Main Idea Of The Book Wonder
The major theme of wonder the book is kindness and helping others. The paper suggests that small and simple acts of kindness and help can make significant differences, and they can give peace to the mind and soul of an individual or a community.
Moreover, the book states that everyone has a choice and an ability to choose kindness so that is not a difficult task to do small acts of kindness. The story of this book revolves around the story of August Matthew “Auggie” Pullman.
Summary
The author states that “Auggie” Pullman was born with a facial abnormality and he was suffering from a mixture of Treacher Collins syndrome and hemifacial macrosomia. It was the major reason that he was unable to attend mainstream school until the fifth grade and then he was enrolled at Beecher Prep.
However, it is important to note that Auggie is not a real person or it is good to say that his character is a fictitious character and the author of the book RJ Palacio has tried to give a lesson to teachers or schools and parents of children like Auggie through this story that small acts of kindness can make a personal hero and they can make it easier for an individual to live his life like a legend.
However, RJ is trying to describe the real-life story of Nathaniel Newman, 13years old child who was suffering from Treacher Collins syndrome and hemifacial macrosomia in reality. RJ was inspired by his story and Nathaniel Newman’s family has no issues to write a book on his life and RJ changed the character of Nathaniel Newman with Auggie to explain the real story of Nathaniel Newman by a fictitious character Auggie (Berlatsky, 2019).
The most important thing about Auggie in the book is that he is wearing a helmet throughout the book when he goes to school. The helmet symbolizes an act or way of experiencing the world without actually living in this world.
Moreover, he wore a helmet to hide his disability from other school mates, teachers, and parents of other students. It was the major reason that Auggie wore a helmet at the entrance of the school and he kept wearing this helmet to the last minute at the school
Theme Of The Book Wonder
The theme of the book suggests that people having some sort of disability cannot face the world like normal people and the major reason is that they try to hide their lacking and they fear that other people would make fun of their disability (Casalme, 2016).
The role of Mr. Tushman is important in the book as he was the first person who behaved kindly with Auggie and he took him to a tour. It was the major reason that Auggie wrote a note for thanking Mr. Tushman for taking him to a tour.
It gave internal happiness to Auggie and he wrote this note to Mr. Tushman when he came back from the tour and Auggie also saw this note hanging in the office of Mr. Tushman when he visited it some days after.
The essence of this scene is that Mr. Tushman wanted to motivate others and inspire other staff members and students at school to behave with kindness with Auggie in the school and other such people having some sort of disability outside their school as well.
Mr. Tushman showed others that this act of kindness can give happiness to disabled people like Auggie. Therefore, he hanged this thankyou letter from Auggie to motivate others. The book has a falling action as well.
The major falling action in this book is that people started talking to Auggie and the most important thing in this regard is that even those people started to talk to Auggie who did not talk with him before (Berlatsky, 2019).
The small acts of kindness changed their minds and they came to know that Auggie love talking to them and he wants to love and attention. People who stayed away from Auggie and who stopped others to talk to Auggie or to sit with him for a lunch apologized for their rude behavior and they started behaving friendly and loving with Auggie.
Moral Of The Story
The primary moral of this story is that life becomes easy and simple when people start looking at things in a way what they are instead of looking at them what they look. It is the case for Auggie the boy, who is the major character of this book.
He went to fifth grade in his school due to his facial abnormality and some people started bullying him for his abnormality. They did so as they judged Auggie by his physical appearance and disability. They did not talk to him and stopped others to talk to him and be his friends (Casalme, 2016).
However, things changed when they changed their thinking and started looking towards Auggie as he is and they found that Auggie was full of life and he was an intelligent person having a lovely heart. All people started talking to him and become his friends.
For instance, Auggie had to face serious hatred from Julian and some other mean kids at his school and the major reason was that Julian was a mean girl and she decided to judge Auggie from his looks.
Moreover, she convinces other means kids and she means friends to bully Auggie and to judge him from his looks. It was the major reason that Auggie had to face serious conflict from Julian in the book.
Ending Of The Book Wonder
The end of the book suggested that Auggie suffered from serious bullying from Julian and her friends throughout his school time but he did not behave badly with them. He always tried to avoid such kids especially Julian and did not stop small acts of kindness to others.
His consistent and determined behavior changed the way of thinking of Julian and other means students, and they started changing their minds towards Auggie,. The end of the book states that they all become firm friends, and all mean kids apologized from Auggie.
References
Berlatsky, N. (2019). Wonder Woman (No. 1, pp. 1-x). Rutgers University Press.
Casalme, A. G. (2016). Engaging Children in Discussions of Disfigurement and Disability: The Wonder of Palacio’s Wonder. The Cutting Edge: The Stanford Undergraduate. Journal of Education Research, 1(1).
