Wonder by R.J. Palacio | Teen Ink

Wonder by R.J. Palacio

May 8, 2014
By Sarah Schwing BRONZE, Cincinnati, Ohio
Sarah Schwing BRONZE, Cincinnati, Ohio
1 article 0 photos 0 comments

“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.”
Everyone wants to fit in and be like everyone else. It’s sometimes hard being different, but most people can get through it. Try going to school and being stared at every day, and getting weird looks when you’re out in public. Sometimes it’s hard to even fit into a group when you’re not ordinary. When you have to deal with being called names anytime someone looks at you. No one can tell the pain that you’re having on the inside. When you go to the playground, just to have some fun, and kids run away screaming. August Pullman experiences this everyday.

August Pullman was born with a facial deformity. He is ten-years old and going in to the fifth grade this year. August has never been to an actual school before because people don’t know how to handle his face. August sees himself as an ordinary kid, but other people don’t at all. He likes to eat ice cream, ride his bike, play ball, and play XBox like a normal kid, but just because he is deformed, he is not considered a normal kid. I have a connection with this because sometimes people judge me, but I do the things that everyone else does, so why should they judge me? August’s goal is to try to go to a real school, like Beecher Prep Middle School, and make everyone else realize he is just like them. August is the protagonist because he is the main character in Wonder.

There is one antagonist in Wonder, and that is Julian. Julian bullies August. I have a connection with this, because I know someone that was constantly bullied because she didn’t fit in with everyone else, just like August. Julian is ten-years old and in August’s grade. Julian tries to make August as miserable as possible. Just because August looks different than him, he decides to pick on August. Julian is the antagonist because he goes out of his way to make August feel bad, and makes him feel like he is different from everyone else.

In the end, August realizes that his peers don’t care about how he looks, because they all found out that he was just a normal kid, maybe not on the outside but in the inside. The theme is, Don’t judge a person by their looks. This is the theme because the kids were judging August before they got to know him. But then they realized that August was a really nice person, and it doesn’t matter what he looks like for them to be friends.


The author's comments:
I enjoyed reading Wonder because it was very inspirational, funny, and sometimes emotional. Also it made me realize to just keep trying when people shoot you down, because if you’re positive, you can get through anything. Wonder made me smile because August seems so happy, even though he is deformed. Also at some times, it made me cry, because some of the kids were bullying August, just because he looked different. It surprised me that August actually agreed to go to school even though he knew it was going to be challenging for him. Also he didn’t back out when the kids were mean to him. August is a fighter, and a wonder.

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