Masuk Free Press

Six years ago, a chain of events was set off which eventually led to me finishing The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky a few days ago.

Afterwards, I did what I often do upon completing a literary journey: I traveled right over to Pinterest. I wanted to see what the general population of the world, or at least my corner of it, thought about Chbosky’s work. Yet I was unpleasantly surprised to see that a lot of the community surrounding this book seems to consist of people romanticizing the unhealthy lifestyles of the main characters, and the poor choices that they made.

Now, let’s get one thing clear: I am not trying to hate on romanticizing things. Doing so is what makes the bad days bearable and the good days seem as if they have come straight out of a film. Except, here is where I find the problem: not everything needs to be romanticized. And furthermore, not everything should be romanticized. 

“It just depends on the situation, the place, the timing,” said junior Paige Benway. “There are some things that are sad or desperate that shouldn’t have love brought into it.”

One of these things is The Perks of Being a Wallflower: the catalyst that opened my eyes.

I imagine that most people watch the movie (because who’s reading the book in this economy?) and think something along the lines of “that’s so aesthetic, I want to drive through a tunnel while standing halfway out of the sunroof window”. And to be fair, I did share that thought. The issue arises when that is some people’s only thought. It’s like watching Schindler’s List and walking away with your sole takeaway being, “I love 30s fashion!”

I get that perhaps there is more depth going on in netizens’ brains than what their posts depict. They are choosing to put out content that is light and happy because that is what they want to focus on. But the thing is, this isn’t a light and happy book. Focusing on only the good without so much as acknowledging the bad takes away a critical message of the novel. I do agree that there are a number of excellent quotes in there, and making a collage of those quotes is a perfectly reasonable response to the tragedy that is the ending of that book. I can understand that much. What I cannot comprehend is thinking to yourself, “Charlie had such a great friend group, I wish I could find people like that. I want his freshman year experience!”

Sure. Maybe. To an extent. Charlie did have some good times. Feeling infinite as you and your friends are driving around at night with just the right song blasting at just the right time is something that everyone should experience. However, the three keywords here are to an extent. Charlie’s friends were nice to him, but they were also terrible people. They used him and displayed levels of toxicity that would rival the hazardous waste in a landfill. Charlie does not have a life worth envying. Objectively awful things happened to that boy, and none of it should be romanticized.

“I don’t think everything should be romanticized, because some things can be bad,” said senior Zuma Soriano. “Like, you can’t say that vaping can be romanticized. But you could say that movies or friendships can be romanticized. Small things should be romanticized if they are good.”

When consuming any piece of media, whether it is a book, movie or show, there is a certain point where you have to have some introspection. There should be at least some critical thinking going on up there. Unfortunately, this does appear to be an issue.

Not everything needs to be romanticized, and that is perfectly fine. There is plenty of content out there for your viewing pleasure that is meant to be seen through a rose-colored lens. That does not mean that it is necessary to glamorize a character’s entire experience just because you think it has a certain aesthetic to it. You should not be taking a character, a very mentally unwell character who has a lot of trauma at that, and saying “Wow! I want to have his life”.

“The way I think of romanticizing things is that you do have to find the good in every situation,” said senior Gabriella Assignon. “Life is so short. ‘Oh my gosh, 80 percent of this is bad.’ But that 20 percent of good, you really have to hone into that. You have to find the brightness in the world.”

All of this is to say that while it might be nice to watch a movie and only pay attention to the pretty parts, you need to open your eyes to the ugly as well. It’s all well and good to try to put blinders on and block out everything that isn’t positive, but not when the price is denying that negativity exists. For every silver lining, there is also a fly in the ointment. Take the world as it rushes at you, and embrace the sunshine. Just don’t forget that sometimes you can’t get rid of the dark.