Representation of people and groups.

Representation Of People And Groups.

The Perks for being a Wallflower is an alternative, coming-of-age drama.The three main characters are white, american teenagers in high school. The teenagers are presented as fun characters who don't bother about appearance and the typical gossip people think of teenagers to be. They are presented as middle classed teenagers, which makes it easier for the audience to understand. Charlie, an autistic boy who suffered a great lost, is portrayed as the shy boy, which audiences will presumably feel sorry for. He isn't like other teenage boys; he isn't strong like other american teenage boys. He is insecure which is a huge contrast to other films which shows the male figure as confident and self centred. Charlie's friend, Sam, isn't a typical girlie girl. She is portrayed as a confident teenager, who doesn't really care about her appearance and would be described as a little bit of a tom boy. Charlie's other friend, Patrick, is not the typical boy who is into boy stuff such as american football but he is into the more feminine activities. He is an outsider, (probably because not a lot of Americans support the same gender relationships),who doesn't make a lot of friends due to the fact that he is gay and I think that it is a similarity to our generation. All 3 teenagers are portrayed as wild, confident, social beings by the end of the trailer as they accept themselves and I think that's what teenagers struggle most to do. The white people are presented as the ones that always party which is a bit stereotypical because I think all types of races party if they want to.

Trailer:

In this trailer, Torodov's theory of equilibrium is shown. The equilibrium of the story is that he has a normal life, in a normal school but is struggling due to the fact that he is autistic. The disequilibrium is he is finding it hard to come to terms with himself and finding it hard to find his identity after the lose of one of his best friends. The new equilibrium is he finds new friends in his new school, who accept him for himself and they gradually allow him to himself around them. In this trailer, you don't really have the typical characters for a drama/reality movie. You have a quiet, insecure, geeky, teenager who suffers from autism as the main character, however, in other films they have a confident, good looking boy who stands up for himself or is the bully. In this film, the main character doesn't fall in love with the girl, Sam, who is not like many other girls as she is very confident, loud and doesn't care about her appearance. Patrick, isn't like the normal teenage boys in a movie as he is gay. Sam and Patrick are suggested to be Charlie's helper as they help him adapt to his new surroundings, but they could also be said as the mentor as they help him over come the struggles he faces. Applying Barthes theory, the trailer has a lot of enigma and actions codes such as;

Enigma codes:

1) Charlie's reflection in the mirror of him looking down.

2) Charlie staring at a girl.

3) Charlie is writing in a book, but we don't know about what.

4) A boy ripped Charlie's book.

5) A group of people are jumping around like frogs behind Charlie.

6) Charlie is standing by himself on home coming night.

7) Sam is smirking at someone.

8) Sam stands up while the car is moving.