Final Letter

Dear friend,

I recently finished a book. For awhile I read small portions at a time, but just the other night I found myself lost in the labyrinth of dwindling emotion. At the final junctures of the book, truths were unveiled and I understood everything. The book I read is titled the Perks of Being a Wallflower, and is chronicled by a young man (through anonymous letters), who is new to high school and witness to those infamous endeavors of which he becomes involved in. His name is Charlie, and after time I became attached to his eloquent stories and eagerly put myself in his shoes. One significant point in the book, a moment which I feel captures the very premise of the book, is when he drives through the tunnel (alone), where Sam and Patrick first brought him.

"As you enter the tunnel, the wind gets sucked away, and you squint from the lights overhead. When you adjust to the lights, you can see the other side in the distance just as the sound of the radio fades to nothing because the waves just can't reach. Then, you're in the middle of the tunnel, and everything becomes a calm dream. As you see the opening get closer, you just can't get there fast enough. And finally, just when you think you'll never get there, you see the opening right in front of you. And the radio comes back even louder than you remember it. And the wind is waiting. And you fly out of the tunnel onto the bridge. And there it is. The city. A million lights and buildings and everything seems as exciting as the first time you saw it."

Charlie is a type to value meaningful friendships and two very important people in his life are Sam and Patrick. With time they accepted him as a weird and quiet freshman but came to influence him in so many ways. A significant part is the first time he went through the tunnel, an important moment in his life where within he felt “infinite.” One might say he realized the true values of friendship and everything in between. I like to think that in those moments, all those years of growing up finally caught up to him, and left him stuck on the brink of childhood and adulthood… maturity. But what he felt was not uncertainty or distress, rather bliss in that infinite awakening to life. Another important time, when his friend Sam leaves for college, the two of them have one last talk. And what I learned from Sam are the pure meanings of friendship… and that is honesty. Not just listening or being there, but truly being honest – liberating those introverted feelings and emotions to REALLY be helpful for a friend.

Untimely, this happens towards the end of the book at the climax to Charlie’s story. While Sam may have been the best thing to happen to him, she ultimately stirs something deep inside Charlie to bring out the ill in him. Throughout the book the mystery funnels page after page and then the irony sinks in and it all makes sense. To say the least, I wasn’t shocked at the ending.

All in all, the book is a captivating musing of high school and adolescence. And Charlie’s story within the fringes of growing up is not only poignant but in some ways mutual. After the ending however… well, I will just leave that up to you.

My kinship always,
Jammy Kay