Using literature as inspiration for film has been a tactic used by filmmakers since the beginning era of film. The genres of detective fiction, horror, romance, and even Shakespearean plays have had their fair share of adaptations. In more recent years, the inspiration for many movies has come from the realm of Young Adult Fiction. Movies such as Twilight, Harry Potter, The Hunger Games, and The Fault in Our Stars were all contracted from their novel counterparts, have all been very successful in the box office, and have created large, loyal fan bases. The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky is a novel-film combination that fits into this category, but in the adaptation there are multiple differences in characters, themes, and plot. Chbosky is both the author of the novel and the director of the film, a combination not frequently seen in film, and in my essay I want to explore the dynamic of how he uses the different mediums of novel and film to express the same story and why he makes the changes he does for the film adaptation.
