Remember your first day of high school? For me, being an Indonesian in an Australian high school made it difficult on the first day. The only other friend I made was another Indonesian kid and the fact that we share little in common made it a bit difficult. I made other friends eventually, but that first day was damn rough. Now imagine if you looked like Gollum, but uglier.
This is what August (Auggie for short) had to go through after years and years of homeschooling. He doesn’t even know how school works. His only friends, who he had known since he was very young, have relocated a little bit further, and naturally drifted apart as they make their own friends. When his mother decided it’s time for him to join the folds of the normal children and go to a normal high school, naturally he resisted. But after having met the principal and a couple of the other kids, he decided to give it a go.
Of course, he was met with looks of disgust, whispers behind the back and downright condescension from the troublemakers. But he’s made a couple of friends, and Auggie as physically deformed as he is, has a lot more heart than some Australian breakdancers in the Olympics and as he fosters bonds with his new friends, though initially borne out of pity, the friendships become increasingly genuine as they see Auggie beyond his deformities.
There are some mishaps though. Like how that kid Julian just cannot stop being a cunt, and even targeting those who are close to Auggie, like his friend Jack. Or that time when they went to camp and some seventh graders who’s seen Auggie’s face for the first time decided to bully him and Jack. However, the rescue of their classmates only solidified Auggie’s place at school. For Auggie, school didn’t turn out so bad after all.
Wondering from all angles
It may not have been a new trick, as we jump back and forth between one character’s perspective to another, all from the first person perspective. But given the subject matter, it is an effective technique. Presenting the book from Auggie’s perspective alone may have been fine, but the perception of others on how they react to Auggie and how they come to understand him, to like him, made the novel richer. Call it a gimmick, but it works. The trouble is at times, we couldn’t tell the difference between each voice save maybe for Justin’s who for an inexplicable reason writes in lower case.
But techniques aside, there is a genuine heart to the book which raises valid questions. For example, how would you react? I remember seeing a kid that kinda fit Auggie’s description from an opposing school which played mine in soccer back when I was fifteen. Yeah, that kid was damn ugly. Actually there are a couple of ugly kids in that soccer team and I probably didn’t like them because they somehow always manage to beat us. But if I were their classmates, I would probably show them a bit of respect, maybe be friends with them.
It’s hard to say. Would I be friends with those kids? Maybe, I’ve always found a way to be friends with the underdogs and I’m good with that. They’re usually the most genuine people you’d ever meet. But the fact that the book made me ask this question is a good thing already. And I hope for the young adults who have read the book they would also reflect on what they would do. It is an important question. For those who are physically less privileged, small acts of kindness mean a great deal.
It is also a book which mentioned Christopher Nolan, an Irish poet / novelist (not the famous director) who wrote beautiful poetry and prose with his chin, as this was the few ways he can control his body. He, like Auggie, had his intelligence intact, but his deformity was a barrier between him and the outside world. It is a resonant parallel, except that Christopher Nolan was a real person and his works were largely autobiographical. Sadly, he passed away in 2009, which coincidentally was the day I finished his book that was mentioned in Wonder.
Wonder is a foil from the doom and gloom of another book I just read, Sophie’s Choice, which left me feeling empty and mistrustful of humanity. It is an underdog story from the ultimate underdog. Auggie won’t probably hook up with the hottest girl in school, or win any football scholarships, but it’s not that kind of story. The ending is joyous but much more grounded. The acceptance from those around him trumped these far-fetched happy endings.
