A Book Review : "Wonder (2017)"

”You’re Kinda Cool actually”. Wonder is a 2012 novel by R.J. Palacio. The book is a compassionate and extremely sappy and sentimental story about a boy with a facial deformity. The story is about Auggie Pullman, a boy with a facial deformity going to public school for the first time. There, he meets Jack and Summer, who are accepting of him, and Julian Albans, who is not. From there, Auggie is betrayed, loses friends, gains friends, and goes through his first middle school year.

At this point in the story, Jack (Eventual Auggie’s Best friend) is deciding to go the tour of the school being set up for Auggie.

“So here’s why I changed my mind. It wasn’t so I wouldn’t have to hear mom give me a whole lecture. And it wasn’t to protect this August kid from Julian, who I knew was going to be a jerk about this whole thing. It was because when I heard Jamie talking about how he had run away from August going “aaaaaahhhhh”, I suddenly felt really bad. The thing is, there are always going to be kids like Julian, who are jerks. But if a little kid like Jamie, whos usually a nice enough kid, can be that mean, then a kid like August doesn't stand a chance in Middle school.”

This passage is significant because it conveys Jack’s character traits and reveals the complexity behind him,. Unlike most of the kids in school, Jack may be shallow, but he’s not a black and white character. Jack knows when to be shallow and when he’s morally obligated not to be, and thinks about how his decision could affect August even though he hasn’t formally met him. But even though he knows this, he still doesn’t actively care about August (At least not at this point) or bettering himself in terms of being a personality first all the time (At least not at this point). Jack is calculating, not one to brush his faults off even if he didn’t directly hurt someone, but he doesn’t REALLY care about if he’s at fault or not so long as it doesn’t have a direct affect on him (In the beginning of the book). Jack is a modern day Rhett Butler in terms of complexity, and to quote a wise man, “He may not always do good, in fact, he might rarely do good, but his moral compass always points North”

A conflict that develops in the story is man vs. society. “I could tell I was being stared at without even looking up. I knew that people were nudging each other, watching me out of the corner of their eyes. I thought I was used to those kinds of stares by now, but I guess I wasn’t.” This moves the plot forward, because it serves as both foreshadowing and a commentary on society itself. This passage shows the precursor to when the school outwardly turns on August. It shows why they were all so ready to aid Julian with his tormenting of August. Secondly, it gives us the perspective of the one being stared at, not the one staring. I doubt many would react differently to August than the kids in the quote, we’re all guilty of this. The book’s description of how August gets these stares all the time and has grown a thick skin to it but they sting whenever he gets them make the reader feel awful for even thinking about staring. A sad reminder of how “Everyone Does It” is never an excuse.

Internal Forces cause Jack to grow and change throughout the novel. “I’d been talking to Julian about August. Oh man. Now I understood. I was so mean. I don’t even know why. I’m not even sure what I said but it was bad”The force that causes Jack to change is that he finally gets that his actions fully have meaning. He realized it before, even accepted it, but didn’t actually care if he indirectly caused a bad event, he just knew it was wrong. However, this time is different, because this is the first time where he internalized it. Now he cares that his actions will actually hurt people he cares about. He loses his friend, and it causes him to legitimately, work on bettering himself. By now, he’s not doing the right thing because “I don’t want this on my conscience”, he’s doing it because he really, truly cares.

A theme of the book is to judge people not based on how the look but the content of their character

“‘Yo, Dude’ said a new voice behind us, ‘What’s up man?’....’Leave ‘em alone dude’ said Amos, with Miles and Henry with him”

The author develops this theme by having Auggie’s former tormentors stand up for him. In the quote, Jack and Auggie are aggressively bullied by 7th Graders, with Amos stepping in after inferribly learning the error of their ways. It also humanizes the bullies, further cementing that you should judge by the character, not the looks

After hearing about how the book has ‘many layers, just like it’s main character’, you’d be surprised to learn that I don’t think Auggie is a well developed character. I don’t think Auggie has much layer, which is why the book is 7/10. Auggie is the biggest reason why. He doesn’t have a personality. He lists normal things about him but if I’m being honest, It just makes him seem worse and more materialistic. In fact, most of the things listed, such as riding bikes, is never shown once in the book, and if it was, it was so insignificant it might as well be left out entirely. This wouldn’t be such an issue if everyone else wasn’t so complex and layered. However, the book’s popularity proves me wrong. I think the audience responsible for this are the people who like really emotional stories, which is fairly accurate since the book does have many “You will have the feels” moments. Overall, I think this book is the answer to the ages old question of “If good comes from a bad (Or In this case, okay) place, is it doing more harm than good. The answer is no, as this book’s popularity likely caused many young readers to think about the effects if not seeing past the end of their nose when judging others. At the end of the day, I recommend Wonder.