The Perks of Being a Wallflower question

At the end of the book, Charlie explains that he heard a girl talking to her friend about someone. Charlie was not a part of the conversation. Because of what these girls were saying about this someone, he decided that the someone they were talking about was a good person. He doesn't really know who this person is.

"I just don't want you to think that I picked your name out of the phone book. It would kill me if you thought that. So, please believe me when I tell you that I felt terrible after Michael died, and I saw a girl in class, who didn't notice me, and she talked all about you to a friend of hers. And even though I didn't know you, I felt like I did because you sounded like such a good person. The kind of person who wouldn't mind receiving letters from a kid. The kind of person who would understand how they were better than a diary because there is communion and a diary can be found."

And that is what he is referring to here in the beginning.

"I am writing to you because she said you listen and understand and didn't try to sleep with that person at that party even though you could have. Please don't try to figure out who she is because then you might figure out who I am, and I really don't want you to do that. I will call people by different names or generic names because I don't want you to find me. I didn't enclose a return address for the same reason."

I think that we, the readers were the friend. Because he couldnt have sent the letters to his future self, because he mentions at the end of the book how he heard a girl talk about the friend to another person. I also dont necessarily think it could be michael because he states that he actually sends the letters which michael wouldnt receive because he's dead. Which also adds to my idead that he didn't send them to his future self. The book is pushed towards the adolescent group, which I think Charlie would be able to communicate better with.
Chobosky may have not mentioned the friend in order to make us think and realise that WE are Charlies friend. We had seen everything that Charlie went through, and actually may have been able to understand just a little bit how he feels. Im not sure anybody is going to agree with me on this but this is what I truly think. I just hope this helps someone at least.

my sister and i think that maybe could be that guy at the end of the book that talks with Charlie.

Charlie says "hello, i'm charlie" and he respond "i know".

I don't think he wa sending it to himself. On various occasions in the book he explains how he can't mention certain information (e.g. the name of his brother) because it threatened his hidden identity. Obviously, it couldn't have been himself.

I don't think it ever really specifically said who he sent the letter too. I've always wondered that too, because the letters are almost in diary form, so this would be a lot of personal information to send to someone. I wondered if they were a form of therapy suggested from previous visits to the mental hospital.

there is a lot of buzz going around that he is talking to himself, as some sort of retrospective analysis of his past experiences, which could be part of his own therapy.


He could, technically, be addressing them to a therapist. However, what are we to make of the whole "i heard a girl talking about you" comment? It could be that since he is called a 'wallflower' that there are some people that notice him from the sidelines. He was a 'freak' in some peoples eyes, but don't you remember the outcasts that still were held in high regard because of their good nature, etc?

To reiterate the ending, he didn't sleep with Sam, so this could be a direct reference to that event, and as such he couldn't be talking to us.

The letters are to you, the reader. He's writing to you so that you can easily connect. It's supossed to be so that everyone can feel a part of it. All of the letters are to the reader.

I always thought that Charlie was sending the letter to someone that he doesn't really know. I just thought it was some person that didn't sleep with that person at the party. I think the person is never mentioned just to keep it mysterious. That's just what I think though.

I'm not sure he was sending the letters to himself. If it's the case, why is the introduction so precise ?

"I am writing to you because she said you listen and understand and didn't try to sleep with that person at that party even though you could have. Please don't try to figure out who she is because then you might figure out who I am, and I really don't want you to do that. I will call people by different names or generic names because I don't want you to find me. I didn't enclose a return address for the same reason."

It has to be someone he does not really know, or someone he just knows by sight.

'To whom was Charlie sending letters' would be proper. Drop the last 'to.'

Or 'Who was Charlie sending letters to?'

Ina wrote: "To whom was charlie sending letters to?"
Michael

I just finished the book for the first time and I think he might be writing to the boy he talks to in the hallway near he end of the book.

“When I got to my locker, I saw this skinny kid who had the locker next to me all year. I had never really talked to him before.
I cleared my throat and said, “Hey. My name is Charlie.”
All he said was, “I know.”
Then, he closed his locker and walked away.”

Charlie said he changed all the names in the letters so the receiver wouldn’t figure out who he was, which means that his real name probably isn’t Charlie. This just felt like he kind of outed himself to the boy, and the boy let him know that he already figured out that he was Charlie.

Sitting here finishing the reading for the thousand time, I think he was writing the letter to God. Or at least addressing them to someone and in his mind it was God.
When he says “people look to you for strength and friendship” and when the girls are taking about the someone is right after they announced that Michael has died, they could be saying about God. I don’t know it just came to my mind and I had to say this somewhere and I just found this website lmao

I believe that he was writing them to some random. Maybe a girl he overheard at school to be "a good listener"

I think that the book was written as if we were the recipients of the letters although of course, we weren't in his actual life. We read it like it's for us as we can all relate to him in some way or another. It is possible he wrote it to the boy at the end or anyone and everyone he ever met.
I like the idea that Charlie wrote to an imaginary friend as that also makes us feel like we are that friend and we mean something to him & he knows that we will listen.
No matter who he was writing to it was his therapy and also a way of confirming that he was alive and had a story to tell.

I believe that the letters are actually for us, the readers. Many people around us are relating to Charlie but we can't see it. By avoiding to reveal certain information just to "cover his hidden identity" I believe the author makes us understand that Charlie is every single one of us. Charlie is every person on Earth who ever felt isolated, broken and basically a wallflower. The author wanted us to see clearly around us. Everyone of us came to a point in his/her life that felt like Charlie. And I think that this is brilliant.

I came here for answers; however, I believe we will never have one. It cannot be someone who he is close with. If it is to "Sam" she would know it was "Charlie" due to all of the memories he mentions in the letters. It also can't be anyone dead because he sent them out. They also don't go to Charlie's school because it asked, "Did you have a senior prank? I'm guessing you probably did because my sister said it's a tradition at a lot of schools." (Chbosky 167) So I'm probably just going to read this book for the seventh time and look for clues. Again.

I feel like he was sending them to us. The author mentioned in an interview once "it's like Charlie is writing to you" but who knows. Stephen May not have even known.

I like Tessa's theory,But I believe that he was writing to a suicidal hotline or depression place.He doesn't want them to find out because that's personal.They know his brother because his brother was on the radio,And the part about how you could've slept with someone but didnt was just a reference possibly a metaphor for having the opportunity to do something but choosing not to. He found the number in the phone book...But the part that is confusing me is how he always says I hope everything works out with your life and such.that is really nice and Charlie is nice but I have a feeling he knows someone working at that place.That part that really completes my theory is in the being how his freind had no one to talk to. Because of his parents isues.Charlie didn't have parent problems but it also seemed that they didn't have a excellent relashinship. And when he first started talking to these people he didn't have any friends at all. So he got friends it had already became natural. I don't know its just a theory and mabey the author didn't even know...

I don't think he was sending those letters so himself.

In coping with grief, there is a technique where you send letters to the one you lost. For example, a 15 year old girl loses her best friend, and they where really close, than she sends letters or email or text messages to this lost girl. This should have the effect, than the girl learns to let go, and gets a certain feel of distance to the other girl. So that the other girl isn't ripped out of the girls live, but has a chance to let go.

And I think, the principle with Charlie is the same. He has this "friend", that doesn't exist, (or only in his imagination, so in a way, the person does exist!) but he can trust. Maybe he puts the unadressed letter in a postbox, and it gets lost, maybe he hides it in a shoebox under his bed. Maybe he throws it in the litterbox in the park. But that isn't important. Important is, that he writes to this "safe person" who unterstands, just because Charlie needs him to. Like a best friend, that doesn't exist anymore.

It never says. He says that someone told him to send it to them, and that the person is older than himself. That is all it says.

I like to believe he wrote them to the reader

@ Anisah

I thought he was sending them in his school that he never really knew or talked to. He just saw this person at school being kind to another student and though he would write to them.
I figured it was because he wanted someone to know him without them being ACTIVLY involved at all. Like talking to your therapist

I think he is writing them to his future self. That makes the age thing make sense and maybe he did it because of the so called blackouts. Because he wanted to remember all of this just in case.

at some point I thought tha he was writing to God, but I guess he said he "didn't attach a return address" so that wouldn't make much sense. I figure that he was probably writing to Us.

I remember when the book first came out there was a big theory on the internet that he was sending them to Kurt Cobain. The book first was published by MTV in 1999(me thinks) so it's logical that he would be communicating with him (time wise the book is set in the early 90s while Cobain was still alive). Now I never got the sense that the recipient of the letters wrote back, which would indicate he's writing to someone who can't/won't respond. Also with Charlie's taste in music I got that he would like Nirvana and probably have listened to them long before "smells like teen spirit" was a large hit.
That's just a theory I remember being batted around. I liked and I chose to interpret the book that way. I'm not saying it's "right" because, well, what's that? I'm just saying it's how I like to read it.

at the beginning, i thought it was to his dead aunt helen. by the end, i realized that i couldn't be. i think it might be himself in the future, maybe, or someone who graduated from his school. or mabye even sam.

I think Charlie was sending letters to the lector. Which, he heard, listens, and understands, and "didn't try to sleep with that person at that party even though you could have".
Since you open the book you become that "dear friend" Charlie sends letters to.
However, only Stephen Chbosky would be able to tell you :)
Love,
Sol. xx

I think the intention is that the reader is the friend. But I think (just to give the friend a character) it was the skinny boy at the locker, who said “I know” when Charlie introduced himself. So we (the reader) are the skinny kids at the locker who also may feel like a wallflower

The book does not say anything, but I always thought that the letters were for his aunt.
He wanted her to know everything that was happening

I personally think that he never sent the letters, and if he did I think he may have been sending them to his Aunt's old house or something like that.

I really do think that Charlie kept the letters, an explination of why it was in a book form?

Maybe he just picked a random address to send it to?? Im very curious as to the answer of this question.

I like tessa's theory

He was sending them to himself. I had to explain the same thing to my sister and her friend.