Full Name: Vega Sofia

Instructors: Gonzalez, Adriana; Grilli, Natalia

Class: 3º year

Essay Nº: 1 Draft Nº:1

Prompt: Explain the impact Charlie`s relationships have on his personal growth

and development

Date: May 20, 2024

Changes that Bring Salvation

During our life, we develop a diversity of personal relationships that can
impact in us in different ways. Adolescence is one of the most important period
on human beings because of it can produce as a result positive effects like high
self-esteem, values and confident. Even though, those relationships in
adolescent also can have negative effects like depression, isolation, bullying
and loneliness. This seems to be the case of the main character in the novel
The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Charlie, an introverted and shy teenager, who
starts developing a deep personal growth. Throughout the different relationships
that Charlie develops in the novel, he experiences two important changes: he
becomes an extroverted person and he starts to change his outlook on life.
Firstly, Charlie is able to change is personality as a result his relation with his
new friends, and finally he becomes an extroverted person. Initially, Sam and
Patrick, Charlie`s new friends in the High School, encourages him to participate
more in social life. For instance, when Charlie went out with Sam and Patrick to
theirs friend`s house for a party, everyone was very friendly with Charlie and
asked him a lot of questions about him. Consequently, he is including at the end
as a new member of the group. In addition, Charlie starts feeling more confident
around others. For example, when he went out with Sam and Patrick to a
theatre show called The Horror Picture Show, he begins feeling comfortable at
the point that he acts with them in the show. To sum up, Charlie was able to
change his introverted personality with the help of his new friends.
Secondly, another change that Charlie experiments is understand that his
life can be different if he starts to see life from different perspective. On the one

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hand, Charlie`s interaction with his English teacher, Bill, offers him another
perspective of life. To illustrate, Bill encourages Charlie to explore his passion
for literature and writing provides him different books that not only guides him in
his self-expression but also to confronts his emotions and traumas. On the other
hand, Charlie`s new experience in romantic`s relationships, especially with his
friend Sam, allows him to explore and discover new emotions that helps him to
face is life in a different way. Summing up, Charlie realizes that the only way to
change his life is seeing it in general on a different point of view.
To conclude, Charlie undergoes two important changes on his life through
the relationships that he develops in the novel. Charlie not only changes his
personality and becomes an extroverted person thanks to his new friends who
understands and appreciates him as he is, but also he begins to outlook life on
a different perspective. This novel suggests that relationships, especially in
adolescence stage, are considerably valuables for each person. Everyone on
one part of our life develops strong relationships that can change ourselves in
different ways.