The Perks of Being a Wallflower Part 4, Chapter 2 Summary

How It All Goes Down

May 2, 1992

  • Charlie spends a good portion of this letter talking about Bob, his marijuana dealer. We haven't learned too much about Bob before this point, but check out his "Character Analysis" for more information. 
  • We do think it's funny that Bob has an encyclopedic knowledge of The Mary Tyler Moore Show. Gotta love that Chuckles the Clown episode. 
  • Anyway, we do get some bad news from Charlie: Brad's father caught Brad and Patrick together. And instead of being super supportive, he beats Brad in front of Patrick.
  • Patrick tries to stop it, but he can't.
  • Charlie says he wishes he could "call Patrick and be his friend and help him" (4.2.10), but he does absolutely nothing.
  • The only thing he does do is go to see everyone at The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Again, Charlie's, um, observant tendencies are showing, because he doesn't interact with anyone; he just leaves right after the show.
  • At least he's not talking to himself, right? Oh, wait… nope. He does that, too. He pretends his friends are in the car with him, and he starts talking to them.
  • To cap off Charlie's little existential crisis, he goes home to read The Stranger, which is the newest book Bill gave him.