book. In the book, Charlie, the main character, went to a party with some friends, where drugs were being used (Chbosky 34-35). Charlie had no knowledge of such things happening. He had no idea how to react to such an environment and he didn’t know that he was being handed a “pot brownie” when he ate it. He simply thought it was a regular brownie. Teenagers can learn from reading about Charlie’s experience. They can learn what might happen to them and what choices they might have to make in life.

            A last reason why The Perks of Being a Wallflower should not be banned is because it helps teens understand the world around them. Garth Stein said “ …in the eighth grade, he read a book, recommended by a school librarian, in which bullies tormented a kid…it upset him, because it was a situation alien to his own…’It showed me that this happens,’ he explained, with a note of gratitude in his voice. ‘It made me understand’” (qtd.in Bruni). This shows that by reading that book, it made him understand the world better. It made him realize that these things do happen and that they are not just stories or myths. In the novel, Charlie’s brother and sister threw a party. Charlie was in his room, when a boy and his girlfriend came in. The boy started raping his girlfriend, all while Charlie was in the room (Chbosky 30-31).Charlie didn’t know what was happening. If he perhaps had some knowledge of what was going on he could have stopped it, or told someone who could have stopped it. Reading The Perks of Being a Wallflower might help a teenager understand a situation like this and might allow them to help someone while they’re still young and later on in life.

            Despite people saying that The Perks of Being a Wallflower has no educational content, it should not be banned. The novel teaches students about the world around them and what happens in it. The book should be read by ages 13 and up. If people are really opposed to the idea of the book being in classrooms, students should be allowed to get permission from a teacher or a parent saying that they can read this book. Doing this won’t make the book completely inaccessible to students. By banning the book completely, you’re making it difficult for teenagers to access information about the real world that they’re going to need someday.

Works Cited

Banned Books Awareness. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Nov. 2014. <http://bannedbooks.world.edu/2011/05/15/banned-books-awareness-perks-wallflower/>.

Bruni, Frank. “The Wilds of Education.” New York Times.28 Sep.2014: SIRS Issues Reseracher.Web.21 Nov.2014

Chbosky, Stephen. The Perks of Being a Wallflower. New York: Pocket, 1999. 30+. Print.

Writing for Social Awareness

Writing for Social Awareness Project

Prompts Chosen:

·       Media/ News Immersion: Watch the news and /or read a newspaper every day. Keep a daily diary for at least five days. For each day, choose 1 or 2 articles/news stories to focus on. Summarize the news story and write about your reaction to it. What does it make you think, feel, and/or know? Finally, write a final reflection on what you learned and realized from the experience.

·        Observe your surroundings (school, home, neighborhood, and media) : Write a list about all the scenes or situations you come across on a daily basis that you think are unfair and/or not right in some way. Pick one of the ideas from your list and write a longer entry about it -2-3 paragraphs. Describe the problem, what’s wrong with it, cause and effect, and possible solutions.

·       Write a reading response on a social issue in a literary work (your independent reading boo, short story, essay, or poem/song) Write a 3-5 paragraph reading response. What problem/issue is it about? What is the message? What does the text make you think, feel, and/or know about the issue?

News Diary

Day 1: There was a story about how hackers can access your credit card information with an app. They just put their phone on your wallet and they can access your credit card statements and pin. To prevent this, you can get a metal induced wallet or wrap your credit card in aluminum foil. This made me think how easy it is to access personal information nowadays. This made me realize how there’s an app for everything and you really need to pay attention to your surroundings.  Source: Good Morning America, ABC Channel 7

Day 2: A news story called Is Love Blind talk how when people speed date, they started putting paper bags over their heads. The reason for this is because the people want focus more on their date’s personality than their looks. This made me ask myself how shallow have people become. Obviously, not everyone is shallow nowadays but I find it very interesting how people need to kind of force themselves to focus on someone’s personality and not their looks. It made me realize that people have to prevent themselves from being considered shallow with their potential future partner. Source: Good Morning America, ABC Channel 7

Day 3:  There was an article online that was about an Idaho teacher who got into a lot of trouble for killing and skinning a rabbit in class while teaching a lesson. The biology teacher was trying to demonstrate how “foot gets to the table”. The teacher is facing disciplinary action after a complaint from a parent. This made me think that this is a form of animal cruelty. Killing an animal for human purposes, unless it’s for food, is wrong in my opinion. This made me realize that there are other forms of animal abuse and cruelty than just hitting and neglecting an animal. Source: NY Daily News

Day 4: In the news, there was a story on how Pope Francis is going to visit America. In the story, the mentioned how some think Pope Francis is working too fast on his ideas on gay marriage. This made me think that if a Pope, a person who is supposed to hold all the beliefs that the Bible says, isn’t’ discriminating against gay people, then why are other? This made me realized that there might be some hope for gays to receive the treatment they deserve since  a Pope is working on allowing gays into his church and getting equality and rights for gays. Source: Good Morning America, ABC Channel 7

Day 5:  A story in the news today was about a mother and her daughter, that was a toddler, was in a department store. The daughter started choking and a teenager came and performed CPR on the daughter. She learned how to do CPR form school. This made me think that the girl was really brave; she took a chance to help someone even though she didn’t know if it would work. This made me realized that anyone can become a hero just by doing a good, kind thing. Source; Good Morning America, ABC Channel 7

A Social Issue in Everyday Life

      Every day, I see at least one person with clothes that are dirty and tattered. I see a person digging through the garbage. I see a person with a shopping cart full of empty cans and bottles. These are the signs that homeless people bear. Homelessness is big issue in New York City. When you walk out of your home, you’ll see at least one homeless person on your way to work, or to see a friend.

      A lot of things could cause homelessness. Whether it’s people kicking out relatives, being a drug addict, an alcoholic, not having money to pay the rent and more. Being homeless, you won’t be able to shower. You may always wonder where your next meal is coming from. You might end up jail for stealing some food or robbing someone for money to buy food.

      Some possible solutions to help with homelessness are if the person is a drug addict or an alcoholic, we could help get them into a program. A program that would help them get sober and find a job and a place to live. If they aren’t, we could still try and help them find a job. We could be generous and give them some money or food, offer them a place to stay. We could also start by building more homeless shelters. With more homeless shelters, the homeless could have places to go without having to fight over a spot at the limited amount of shelters we have. These are some solutions that might help with the issue of being homeless in New York.

Reading Response

            Capital punishment is a controversial topic. More commonly known as the death penalty, some people favor it, while others oppose it. In the article To Kill or Not to Kill by Patricia Smith, the author talks about the decline in the use of the death penalty in the US. She wants readers to know, despite it being legal in the majority of states, the use of the death penalty isn’t as high as its use in the past.

            Smith uses words like “terribly wrong” and “lethal injection” to express her opinion. She also says “high costs.” Smith says “the high costs of carrying out death sentences has been a factor,” while describing why the use of the death penalty has gone down. I think that both opinions on the death penalty are represented. Smith includes opinions that represent why the death penalty shouldn’t be used and opinions on why it should. For example, the article says, “Other death penalty supporters say that capital punishment serves as a deterrent, stopping would-be killers, since they’d fear the possibility of execution.” It also says people who oppose the death penalty say killing is wrong, no matter the crime.

            I think Smith is trying to get readers to think about the use of the death penalty. In my own opinion, I think the death penalty is wrong and isn’t justice. I think no one should play God, meaning they shouldn’t decide who gets to live or die. I also think that killing the committer of the crime would be much easier than for them to go to jail because there are worse things than death. I think the author leans more to the side that the death penalty shouldn’t be used since she uses words such as “terribly”, “lethal”, and “high costs.”

            After reading this article, my opinion hasn’t changed on whether the death penalty should be used or not. I think New York did the right thing by choosing not to use the death penalty as punishment. I would like to research more cases on botched executions (executions that went wrong) and how they went wrong.