Wider issues Raised by the book
When Sam and Charlie kiss and become intimate a flood of repressed memories washes over Charlie as he realises that his beloved aunt, the one member of his family who he felt closest to and understood him, molested him when he was young, and he has a mental breakdown. Aunt Helen was also molested as a child by a family friend and when she told her father he didn’t believe her. This lead to her feeling worthless and to a life of misery with abusive men.
Charlie's friend Patrick is in a secret relationship with a closeted gay student Brad. Brad doesn't want to make the relationship public because he fears losing his social position as star quarterback, and fears a violent backlash from his father. Brad, who is having a difficult time coming to terms with his homosexuality, uses drugs and alcohol as an excuse for his behaviour. However he eventually matures and he no longer has to get himself drunk before being intimate with Patrick. Patrick accepts the terms of the relationship because it's still an improvement from what it used to be.
Sam is in a relationship with a guy who cheats on her, disrespects her, and doesn't value her opinion. She doesn't end the relationship until she finds out about his cheating. Before then, she makes excuses for him, and even halfway admits that he's no good for her, but she still continues the relationship for longer than she should. Sam received her first kiss from her father's boss at the age of seven, which goes a long way to explain her attitudes towards men. Cheating is zilch compared to what happened to her as a child.
Michael was Charlie's closest, if not only, friend before high school. Michael committed suicide by shooting himself in the head. It is not very clear why Michael felt the need to do this, although it was thought that he had "problems at home." His father was a "big drinker," which Michael hated, and his mother wasn't around much. At Michael's funeral his father didn't cry and three months later Michael's father left his mother. Charlie experiences his own suicidal thoughts, he pleads with the reader, "I never wanted to. You have to believe me," as if to say I never wanted to be like Michael.
Charlie's sister Candace excuses the violence she receives from her boyfriend (Ponytail Derek), who slaps her in the face. She defends her boyfriend to her brother, giving a list of excuses that seem all too familiar: he's not usually like that, she was egging him on, he's a sweet guy most of the time.
When Charlie was younger his older sister threw a party while their parents were away. She instructs Charlie to stay put in his room, out of the way. Two drunken friends of his sister, a boy and a girl, stumble into his room and ask if they can use it. Charlie agrees, ignorant of what is happening and the girl and boy start making out, and eventually the boy forces the girl to perform oral sex on him. This scenario is only stopped when Charlie's sister comes in the room to bring Charlie some chips and the two get embarrassed and leave. Charlie later, in the present, realises what he witnessed was rape.
Smoking, drugs and alcohol are dominate throughout the novel. Charlie first experiences drugs after the football game, when Bob offers him a "special" brownie. After that night Charlie is regularly drinking, smoking pot and cigarettes with the guidance of Sam, Patrick, Mary Elizabeth, Alice and Bob. However these teenagers were not the only characters to use the substances, Aunt Helen turned to drugs, alcohol, and promiscuity to deal with problems that haunted her for years, she ended up in hospital a lot from overdoses.
Charlie's friend Patrick is in a secret relationship with a closeted gay student Brad. Brad doesn't want to make the relationship public because he fears losing his social position as star quarterback, and fears a violent backlash from his father. Brad, who is having a difficult time coming to terms with his homosexuality, uses drugs and alcohol as an excuse for his behaviour. However he eventually matures and he no longer has to get himself drunk before being intimate with Patrick. Patrick accepts the terms of the relationship because it's still an improvement from what it used to be.
Sam is in a relationship with a guy who cheats on her, disrespects her, and doesn't value her opinion. She doesn't end the relationship until she finds out about his cheating. Before then, she makes excuses for him, and even halfway admits that he's no good for her, but she still continues the relationship for longer than she should. Sam received her first kiss from her father's boss at the age of seven, which goes a long way to explain her attitudes towards men. Cheating is zilch compared to what happened to her as a child.
Michael was Charlie's closest, if not only, friend before high school. Michael committed suicide by shooting himself in the head. It is not very clear why Michael felt the need to do this, although it was thought that he had "problems at home." His father was a "big drinker," which Michael hated, and his mother wasn't around much. At Michael's funeral his father didn't cry and three months later Michael's father left his mother. Charlie experiences his own suicidal thoughts, he pleads with the reader, "I never wanted to. You have to believe me," as if to say I never wanted to be like Michael.
Charlie's sister Candace excuses the violence she receives from her boyfriend (Ponytail Derek), who slaps her in the face. She defends her boyfriend to her brother, giving a list of excuses that seem all too familiar: he's not usually like that, she was egging him on, he's a sweet guy most of the time.
When Charlie was younger his older sister threw a party while their parents were away. She instructs Charlie to stay put in his room, out of the way. Two drunken friends of his sister, a boy and a girl, stumble into his room and ask if they can use it. Charlie agrees, ignorant of what is happening and the girl and boy start making out, and eventually the boy forces the girl to perform oral sex on him. This scenario is only stopped when Charlie's sister comes in the room to bring Charlie some chips and the two get embarrassed and leave. Charlie later, in the present, realises what he witnessed was rape.
Smoking, drugs and alcohol are dominate throughout the novel. Charlie first experiences drugs after the football game, when Bob offers him a "special" brownie. After that night Charlie is regularly drinking, smoking pot and cigarettes with the guidance of Sam, Patrick, Mary Elizabeth, Alice and Bob. However these teenagers were not the only characters to use the substances, Aunt Helen turned to drugs, alcohol, and promiscuity to deal with problems that haunted her for years, she ended up in hospital a lot from overdoses.
"My aunt Helen drank a lot. My aunt Helen took drugs a lot. My aunt Helen had many problems with men and boys." - Charlie