Taboo Topics in Stephen Chbosky's The Perks of Being a Wallflower

The thesis focuses on taboo topics in Stephen Chbosky's novel The Perks of Being a Wallflower, such as alcohol, drugs, sex, teenage pregnancy, abortion, homosexuality, violence, offensive language and child abuse. The realistic portrayal of these controversial topics led to complaints from parents - namely, that the novel's content is unsuitable for their children. The novel was challenged and banned repeatedly from schools and libraries in America, which means that it was no longer available for students to read. Some call this prohibition of the novel within schools censorship, which has sparked much debate on whether one individual complaining about a book has the right to determine what all students can or cannot read in school. This thesis takes into account and analyses opinions of parents, teachers, teenagers, the author of the novel Stephen Chbosky and some organisations involved in the fight for or against the banning of the novel. Since The Perks of Being a Wallflower is not as well-known in Slovenia as it is in America, Andrej Predin's novel Na zeleno vejo is referred to in order to see how people in Slovenia reacted to a similarly controversial novel.