Yonlada Nawilaijaroen

English 1209

Mr. Jamie

Peer pressure in Perks of Being Wallflower

Sam sat down and started laughing. Patrick started laughing. I started laughing. And in

that moment, I swear we were infinite. This is a quote from The Perks of Being Wallflower, a

novel which concentrates on the childs development and is written by Stephen Chbosky. The

one who says this quote is the protagonist of this story named Charlie. This book is wrote in a

form of diaries. It starts when Charlie is about to enter the high school which he is totally afraid

of. He is very shy and just encounter the death of his best friend in secondary school. He has to

cope with that and along with his lack of confidence. As the book goes on, Charlie experiences

plenty of things in his high school life include: suicide, teen sexuality, homosexuality, drugs and

alcohol, and friendship. In the end, he changes how he looks at the world in a better way. This

paper will mainly focus on the influence of peer pressure on the childs development. As Charlie

makes many new friends in his high school year, those peers have a very big impact on the way

he thinks and behaves. Eventually, Charlies development is affected by peer pressure, resulting

in the change of his behavior: he becomes more assertive, practices risky behavior and engages

in sexual activity.

Charlie has gained more confidence as he is invited by his friend to participate more in

school activities and parties. According to the book, it states that, Tomorrow, I start my
sophomore year of high school. And believe it or not, Im really not that afraid of going. Im not

sure if I will have the time to write any more letters because I might be too busy trying to

participate. Charlie implies that he has a potential to overcome his fear since he has passed

through so many experiences with his friends in the first year of high school. Those peers engage

him to do several things, both in positive and negative way, that he never does before. For

example, going to parties on Fridays, watching homecoming football games and homecoming

dance are all new activities that Charlie never does. Thus, Charlie is then influenced by these

peers pressure. He grows up and learns a lot by participating in a group which he then gains

more courage and assertiveness. According to the article entitled Peer pressure and peer

influence: teenager from raising children by Australian parenting website, it suggests that when

teenagers do something that they never do it before, they are thought to be influenced by the peer

pressure because they want their friends value and accept them more. Those teenagers have a

desire to belong to a group of friends or peers. In which peer pressure can be both positive and

negative. Particularly, teenagers might be influenced to become more assertive, try new

activities, or get more involved with school in a positive way. Consequently, the article from this

website goes along and supports the book in such a way that peer pressure plays an important

role to many teenagers. It positively allows teenagers to develop their self-confident.

Charlies acquaintances in his high school encourages him to drink alcohol and use other

drugs. From the book, it narrates, I ate the brownie, and it tasted a little weird., and follows by,

After thirty minutes, the room started to slip away from me. I started blinking a lot and looking

around, and the music sounded heavy like water. As stated in a quote, Charlie is encouraged to
experience a drug which is put in a brownie by his friend who named Bob. He then becomes

stoned. If Charlie doesnt come to this party because his friends invite him to do so, he wont be

very drunk like this. This is also the first time where he gets drunk. This means that Charlie first

experiences an alcohol because he is influenced by his peers. According to the article entitled

Peer pressure influences students, it documents that the students who often see heavy drinking

alcohol and using drugs as a common activity are likely to start or increase levels of alcohol

consumption. The reason for this is because they want to be in a group and accepted by the

others. Moreover, they also hope to avoid negative peer evaluations. If they dont follow what

the group is doing, they will be kicked out and considered as the outsider. As a result, in a

negative way, some teenagers might choose to try things they normally wouldnt be interested in,

such as smoking, drinking alcohol, or using drugs. In the case of Charlie, he is invited to a party

and experiences sense of drugs in there. Therefore, the scientific journal supports the story that

peer pressure can be negatively affected teenagers to take part in using drugs and alcohol.

Since the peer pressure has a big impact on Charlie in many ways, engaging in sexual

activity is another behavior that he never experiences. As mentioned in the book, Sam did say

that sex things were tricky with Mary Elizabeth since shes had boyfriends before and is a lot

more experienced than I am. She said that the best thing to do when you dont know what to do

during anything sexual is pay attention to how that person is kissing you and kiss them back the

same way. This quote introduces when Charlie is in relationship with Mary Elizabeth. Since

Charlie is still innocent, Sam teaches him to deal with his new girl friend. These teenagers are in

process of developing from children into adults. For this reason, they will value their friends
more than anyone else. As reported by the scientific journal, Most adolescents believe that

having sexual intercourse is the way to be popular or a way to show deep concern for another

person. Many of them put a high value on the opinions of their friends, and it has been argued

that those who value their friends opinion more than their parents are more sexually

active. (Newcomer, 1983). Correspondingly, it can be inferred that Charlie never experiences

with sex before. While Charlie enters the high school, he is exposed to different environment

which also allows him to try many new things, including the sexual activity. Most teenagers in

the high school are used to sexuality. Sam, Patrick and other Charlies friends also perceive this

thing as a common subject. Those adolescents believe that having sexual intercourse is very

sensitive and also a way to show concerns for the others. In addition, as mentioned in the quote,

Sam teaches Charlie how to do the sexual activity with her girlfriend, Mary Elizabeth. This

means that Charlie is influenced by Sam to have sexual activity with Mary Elizabeth. As a

consequence, Charlie follows what Sam did say in order to show his concern and get acceptance

by her.

The peer pressure affects the adolescents like Charlie in Perks of Being Wallflower in a

way that he gains more confidence, uses drugs and alcohol and has a sexual intercourse. Due to

the fact that there are both positive and negative peer pressure towards the teenagers in high

school year. In a positive way, Charlie tries to participate more in school activities and the parties

which he ultimately becomes more assertive. Besides, by going to those parties, he is negatively

encouraged to use drugs by his friend. Furthermore, by his surrounding peers, Charlie is also
engaged in having sexual activity which he believes that he will be valued more, get acceptance

from others and become mature. All things considered, coping well with peer influence is about

getting the balance right between being yourself and fitting in with the group. If you are able to

cope with it well, you will become effective one. In contrast, if you cant cope with it, then you

will break the habit of being yourself. Last but not least, in order to live happily within society,

When you say 'Yes' to others, make sure you are not saying 'No' to yourself. (Coehlo, n.d.)

Bibliography

Charlie. (n.d.). Retrieved November 27, 2017, from http://perksofbeingawallflower.wikia.com/

wiki/Charlie

Chbosky, S. (1999). The Perks of Being a Wallflower. New York, NY: Gallery Books

Newcomer, S.F., J.R. Udry & F. Cameron. (1983). Adolescent sexual behavior and popularity.
Adolescence. 18, 515522

Peer pressure and influence: teenagers. (2017, May 19). Retrieved November 27, 2017, from
http://raisingchildren.net.au/articles/peer_pressure_teenagers.html

Perrone, L. (2017, February 5). Peer pressure influences students. Retrieved December 01, 2017,
from https://scotscoop.com/peer-pressure-influences-students/

Quotes About Inspiritional. (n.d.). Retrieved December 07, 2017, from https://
www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/inspiritional