Perks Of Being A Wallflower Essays - Mental Illness In Fiction

Perks Of Being A Wallflower I really enjoyed reading the book. I liked the way it was written pretty much. Charlie's letters are as intimate as a diary as he shares his day-to-day thoughts and feelings. You can somehow really get to know the narrator - Charlie - and you feel like he is writing all these letters to you. That is very interesting. Yet there are somewhat unrealistic tones, which I noticed some time after reading the book, because my first impression was how incredibly realistic it was. Charlie is only portrayed as the nice, innocent teenager. He does some things wrong, but in the end is near perfect. Even though he is screwed up, your compassion for Charlie is overwhelming, and you seem to forget that the book does not seem that real. Besides, in my opinion some of the letters are too "bookish". However I still think the book is insightful, true and pretty sad. 2. The language was colloquial and very easy to understand. 3. There are lots of impressing parts, but the one I liked most is when Charlie is telling a poem at a Christmas party to all his friends. I loved the poem because it is that sad but, however, true, I think. It is about growing up and how things change when you are not anymore the lovely little child but have become a young adult. In my opinion it is written in a very sad, nevertheless nice way. Later on Charlie finds out the poem was written by a boy just before he killed himself. He feels really sad about this. 4. "The perks of being a wallflower" is the story of what it is like to grow up in high school. Charlie, a 15-year-old freshman, is writing letters who cover his first year in high school to an unknown person. Charlie encounters the same struggles that many kids have to face in high school - how to make friends, family tensions, a first relationship, experimenting with drugs - but he also has to deal with his best friend's recent suicide. With the help of a teacher who recognises his intuition , and his two older friends, the seniors Patrick and Samantha, Charlie begins to be contented with his life. Yet not for a long time - depressed when all his friends prepare for college, Charlie has a catatonic breakdown, which resolves itself neatly and reveals a long-repressed truth about his Aunt Helen. Nevertheless, he makes it back in due time, ready to face his sophomore year and all it may bring. 5. In this book there is not really a climax because Charlie only tells about his life. Though there happen several important things that change his life a lot. One of them is when Charlie's first relationship with Mary-Elizabeth, a good friend of Sam, ends miserably because Charlie remains compulsively honest about the fact that he truly loves Sam and not Mary-Elizabeth. That hurts Mary-Elizabeth very much, and somehow the whole group of his friends more or less does not want to see him for about one month. By the time Charlie realises how he did Mary-Elizabeth wrong and endangered the friendship of Sam and her. He starts to see how much his friends really mean to him and how much he needs them. Charlie remembers the beginning of the year, before he got to know Sam and Patrick, and how lonely he felt then - so lonely that he started writing letters to an unknown person. He finds out what friendship really means. That was very impressing and I really could empathise with Charlie. 6. The ending really took me by surprise. You could see from Charlie's letters that he was emotionally unstable, yet I never thought he would have such a breakdown and have to go to hospital for two months. 7. I think Charlie was in some way like me. I did not dislike anyone of the characters, they were all pretty sympathetic, I think. Charlie: Charlie is the third child in a middle-class family. His older brother plays football at Penn State and his older sister worries a lot about boys. Charlie attends high school, he is a freshman and by no means popular. He is a shy boy, introverted and easily influenced. Patrick and Sam think he is a wallflower. He is also very na?ve and honest, which makes him a lot of problems later on. Charlie is a thinker, but he thinks too much, which sometimes leads to

Books About Writing

Books About Writing Books About Writing Books About Writing By Daniel Scocco I figured that it would be useful to have a page on the blog dedicated to books about writing. This initial list was created taking into consideration the books that our writers reviewed or recommended in the past. We plan to update it regularly as well. If you have a suggestion just write a comment below and we might add it. The links to Amazon are affiliate ones, so yeah if you end up purchasing the book we will earn a dollar or two. That money will be spent purchasing new books though. Enjoy. The Elements of Style: Originating as a classroom study aid prepared by Cornell English Professor William Strunk in 1918, this widely-used desk reference of English usage, form, and style continues to influence writers after a hundred years. A must have.Click here to get more details or buy. Eats, Shoots and Leaves: First published in April of 2004, Eats, Shoots and Leaves stayed 25 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list and by October of that year it had already sold one million copies. At a bit more than 200 pages including the bibliography, this little book describes the rules that govern the use of: apostrophe, comma, colon, semi-colon, dash, hyphen and period. Click here to get more details or buy. The Dictionary of Concise Writing: A must have book for anyone who wants to write better. It brings over 10,000 alternatives you can use to free your text from wordy constructions and unnecessary phrases. Click here to get more details or buy. Oxford American Writers Thesaurus: Another book worth investing in, as you will be able to use it over and over again. It comes with synonyms, antonyms, sample sentences and cross references to let you pick the most precise word for each occasion. Click here to get more details or buy. Concise Oxford English Dictionary: If you are looking for a solid dictionary and dont want to spend a fortune on it, this is a good choice. Click here to get more details or buy. On Writing: One of the best books about writing and being a writer. Stephen King is probably the most popular horror writer ever, and in this book he shares how he started, the basic writing rules and the fiction writing process. Click here to get more details or buy. The Screenwriters Bible: If want to start writing scripts, this book could help. David Trottier is a writer, producer and script consultant, and he shares tips on all the stages you will go through, from getting started to formatting and selling your script. Click here to get more details or buy. Plot Structure: This book is part of a series called Write Great Fiction. As the name implies, it will assist you while creating the plot for your stories. It comes with techniques, tips and even exercises you can use to practice what you will learn. Click here to get more details or buy. Rules for Writers: A book aimed at college students (regardless of the course). Diane Hacker, the author, has been teaching at the Prince George’s Community College for over 35 years, and this book is the result of what she learned from her students over that time. Click here to get more details or buy. On Writing Well: The subtitle says it all: The Classic Guide to Writing Nonfiction. The book covers many aspects of writing, from removing unnecessary words and phrases to identifying your audience and editing your pieces. Click here to get more details or buy. The Associated Press Stylebook: One of the most popular style guides among professional writers and journalists. The 2009 edition has been revised and contains over 3,000 new entries. Click here to get more details or buy. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Book Reviews category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:100 Idioms About NumbersItalicizing Foreign Words13 Theatrical Terms in Popular Usage

Chinese Culture and Modern Therapy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Chinese Culture and Modern Therapy - Essay Example Representatives of different cultures have diverse values, demonstrate varying behaviors, adopt different perspectives, and in some cases even varied susceptibility to diseases. Cultural differences are more profound than individual variations due to patient illness, social class, economic status, or educational background. A popular view among health professionals is that showing respect is the key to resolving absolute majority of cultural problems. Unfortunately, this simple recipe is not always effective: the profound differences between Chinese and American cultures presented below demonstrate that respect is only one aspect of cultural competence. Chinese culture is characterized by specific attitude toward self. Thus, American Peter Hessler claims this to be the biggest difference between the West and what he observed while teaching literature in one of the Chinese provinces: "the sense of self seemed largely external; you were identified by the way that others viewed you" (Hessler 2001: 282). This difference is also reflected on the famous Geert Hofstede's model of cultural value orientation. The model consists of five dimensions, one of which is individualism. This dimension reveals the degree to which the society reinforces individual or collective achievement. In case the IDV index is high, individuality and individual rights are emphasized by the society: citizens in such societies rely primarily upon themselves, and form a little number of closer relationships. If the IDV is low, the society is characterized by high degree of collectivism and closer relationships between individuals: such societies reinforce extended families and collectives with responsibility being shared between all members. The difference between the United States and China is literally striking on this dimension: the U.S. ranks at 91 on Hofstede's scale (100 points is maximum) while China - at only 15, which is the lowest score (Hofstede, 2003). The high ranking for the United States indicates a society with a more individualistic attitude and relatively loose bonds with others. Self-reliance is the most distinctive feature of such society. The low ranking of Chine indicates and absolutely different system of attitudes toward self and implies much closer bonds with others. Consequently, American health practitioners adopt more patient-centered approach putting emphasis on autonomy of the patients and their "right to know" precisely because American culture paying relatively little attention to social groups (including families) they belong to. This attitude is not common in Chinese health care because it contradicts the cultural orientation toward collectivism. The custom in Chinese culture is to first inform a patient's family about a prognosis, especially when the prognosis is bad. After that the family makes a decision about the information the patient himself should receive. Members of Chinese and other similar cultural groups may feel that it would be wrong and insensitive to inform the patient about the risks associated with his illness: "this would only cause the patient great stress and even hasten death by destroying hope" (Galanti, 2000:335). Treatment decisions made by Chinese patients are strongly influenced by the family or social groups t hey are affiliated with. Therefore, involvement of family members in the process of treatment is likely to make the therapy