Books within a book

[Devyn]

There are a lot of books mentioned in Perks. Bill gives Charlie many books to read over the school year such as "The Catcher in the Rye", "The Great Gatsby", "The Stranger", "Peter Pan", "A Separate Peace", and many more. Do you guys think that this was just the author's way of sending a love letter to these books, like maybe they are some of his favorites, or do you think they each lend something to Charlies story? In a way Holden Caulfield from "The Catcher in the Rye" kind of deals with similar issues. He is just trying to find himself while dealing with the feeling of alienation at school.

[Tomshin99]

That's a great observation Devyn. I haven't read The Stranger or A Separate Peace but I know the other three books had the main character who was an outsider trying to be part of the world they are clearly not comfortable in. Nick from The Great Gatsby tries to be part of the social elites and observes how they live their lives. Likewise, Peter Pan is a boy who refuses to grow up but is curious about the outside world (adulthood).

Like you said, it looks like Chbosky is making a tribute to these great authors while at the same time validating his own works by alluding to them. He is following their literary footsteps and wants us to know it.

What did you think about the music Charlie mentions?

[Debra]

This was very helpful! Thank you! I just finished Wallflower this weekend & I was thinking about a quote: "I'm starting to see a real trend in the kind of books Bill gives me to read" (p. 63). You've hit it, I think.

[Jane]

Yeah, I definitely think the same goes for the music. I mean, I'm ashamed to say that I don't know half of the songs listed. There is one thing, though, that one song called "Autumn Leaves" or something like that was mentioned in the poem Charlie read at the Christmas party. It said he wrote a poem called '"Autumn,' and that's all it was about." I definitely think there's a correlation between the titles/meanings of the songs and the poems within the poem. :)
Do any of you guys know some of the songs? I know Blackbird, and idk....

[Debra]

I went over the list of songs in order on Youtube. There were a series of comments that show a lot of other people have done this too. I had forgotten how much I adore The Smiths.

[Tomshin99]

I did briefly look up some of the songs, and I thought they were very mellow and somewhat depressing. It does fit his character very well. I just can't imagine Charlie being into anything happy or exciting.