The Perks of Being a Wall Flower- Drinking and Rape

In high school there are always stupid teenagers and bad decisions made. In the book, “The Perks of Being a Wallflower” by Stephen Chbosky the reader gets to see an insider view of a quiet and observant freshman in high school and their stories from high school and some from when they were younger and his siblings were in high school. A big part of high school for a good amount of people is partying. Of course the same goes for college but there are a lot in high school too. Most parties happen when parents go out of town and the kids want to be cool or rebel against their parents and have a party, “My parents went to Ohio… and they left my brother in charge of the house.. My brother used the opportunity to throw a big party with beer and everything.” (27) Even from my own high school experiences I have noticed that most of the parties that people throw are when their parents are out of town and don’t think they will find out. Some people say that if the cops did more to stop parties or catch them that more people would choose not to go or participate in the activities, such as drinking. However, this is not the case. A lot of people come over to the houses with parties and act without thinking. They get drunk or do drugs and it usually gets out of hand. In some cases people even get raped. In the book the main character, Charlie, witnesses a rape while hiding out in his room during his older brother’s party. The couple came stumbling in and asked if they could use his room. He agrees and then goes on to explain how the girl kept saying no, “the boy kept working up the girl’s shirt, and as much as she said no, he kept working it… He pulled his pants and underwear down to his knees “Please. Dave. No”… After a few minutes the boy pushed the girls head down… she was still crying.” (28) People drunk make bad decisions, especially high schoolers. They don’t think about what they are doing and don’t really care. They are also very impulsive which doesn’t help when a teenage boy is drunk and wants some from his girlfriend. The issue with rape when the people are in a relationship is it is hard to convince people that there was a rape that occurred. The issue with the situation in the book was that the couple was dating and still is and is very much in love. At least that is how it seems. Therefore, if anyone spoke up, especially the innocent 8^th grade bystander, they wouldn’t be listened to. This means the rapist never gets in trouble. They get away with everything with no consequence. Unfortunately this isn’t rare. There are a lot of people that get raped or sexually abused even by their loved ones because they are under the influence. This is another reason why they don’t speak up. They think that people will say that the person raped could have a messed up view of what happened that night because they were drunk or may have declined only because they were drunk. Either way they weren’t in their right mind. Parties in high school are common and a lot of the time they get out of hand and people get hurt. Most people will never speak up and the person that hurt them never get caught or given a consequence. Unfortunately that is how it is and probably will remain that way. There isn’t much anyone can do. When teenagers or really anyone is under the influence they make stupid decisions and in high school that happens a lot. There isn’t much the school, parents, or cops can do about it. It’s part of high school and can happen to anyone.