Wonder by R.J. Palacio tells the story of August “Auggie” Pullman, a boy who suffers from a rare condition the novel calls ‘mandibulofacial dysostosis.’ It alters his facial features significantly, causing low, slanting eyes, misshapen ears, and a cleft palate among other malformations. Doctors are baffled about the possible cause and conjecture it is the result of the presence and combination of two other mutations. In the genetic lottery, the odds of this occurrence/manifestation is said to one in four million, making Auggie, as he says himself, ‘something of a medical wonder.’ Due to his condition, Auggie spends a large portion of his early life in and out of the hospital for frequent surgeries. To provide the flexible schedule …show more content…
to accommodate these surgeries, he is homeschooled by his mom. When he reaches the age of ten, however, the surgeries can be separated by years. His parents want Auggie to become less isolated and enroll him in middle school. Though desperately seeking to be seen as normal, Auggie is reluctant to attend a regular school. He is terrified of regularly facing the reactions to his appearance; people stare and kids often run away in horror at the sight of Auggie, and even though he pretends not to notice, he does. Beecher Prep, a private school, gladly accepts Auggie as a student. His parents convince him to meet Mr. Tushman, the middle school director, and take a tour of the school. When he arrives for the visit, Auggie discovers that Mr. Tushman has arranged for three students to meet him and show him around the school with the hope they will befriend Auggie. Charlotte Cody and Jack Will are both polite to him. But the other student, Julian Albans, makes snide comments and is deliberately rude during the tour. Despite this, Auggie finds himself wanting to go to school. Jack sits next to him in several classes when no other student would. When Auggie finds himself sitting all alone at a table during lunch, Summer Dawson abandons her own table and joins him. Both students initially act out of kindness, but eventually develop a genuine bond with Auggie; he becomes fast friends with each. The transition to middle school isn’t completely smooth with Julian’s continual hostility and the other students’ stares, gossip and aversion to contact with Auggie in an attempt to avoid ‘The Plague.’ Still, school becomes a source of enjoyment for Auggie. One particular event that provides excitement is when he realizes he is allowed to wear a costume to school for his favorite holiday, Halloween. Unfortunately, Halloween at school doesn’t go as expected. Dressed in a Bleeding Scream costume, Auggie enters a classroom unnoticed and overhears other students talking about him. This is nothing new, but what is surprising is that Jack is among them. He overhears Jack talk negatively about him and make the comment that if he looked like Auggie, he’d kill himself. This devastates Auggie and sends him running from the room crying. He heads to the nurse’s office pretending he has a stomachache in order to go home. He continues the charade of being sick, avoids telling his mom what happened, and forms the mindset he’ll never return to school again. When Auggie refuses to go trick-or-treating that same night, his sister, Via, suspects more is going on. She questions him and finally persuades him to tell her what happened at school. He expresses his hurt feelings about Jack and declares he hates school. Via manages to convince Auggie to continue going to school; she tells him that facing obstacles is simply part of life and by doing so himself, he would prove how grown up he is. When Auggie returns to school, he confides in Summer who promises to keep it confidential. Jack, unaware he was overheard, is confused at Auggie’s sudden distance. He questions Summer, who keeps her promise and only provides a hint: Bleeding Scream. Jack doesn’t immediately understand what it means, but is riddled with guilt once he realizes Auggie heard all the awful things he said. Per his usual unpleasantness, Julian calls Auggie a freak and that is the final straw for Jack. Tired of all his nastiness, Jack punches Julian. He is only suspended the two days leading up to winter break. Over break, Jack finally apologizes to Auggie, and the two make up. Once school resumes, Jack and Auggie find out from Charlotte that most of the fifth grade has formed alliances.
The majority side with Julian, as he spent the break turning other male students against Jack. Auggie and Summer, as well as Reid, Max G., and Max W., never forsake him. Julian writes cruel notes and places them in their lockers, while Julian’s mother begins expressing her opinion that Auggie doesn’t belong at Beech Prep publicly. The situation improves slightly overtime. Jack and Auggie write notes of their own to place in Julian’s locker, and some of the students become tired of Julian’s antics. Mr. Tushman, the rest of the faculty, and most of the parents disagree with Mrs. Albans. Via’s boyfriend, Justin, even intervenes when he witness a group of kids bullying Jack. The biggest change in dynamics, however, occurs on a field trip. The students travel to a nature reserve for a weekend camping trip. Jack and Auggie wonder off during an outdoor movie and find themselves in the cornfield where they encounter students from another school. The seventh graders, especially one named Eddie, are viciously cruel to Auggie because of his appearance; they call him Gollum, Freddy Krueger, among other names. Jack defends him and tries to push his way through, but the older students won’t let them pass. Other students from Beecher Prep hear the commotion and investigate. Henry, Amos and Miles, members of Julian’s pack, also defend Auggie. The situation escalates when Eddie gets physical by grabbing and pulling Auggie down to the ground. Amos rams into Eddie to prevent further injury to Auggie and so they could escape. Henry grabs a hold of Auggie to help him run with the others. When they finally stop, the students rejoice in surviving the incident with high fives, even with Auggie. They befriend him and vow they will always defend him. Auggie is happy as he is now accepted by his
classmates. The school year ends with Auggie attending his fifth grade graduation. He is awarded the Henry Ward Beecher award in honor of his strength of character and receives a standing ovation. Afterwards, Auggie willingly allows photos to be taken of him, something he used to hate, with the many people who want him in their pictures. With all that has passed in the year, Auggie is grateful his parents enrolled him in school.
They all immediately judged him because of his race. Wes knew he would not be able to fit in with the other kids even if he tried. Had Wes tried to include himself in friend groups at school, he would have to face rejection as well as embarrassment. Wes did not want to be chagrined and so he separated himself from the other kids by having an interest in Ms. Tretheway. The narrator did not agree with Wes when he said that Ms. Tretheway "was so beautiful". The narrator was one of the bystanders who watched the other kids tease Wes, occasionally joining in as well. Everyone excluded Wes throughout high school and by then he accepted that but when he gets voted as best all-around student he admits that he "was so happy [he] could believe anything.” (Buckler, 115) Wes believed that he was finally getting included with the others, he had hope and anticipation. In the end, he was let down and avoided which led to the incident in the basement. Not everyone finds it hard to fit in but those who do may struggle with the pressures of society for
Gene symbolizes inner war, while Finny symbolizes a sense of peace. Gene is the jealous one in the friendship, and he is also the one to immediately jump to conclusions. Finny is a little stubborn and manipulative, but he tries his hardest to be a good person. An example to prove this statement is when Gene suddenly assumed that Finny was trying to sabotage his achievements during school. When Gene reacted to this by being jealous of Finny, it showed that he was the type to make assumptions off of little factual evidence. Gene’s jealousy and hatred towards Finny resulted in him purposefully inflicting harm on Finny. Finny is the type of boy to try and talk himself out of anything, making him very manipulative and liked around Devon. The book causes the reader to believe that Finny was liked by most of his classmates and his teachers, this giving him an advantage when he tried to get out of trouble. The book gives us many examples of this. One being when Finny was late because of jumping off of the limb, and another when he talked himself out of trouble for wearing a pink shirt and a tie as a belt.
Throughout this semester, I have gained a abundance of information on genetics that I never knew, but reading the book "Mendel 's Dwarf" did make it a little bit more difficult for me to understand genetics. After looking back at my notes I remembered early in the semester our professor discussing the condition that Dr. Benedict Lambert suffers from which is Achondroplasia(dwarfism). Achondroplasia is condition of short limbs, usually in arms and legs, the torso and head size is majority of the time normal. Simon Mawer describe Dr. Lambert body as "His body is not normal, his is not normal, his limbs are not normal. He possesses a massive forehead and blunt, puglike features. His nose is stove in at the bridge, his mouth and jaw protrude. His
From the time that the boys land on the island, both a power struggle and the first signs of the boys' inherent evil, Piggy's mockery, occur. After blowing the conch and summoning all the boys to come for an assembly, an election is held. "I ought to be chief , said Jack with simple arrogance, because I'm chapter chorister and head boy"(Golding 22). After Ralph is elected Chief, Jack envies his position and constantly struggles for power with Ralph throughout the rest of the novel, convincing the rest of the boys to join his tribe rather than to stay with Ralph. Also, soon after the boys arrive at the island, Piggy, a physically weak and vulnerable character, is mocked and jeered at by the other boys. After trying to recount all of the liluns' names, Piggy is told to "Shut up, Fatty," by Jack Merridew. Ralph remarks by saying, "He's not Fatty. His real name's Piggy." All of the boys on the island, except for Piggy, laugh and make themselves more comfortable at Piggy's expense. "A storm of laughter arose and even the tiniest child joined in. For a moment the boys were a closed circuit of sympathy with Piggy outside."(Golding 21). The boys instinctively become more comfortable with one another after Piggy's mockery and create a bond, leaving Piggy on the outside.
The book starts with a man, who is mentally retarded, writing in a journal about them using him in a surgery used to change him for the better. This mans name is Charlie Gordon. He is the kind of man who works hard to achieve only little accomplishments and never gives up. He desperately wants to become smart so he can communicate and live just like everyone else does. Charlie wants this operation so he can be smart and prove to everyone he isn't like he used to be.
surgery can be interpreted as a humanly constructed heaven, and when in this room, Aylmer is God.
Meanwhile, Thomas learns more about the Glade. He learns that the Gladers have been trying to solve the Maze for two years and that the Grievers sting can cause you to recall memories from the past. The process is painstaking and is dreaded by other gladers. He feels oddly connected to the new girl and also befriends a young and enthusiastic (if slightly annoying) Glader named Chuck. He also befriends a boy called Newt. On the other hand, he strikes up a somewhat negative relationship with Gally, who thinks suspiciously of Thomas and claims that he has seen him, after he was stung by a Griever, in a process known as the Changing. Thomas also feels an inexplicable urge to be a Runner, the people who explore, map out, and try to find a way out of the Maze.
He uses many different symbols, such as the conch, Piggy 's glasses, and the fire to show the theme that evil lies within everyone. The readers notice, throughout the novel, a change in the way the boys act. At the beginning of the novel they are well civilized boys but as their fear grows and without guidance their savagery begins to grow also. The use of symbols help show this change in the boys. Golding writes, “Ralph wept for the end of innocence, the darkness of man 's heart, and the fall through the air of the true, wise friend called Piggy”(225). Every person is capable of
She spreads print outs of all the pages in the book around the school. When the bell rings everyone sees the pages and the whole school turns into chaos. All the girls are called into a assembly to talk about the book. During assembly girls are told to right down on a card a rumor they have spread, or something there sorry about and apologize. Gretchen being herself puts on her card “I’m sorry everyones so jealous, I can’t help that I’m popular.”. When Janis is up she spills the beans about the mean games Cady did to Regina. Regina freaks out and runs out of the school. Cady chasing after her tries to apologize but Regina only gets more angry at her, as she's running to her car a bus flies by and hits
The Web. The Web. 10 Mar 2014. The "Cleft Lip and Cleft Palate." Monroe Carell Jr..
The character that I choose is Piggy and the theme that can be reveal from this character is bullying. As I see that throughtout charpter one to chapter four, he is the only boy who is not accept as part of the boys’ group. Even though he has many good ideas such as making a list of the boys on the island, creating a sundial, and building the shelter before start the fire. In fact, the bullying start everytime Jack meet Piggy and it seem to get more savage: Jack change from verbal to physical attack. For instance, in the beginning, Jack yell at piggy. As the time pass, he hits Piggy face: Piggy’s glasses break and he cannot see things clearly.Morover, he is the only one who not allow to eat the pig because Jack say that he does not hunt it;
What if you had a rare face deformity, would you prefer to be homeschooled or mainstreamed? The Wonder by R.J. Palacio is a emotional, creative, and inspired by an experience when she had a chance encounter with an extraordinary child. In the book, Wonder, the boy, Auggie was homeschooled, because he had rare face deformity. When Auggie was middle-school age, his parents Isabel and Nate decided it was time for him to go to mainstream school. At first Auggie did not make a lot of friends, because of his differences and facial features. Then one of the kids in the class named Jack befriended Auggie, because his mom told him to be kind to Auggie. In this essay, the writer shares about a rare facial deformity, personal story, and acceptance.
The boys took off their clothes, their hair grow longer like animals, Jack's group paint their faces with red and white, and they dance a conventional war dance. The beast within them arrives and gains strength in them with brutal behaviors. Barbanity within them influence boys to kill Simon who was the only one realizes the evil in a man. Golding describes their savageness for the most in the chapter 11. Ruthless Roger murdered Piggy, and he acuminates his spear. At the end of the novel, civilized society by Ralph and Piggy has been changed to inhuman society by Roger and Jack who tried to kill Ralph by their imposition towards their members. From the contexts in the novel, "Ralph wept for the end of innocence, the darkness of man's heart, and the fall through the air of the true, wise friend called Piggy" when Ralph is rescued at the end of chapter 12. This scene makes emphatic to the readers because Ralph is not an emotional character except when he conflicts with Jack. He is more fair-minded person who always tries to look for the group goal and ways to get rescued, but he wept
August Pullman, from the book,“Wonder”, written by R.J. Palacio, is 10 years old and lives with his mother, father, sister Via, and dog Daisy. August was born with an abnormal face which led him to be made fun of. Because his mother wanted to protect him, she homeschooled him through 4th grade. Now at the age of 10, going into 5th grade, August, otherwise known as Auggie, would be attending public school for the first time. Auggie, has many important traits including his sense of humor, bravery, and kindness.
School started. The protagonists' life seems to get back to normal way. The children's interest in the Radley Place is reduced. When passing by there, Scout feels a twinge of remorse, rather than terrified. She begins to call Boo Radley's real name, Arthur Radley. She understands Boo's kindness and reconsiders her prejudice. Jem has also learned that. He no longer plays childish games over there.