As some of you know, I finished reading a book called “The Perks of Being a Wallflower”. It is about a high school boy named Charlie. It is a good book but I wouldn’t recommend reading it until you are in high school. There are a lot of references to music and books. They are all a little out there but I have decided to provide a list and a poem from the book.
Literature
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
A Separate Peace by John Knowles
The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger
On the Road by Jack Kerouac
Naked Lunch by William S. Burroughs
Walden by Henry David Thoreau
Hamlet by William Shakespeare
The Stranger by Albert Camus
The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand
Film and television
Rocky Horror Picture Show
The Graduate
Harold and Maude
My Life as a Dog
Dead Poets Society
The Unbelievable Truth
This Side of Paradise
It's a Wonderful Life
Reds
The Producers
Hannah and Her Sisters
M*A*S*H
Saturday Night Live
Music
"Asleep" by The Smiths
"Vapor Trail" by Ride
"Scarborough Fair", a traditional folk song popularized by Simon and Garfunkel
"A Whiter Shade of Pale" by Procol Harum
"Time of No Reply" by Nick Drake
"Dear Prudence" by The Beatles
"Gypsy" by Suzanne Vega
"Nights in White Satin" by The Moody Blues
"Daydream" by The Smashing Pumpkins
"Dusk" by Genesis
"MLK" by U2
"Blackbird" by The Beatles
"Landslide" by Fleetwood Mac
"Smells Like Teen Spirit" by Nirvana
"Another Brick in the Wall Pt. II" by Pink Floyd
"Something" by The Beatles
"School's Out" by Alice Cooper
"Autumn Leaves" by Nat King Cole
"Broken Wings" by Mr. Mister
It also includes a beautiful poem that I will show you:
Once on a yellow piece of paper with green lines
He wrote a poem
And he called it "chop
Because that was the name of his dog
And that’s what it was all about
His teacher gave him an A
And a gold star
And his mother hung it on the kitchen door
And read it to his aunts.
That was the year Father Tracy
Took all the kids to the zoo
And he let them sing on the bus
And his little sister was born
With tiny nails and no hair
And his mother and father kissed a lot
And the girl around the corner sent him a
Valentine signed with a row of X's
And he had to ask his father what the X's meant
And his father always tucked him in bed at night
And was always there to do it
Once on a piece of white paper with blue lines
He wrote a poem
He called it "autumn"
Because that was the name of the season
And that's what it was all about
And his teacher gave him an A
And asked him to write more clearly
And his mother never hung it on the kitchen door
Because of the new paint
And the kids told him
That Father Tracy smoked cigars
And left butts on the pews
And sometime they would burn holes
That was the year his sister got glasses
With thick lenses and black frames
And the girl around the corner laughed
When he asked her to go see Santa Claus
And the kids told him why
His mother and father kissed a lot
And his father never tucked him in bed at night
And his father got mad
When he cried for him to do it
Once on a paper torn from his notebook
He wrote a poem
And he called it "Innocence: A Question"
Because that was the question about his girl
And that’s what it was all about
And his professor gave him an A
And a strange steady look
And his mother never hung it on the kitchen door
Because he never showed her
That was the year Father Tracy died
And he forgot how the end
Of the Apostles’ Creed went
And he caught his sister
Making out on the back porch
And his mother and father never kissed
Or even talked
And the girl around the corner
Wore too much make up
That made him cough when he kissed her
But he kissed her anyway
Because it was the thing to do
And at 3 am he tucked himself into bed
His father snoring soundly
That’s why on the back of a brown paper bag
He tried another poem
And he called it "Absolutely Nothing"
Because that's what it was really all about
And he gave himself an A
And a slash on each damned wrist
And he hung it on the bathroom door
Because this time he didn’t think
He could reach the kitchen----
It is a beautiful poem but it is very sad.
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