Rose McKay                                                                                                            808

“If I found a magic lamp and I could have one wish, I would wish that I had a normal face that no one ever noticed at all.” The book “Wonder,” by R. J. Palacio is about a boy named August who has a physical deformity. He has been homeschooled his whole life and is now attending middle school for the first time. Starting 5^th grade is really hard for him at first. He feels very self-conscious of the fact that he has a physical deformity and looks different than everyone else. At this point in his life, he is used to people reacting to his deformity in negative ways. He copes with this is by putting his head down and not making any eye contact with anyone. At school, it is really hard for him to make friends. Although, he does make two new friends that are very loyal to him, Summer and Jack. He realizes that his true personality shows when he is talking to Jack, who eventually becomes his best friend. By the end of the book, Auggie is then less self conscious and more confident. He realizes his own courage and strength. He also realizes that people can change and he can too. Throughout the book the author shows the reader how children can become better people and build character. She shows this by shifting points of view, focusing in on themes of friendship and betrayal, and change.

 One of the themes in  “Wonder” is about friendship and betrayal. On Halloween Auggie comes to school with a mask and nobody knows who is underneath this mask. In the classroom he overhears Jack, someone he believes is his friend, talking about him behind his back with the popular kid, Julian, and his followers. He feels terrible listening to Julian, but he feels even worse when he hears Jack say, “‘if I looked like that, I think I’d kill myself’. ‘You would not’… ‘Yeah for real’… ‘Then why do you hangout with him so much?’ ‘I don’t know…’” After this scene, it is clear that Auggie feels a huge sense of betrayal and loss of friendship. Later in the story though, we find out that Jack doesn’t even like the kids he was talking to. He joined the group of bullies because of the peer pressure that Julian puts on kids. During the school year, Jack and Auggie sit next to each other in almost every class. Jack starts to realize that Auggie is really funny and they have a lot in common. At the end of the book, Jack says, “Like, if all the guys in the fifth grade were lined up against a wall and I got to choose anyone I wanted to hang out with, I would choose August.” This shows that over time, Jack is able to see past Auggie’s deformity. It shows he doesn’t like August because he feels bad for him, but because Auggie is fun to hang out with. We wouldn’t necessarily believe Jack to be truthful if the author hadn’t switched perspectives throughout the book.

“Wonder” is set up where the reader gets to go into many characters’ minds. This is called shifting points of view. The first telling of the story on Halloween was told from Auggie’s point of view. Later on in the story, we hear the incident again from Jack’s point of view. After the incident on Halloween where we hear Jack talking about Auggie, Auggie says, “I was pretty sure I would never go back to school again.” This makes us feel angry and hurt because we trusted Jack because Auggie did. Now Auggie doesn’t want to go to school and that was the one thing he conquered. In the middle of the story, we go into the mind of Jack. We see that he actually doesn’t like the kids that he was talking to about Auggie and we feel empathy for him. If we didn’t go into the mind of Jack, we would not trust him. He says, “And I don’t know why I said that stuff. I was just going along. I was stupid. I am stupid.”  This shows that Jack actually feels terrible for what he did. If we hadn’t read this scene, we would not trust Jack.

Everybody in the book changes. Even in the smallest ways. It was really hard for Auggie to go to middle school. “I don’t want to go to school,’ I answered, folding my arms...’Maybe I’ll go next year,’ I answered, looking out the window. ‘I’ll be the only kid who looks like me.’” Auggie had to face the fact that kids might judge him, but he still went to school everyday. It’s one thing to handle going to a new school after being home schooled your whole life, but it’s another having a physical difference that you fear everyone will make fun of. I don’t think Auggie would have wanted to go to school if he hadn’t had a friend like Jack. Auggie let his true personality show when he was with him. Throughout the book the author shows the reader how children can become better people. One scene that illustrates this is when the whole grade was at a country fair. Some 7th graders from a different school were bullying Auggie and Jack. The popular boys, who were once on the side of Julian, who used to bully Auggie, stood up for them. They changed because they realized that Auggie is actually a good person inside and it doesn’t matter what you look like, it matters what is within. Also, Olivia (Via), Auggie’s sister, changes a lot in the year that the book takes place. She begins high school and doesn’t want to be identified as the girl with the brother who has a deformed face. “… In middle school, a lot of people didn’t know about August…Or if they knew, it wasn’t nessecarally the first thing they knew about me. Maybe it was the second or third thing they heard about me. ‘Olivia? Yeah she’s nice. Did you hear she has a brother who’s deformed?’” At her middle school she was known as the girl with the brother with the deformed face. But now that she is in high school, she wants to have friends who don’t know about Auggie. She doesn’t want her life to revolve around him.  In one section, (told from her point of view) Olivia is supposed to perform in a play and she doesn’t tell her parents because she doesn’t want Auggie to come and be seen by her new friends. But in the end, she realizes that her friends should still love her even if they find out about her brother.

In conclusion, Wonder is about a boy who changes and grows, socially and emotionally, ten times bigger than who he was before. He makes new friends. He realizes that he can be out in the world and be less self conscious and more confident. The whole book is about trust and forgiveness and love. All of the characters in the book have some hidden insecurity and throughout the year, they push past their fears. For example, Jack is afraid of what kids will say if he is friends with Auggie, but he learns that it is not their decision, that it’s his. Via is afraid of being identified as the girl with the brother with the deformed face, but she learns that people love her for who she is. People love Auggie as well. Auggie was once afraid of living in the real world but he pushed past his fear and learned that some people will love him for who he is not what he looks like.