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Charlie’s brother is the oldest child in the family, and Charlie idolizes him. He is a former high school football star who now plays for Penn State University. Upheld as something of a family hero, he is living out their dad’s dream. Watching Charlie’s brother play football on television gives Charlie’s family an occasion to bond and a topic of conversation that is unquestionably and unobjectionably successful. However, as the novel progresses, Charlie feels increasingly distant from his brother. Charlie’s brother does not call home very often. When he does, he only tells impersonal stories about his teammates instead of telling Charlie (and the rest of the family) about himself. The brother’s alienation comes to a head when he does not come home for Thanksgiving. His efforts to distance himself from his family transform him into more of an icon than an active participant in his family’s affairs. This disconnect is symbolized by the fact that the family watches him on television, rather than traveling to see his games in person. However, by the end of the novel, Chbosky suggests that the brother’s relationship with his family is on the mend. He is moved by his sister’s salutatorian speech and he is devoted to visiting Charlie in the hospital. These moments may be small but they demonstrate that the brother is slowly reconnecting with his family after initially trying to carve out a separate life of his own.
Charlie’s brother is further significant because he represents the traditional masculine ideal to which many male characters are compared and of which they ultimately fall short. Charlie’s brother is handsome, athletic, popular, and tough—all stereotypically masculine traits. His personality is juxtaposed against that of his sensitive, intellectual, and passive younger brother. Patrick is another example of a male character who does not align with traditional depictions of masculinity. Like Charlie, Patrick is an intellectual. He is drawn to alternative music, theater, and countercultures as opposed to more stereotypical teenage-boy interests, and he is gay in a society that venerates heterosexuality as part of the masculine ideal. Chbosky uses Charlie’s brother as a basis for comparison against characters like Charlie and Patrick to suggest there is more than one way to be a man.
