At the start, Charlie is alone, he. He feels like he has no one since he lost both of his best friends; his Aunt Helen and his old best friend who killed himself. He always stays at home writing letters about his life to a person he doesn't know from school. Charlie normally sat alone and readsread books that his teacher, Bill, gave to him. His teacher being one of his closest friends at the start, shows how introverted he was.

Suddenly, Charlie meets Sam at the homecoming football game and Charlie falls for her instantly. She and Patrick take Charlie to a party at their friend Bob's house. At the party, Charlie tells everyone that his best friend killed himself and Patrick makes sure that Charlie knows that he’s strong by saying, “You’re a wallflower. You see things. You keep quiet about them. And you understand.” That made him feel known. That’s when he stopped getting those negative thoughts on his mind.

Finally, towards the end, Charlie starts following other people’s lead. For instance, an example of Charlie following other people's footsteps instead of his own is when he goes to a New Years’ party that Sam and Patrick’s friend hosted and people there bring edibles. Charlie eats one accidentally but then starts to enjoy it because other people are also “under the influence.” At some point, Charlie asks Sam, “Just tell me how to be different in a way that makes sense.” Another example of him being a follower would be while Charlie’s friends are leaving for college, he says he’s happy for them but he clearly isn’t. He thinks that if they’re leaving Ihe should leave too, so he tries to kill himself.