Literary Villain: Depression
I’ll tell ya, that Charlie kid just
won’t give up! Man oh man I’ve tried forever but he won’t surrender himself to
my clutches. He refuses to just allow himself to be sad even though he’s always
been an outcast and a loner. He actually found friends! Even before that I thought
he’d crumble when his aunt died. He came close but he was never fully in my
grasp. I felt short changed. I mean this kid was an easy target but I can’t get
him. His own sister is insulting him to his face but he won’t give in. Kids
fight with him at school, he just keeps on going. His best friend commits
suicide for goodness sake and he cries of course but ultimately he continues to
fight me every chance he gets. I know he can feel my presence. He talks about
me in his letters to his secret friend. I seems like he’s always one half step
ahead of me. I’ve even tried to get his friends. They all have dealt with their
own demons at one point of another but they aren’t depressed. It’s like they
form this group of misfits that are impermeable to me. I come so close but yet I’m
so far.
Why Charlie Is a Modern Hero
1.
He survives a depressing time
Charlie may not have fought dragons or werewolves, but
he did fight an enemy that can be equally as powerful: depression. Through the
course of the novel and even the parts of his life not in the novel, Charlie fights
on ongoing battle with depression. It may not always be apparent but the reader
can sense that it’s there at certain points. “I don’t know what’s wrong with me
but I’m getting scared.” (Chbosky 83) If he doesn’t know what’s wrong with him
but he’s getting scared then that’s a sign of depression. It’s very clear that
he has been fighting this battle for some time but he doesn’t know. He later
goes on to say he misses his friend Michael and his Aunt Helen. Those people
made Charlie feel good and now they are both dead. This sounds like a
depressing situation.
2.
He teaches the reader a valuable lesson
Charlie teaches us a lot
of lessons about life. In my opinion, the most valuable is that everyone is
capable of loving somebody and finding happiness. For most of his life, Charlie
lived as an outcast. He never had too many friends and the ones he did have
ended up dying or breaking down mentally. That’s rough. When he finds his new
friends Patrick and Sam, he is changed by their willingness to accept him. He
never thought it possible that he could find such a loving group of people. He teaches
us to keep an open mind.
Charlie is an incredibly likeable character because so
many people can identify with him. His psychological issue and his need to find
love are the same issues so many people deal with every day. His struggles and
ordeals are a beautiful representation of how to keep an open heart and let
love in. He teaches us that there is no shame in being an outcast and searching
for a family that accepts you. He can basically do no wrong because of how
innocent he is. It’s incredibly how likeable he is.
Charlie reminds me of The Grinch. Not because he is mean
and savage, but because he was an outcast. He didn’t know how to accept love
from people. Now he has found his friends and looks to them to help him recover
from the death of his aunt and others he was close to. Much like how the Grinch
was convinced he needed to remain an outcast until he learned that giving love
to Whoville was much more satisfying
than trying to destroy it.
