“Wonder” By RJ Palacio

Poem

I am kindhearted

but deserted.

With a smile that is hideous,

I can’t help but be curious

If I was normal, what would I be?

Maybe the astronaut in my dreams.

I am fragile and very weak,

Because everywhere I go, I get called a freak.

I was only born with facial deformities,

The rest of me is as normal as it could be.

My favorite time is Halloween,

Because I get to cover my face so it can’t be seen,

 Well, I guess not this year,

After my best friend Jack left me in tears.

I feel bad for my good friend Jack,

Being my friend meant he can’t go back,

To the life he made,

And his best mates were taken away.

It’s time for the nature retreat,

Where I get cruelly beat.

They call me an alien, or Gollum,

Just like when school started in Autumn.

But something unusual happened,

I wasn’t abandoned.

In fact, three other kids came,

And told them my real name.

Auggie

This poem was written to describe the character August Pullman (Auggie) in the book “Wonder” By RJ Palacio.

This poem starts out pretty depressing and it eventually gets to a better mood, Auggie is his nickname and he is a smart kid that looks very weird and he gets made fun of that. He doesn’t like to be like this and he constantly thinks the person he wants to be, an astronaut. He knows that he is different and he knows he’s just like other kids on the inside, for example, “And I feel ordinary. Inside. But I know ordinary kids don’t make other ordinary kids run away screaming in playgrounds. I know ordinary kids don’t get stared at wherever they go.” (Page 1). This quote tells people that he is just as ordinary as any other person on the planet inside, but he gets judged by his appearances outside. Auggie really likes Halloween because his costume covers his face so this is a day he’s happy in school, but he overheard his best friend Jack saying to his friends that he’s only friends with Auggie because the teacher told him to be. That ruined his whole day and left him in tears again.

That’s the rising action, in the climax what happened was students went on a trip and during the trip, Auggie and Jack went outside to pee because the line for the bathroom was too long. While they were out there some 7th graders from a different school came and saw Auggie. They called him Gollum or Alien. which made him kind of scared because they were pretty big and he wasn’t able to fight them off. Luckily three other kids came and helped him fight them off. Although Auggie lost his hearing aids, he was amazed that his classmates actually helped him, and he was finally accepted by his classmates. This made him feel very emotional. Auggie thinks way too much about how other people care about him “”Funny how sometimes you worry a lot about something and it turns out to be nothing.” (Page 215). This quote really marks a transition of the character from being disliked and judged to being accepted as a normal person in school because he realizes that he thinks way too much about his hearing aids and people actually care about how he hears now. People no longer negatively react to what Auggie looks like when they walk past. So far Auggie develops from a child that is scared and hates his appearance to being proud he worrys less about his appearance.

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