"And in that moment, I swear we were infinite."— The book's most famous quote.
"We accept the love we think we deserve."
The first
(and so far only) novel by Stephen Chbosky. It was first published in 1999.
The narrator, 16-year-old Charlie, is just starting high school as a freshman, having been held back a couple of years due to emotional trauma in his past, and subsequent hospitalization. The novel primarily concerns Charlie's adventures in the '91-'92 school year, and is written as an
Epistolary Novel, a collection of letters Charlie is writing to a friend-of-a-friend whom he was told would be a good listener. Charlie, who doesn't excel at much except reading, seems to be off to a bad start before two seniors, step-siblings Patrick and Sam, take him under their wing. And so begins Charlie's adventures into school, literature, dating,
Sex Drugs And Rock And Roll, teen pregnancy, suicide,
and the The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
The book was well-received and essentially the literary version of a
Killer App for its publisher, the newly-launched MTV Books. It has drawn comparisons to
The Catcher in the Rye, primarily for being a pull-no-punches look at high school and for having a
First-Person Narrator. It also placed 6th on 2008's List Of Most Frequently Banned Books, for similar reasons.
The Film of the Book was released in September 2012, written and directed by Chbosky himself.
Logan Lerman,
Emma Watson, and Ezra Miller play Charlie, Sam, and Patrick respectively. Also,
Mae Whitman plays Mary Elizabeth, which is cool too.
Provides Examples Of:
- Adaptation Distillation: The movie keeps the most important moments from the book but cuts or skims over events and scenes to keep it shorter like Charlie's smoking, his relationship with Mr. Anderson and cuts out the pregnancy and abortion subplot with his sister (however this plotline was later released as a deleted scene on the DVD/Bluray release).
- A Date with Rosie Palms: Charlie learns about what masturbation is at one point.
- Adorkable: Aww, Charlie!
- A Man Is Not a Virgin: Averted. Charlie is.
- Alphabetical Theme Naming: In the book, Charlie's sister and brother have No Name Given, with Charlie itself implied to be an alias. In the film their names are Candace and Chris.
- Ambiguous Disorder: Charlie is just said to be "emotionally disturbed". It is revealed that he was sexually abused by his favorite aunt, and feels guilt for her death in a car accident as she was bringing him back his birthday present
- American Accents: Emma Watson as Sam gives a better demonstration of Southern Belle than anything.
- Anachronism Stew: The movie really does a good job at keeping in its timeframe, however folks who actually did their senior year of high school from 1991-92 immediately notice Cracker's "Low" came out two years later, and a sign on the Fort Pitt Bridge (coming out of the tunnel) for Pittsburgh's Consol Center, which was built in 2008.
- Armoured Closet Gay: Brad.
- Bait the Dog: Charlie's aunt.
- Berserk Button: For Charlie, it's when someone he cares about is physically harmed.
- Bittersweet Ending
- Brutal Honesty: Charlie picks the worst possible time to invoke this when asked in a Truth or Dare game to "kiss the prettiest girl." He kisses Sam.
- Bungled Suicide: Implied that this happened to Charlie near the end.
- Also implied that Charlie's aunt similarly attempted suicide
- Camp Gay: Patrick, mostly when contrasted with Brad.
- California Doubling: Averted. Most of the locations for the movie, right down to the theater where they see Rocky Horror, are filmed in their original locations in Pittsburgh.
- Cassandra Truth: Charlie saying that his relationship is horrible.
- Casting Gag: Mae Whitman plays a character named Mary Elizabeth.
- Especially noticeable as Brad is played by Young Neil's actor from the same film.
- Christianity is Catholic: Charlie's family is. Charlie comes to school with a cross of ashes on Ash Wednesday, and mention is made of Easter Mass
- Cool Aunt: Aunt Helen, according to Charlie. Subverted.
- Cool Teacher: Charlie's English teacher Bill.
- The Ditz: Bob, in the film.
- Double Standard: Rape—Female on Male: Averted by the PTSD Charlie suffers after being sexually abused.
- Dysfunction Junction
- Epistolary Novel: Charlie is writing these letters to someone. Evidently he just started sending them without any prior correspondence.
- First Girl Wins
- First Kiss: Sam to Charlie. She specifies that even though she has a boyfriend and sees Charlie strictly as a friend, she want his first kiss to be with someone who loves and cares about him. (see Rape As Back Story).
- Five Finger Discount: Alice is well known for stealing jeans from the shops repeatedly. Though the jeans she gave to Mary Elizabeth for Secret Santa were actually paid for.
- Friendless Background: Charlie.
- Gayngst: Seemingly subverts this for most of the story, with Patrick being portrayed most light-heartedly of all the characters. However it strays into this area by the end of his subplot with Brad.
- Good Girls Avoid Abortion: Averted by Charlie's sister.
- Granola Girl: Mary Elizabeth is a classic example, being a punk artist vegan activist Buddhist
- Higher Understanding Through Drugs: The protagonist goes to a house party, and eats a cannabis brownie without knowing what's in it. Soon after, the otherwise quiet and reserved character is sitting in a lotus position babbling all sorts of stuff, some of it silly, some of it quite insightful. As a result of this, he gains a bunch of new friends.
- High School Dance
- Hipster: Sam, Patrick and their friends have hipster traits such as their taste in music and clothes they wear.
- I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Charlie wishes for everyone around him to be happy, but as a result disrgards his own happiness. Sam calls him out on this before she leaves for college, telling him he can't make everyone around him happy and he must care for himself too.
- Jerk Jock: Brad has shades of this, and pretty much evolves into a full-fledged one when his dad catches him and Patrick and beats the crap out of him.
- Keet: Patrick. Ezra Miller especially has fun with this during a few scenes in the film.
- Mood Whiplash: All over the place.
- Most Writers Are Writers: Charlie wants to be one, and the book (and the narration of the movie) is made up of his letters to an undefined person who apparently is a good person to talk to
- The Movie Buff: Alice, Sam and Patrick's other friend who Charlie never really talked to (which meant he never knew this about her until he found out she was going to study film in her university). Her favourite film happens to be Night of the Living Dead and she calls movies "films".
- No Name Given: Charlie's sister never has a name mentioned out loud, nor do his parents or brother. And for that matter, there's hints that "Charlie" is a pen name adopted for reasons of anonymity. (Charlie's sister has been named "Candace" in the film, probably for reasons of practicality.)
- N-Word Privileges: In the movie, at least. During the game of Truth or Dare, Patrick jokingly calls himself a "fag", but when Brad calls Patrick a faggot in the cafeteria he starts a huge fight.
- No Social Skills: Charlie, although this is justified.
- One Steve Limit: Averted. Charlie's English teacher, Bill, shares a name with the limo driver for prom (Billy).
- Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping: While Emma Watson is convincing as the American Sam for the most part, occasionally her natural British accent comes through.
- Perky Goth: Alice counts as such with her clothes and liking for zombies.
- Pet Homosexual: Patrick
- Precision F-Strike: Sam gets one in when she realizes her dad's about to walk in on her first tryst with Charlie.
- Happens in the movie from Patrick after Charlie kisses Sam during the truth or dare game.
- Pretty Boy: Patrick in the movie, as played by the very pretty Ezra Miller.
- Rape as Backstory: Sam was molested as a young girl by a friend of her father. Also, Charlie's aunt was molested as a young girl, which led to her having serious psychological issues, which is why she herself molested Charlie.
- Relative Error: When Charlie first meets Patrick and Sam, he mistakenly thinks they're dating.
- Romantic False Lead: Mary Elizabeth is this for Charlie, though she has a bigger role in the story and is more sympathetic than Romantic False Leads tend to be. Craig, however, is a typical example of the trope, as the character is used purely as a plot device.
- Shout Out: Besides the lists of books Mr. Anderson gives Charlie to read, there are also several literature/film references scattered throughout the book. Not to mention all of the songs discussed. The film keeps the majority of these references.
- Stepford Smiler: Patrick's extremely cheery and fun personality hides some pretty deep emotional scars.
- Straight Gay: Brad.
- Their First Time: Both versions are played straight: an unanticipated tryst is interrupted by something.
- They Do: Charlie and Sam. At least, the movie suggests so. YMMV for the book.
- Twenty Minutes into the Past: Published in 1999, takes place over the '91-92 school year.
- Wanton Cruelty to the Common Comma: When learning how to punctuate, Charlie scatters punctuation all over that day's letter. The next day he apologizes. (...It was funny at the time.)
- Wham Line: For Candance when Charlie asks her "I killed Aunt Helen, didn't I?"
- Your Cheating Heart: Craig had been cheating on Sam their entire relationship.
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