She’s All That (Yet So Much More): A Perks of Being a Wallflower analysis on Mary-Elizabeth

An essay we had to write for book club, thought you guys might like to read it.
WARNING: Potential spoilers ahead. Please read the book before proceeding.

 “I never set out to be weird. It was always other people who called me weird.” As someone who is frequently called weird, this is my go-to response to “Why are so weird?”

It’s easy to shelve people. That kid plays football? Jock. That girl who hides herself in all black? Emo. And anyone who doesn’t fit in these neat little shelves it put under the label “weird”. We don’t get them, their quirks are just so...odd and because everyone else shuns them, we should too. All of us eventually just want to fit in, so we tend to follow what everyone else does. If we don’t, there is “Log Kya Kahenge” and all that.

That is essentially what Perks Of  Being A Wallflower, an amazing, and shall we say, ‘infinite’ piece of literature  is about.A bunch of square pegs in round holes, who simply don’t care about liking the popular music or even remotely fitting in. To the protagonist, Charlie, this comes as second nature. He doesn’t know why (or at least he never reveals it) he is like that, he just is. Similarly his senior friends Sam and Patrick the Nothing, they are spontaneous and crazy and willing to put crazy costumes for the Rocky Horror Picture Show and swing dance in the middle of Homecoming. But I’m not writing to talk about them. I’m writing about Mary, a secondary character and Charlie’s short lived girlfriend.

In my eyes, Mary-Elizabeth’s nature isn’t to stand out. I think she would want to be like another girl, wearing pink and listening to the Top 40.She wants a boyfriend or even just a friend who she can talk to endlessly about anything, which is something she tries to do with Charlie. But she’s subconsciously peer pressured into being weird. Her friends are oddball, so she must be an oddball too. Personally, she pushes it to the limit. She scrambles to find everything that is unique and quirky, and does it.  Pierced to the nines, Buddhist, obsessed with the horror comedy Rocky Horror Picture Show, so much so that she has her magazine Punk Rocky, dedicated to it.and loves to listen to sad, woeful music absolutely no-one has heard of (indie girl bands being her favourite) . Well there are a lot of us too, who love Mary-Elizabeth’s type of songs. Just look at the number of sad love ballads on any teenager’s (including mine) iPod, and it’ll give you a look into how we-today’s teens prefer sad, yet real songs instead of the peppy beats we liked as kids. Mary is also such a feminist, it borders on obscene  She loves to talk round the clock  about her huge plans on college, her views on social issues (on which she stands by quite firmly) and how everything is “overrated” like many people today, who dismiss things if they are too mainstream and remotely popular (I’m looking at you, hipsters) It’s a wonder anyone manages to get in a word edgeways. And Charlie, guided by Sam, is her quiet spectator. She and Charlie and complete opposites, and the way she loves to control Charlie and very proudly presenting him as her boyfriend, we see a crack of insecurity in her tough-girl exterior. 

Mary as a character is someone who I didn’t identify with (I’m more of a Sam) or even like. I’ve seen so many people at school like her. Those who struggle, not to fit in, but to stand out. Those people who act differently against their nature just to make them known for being such a deviant.Personally, Chbosky did a great job of making minor characters like Mary, full, rounded characters (at least in my eyes) instead of giving her a one sided personality like many do. Most don’t realize how minor characters shape a character’s life. How would Harry be without Cho or McGonagall, Katniss be without her faithful sister Prim or Hazel without Issac? They are equally important to be given some sort of base as it is for the main characters.

One might stop to think after this book, what would happen to everyone. What would become of Charlie, Sam and Patrick? And well, what would become of Mary? I don’t really imagine her taking a stereotypical job like a doctor, a teacher, a businesswoman, although, she might “succumb”  to her nature and do just that. Based on what she is now, I predict she would be a head of something abstract like Saving the Blue Whales or something in the music or publishing industry. She is an intellectual however, so I wouldn’t be completely surprised if she heads a debate society/ club. But that’s for her, or rather Chbosky, to decide. If there is anything in Mary that influenced me it is probably her extremely opinionated mindset. I admire people who can stand up for themselves and express what they feel and argue for what they feel is right. I haven’t met a Mary Elizabeth ever, but I can certainly seen the chatterbox ability and the assertiveness in a a few of my friends quiet frequently. I can also say that for a while, I used to be a bit like her, struggling to be different and considering everything “too mainstream” and not doing things for the fear of what people would think. I’m glad I’m over that now

What do skeletons like on top of their mashed potatoes

Grave-y

See you whenever.