Characters views of August

As the characters’ views of Auggie change over time in R.J. Palicio’s Wonder, they influence Auggie’s opinions and emotions, teach us lessons, and impact the events in the story. 

When the book began the characters had mixed views of Auggie. Some characters loved and adored Auggie, like Mom and Via, but others did not like him very much, like Julian, Amos, and Miles. In the first few months of school Auggie’s classmates ignored him, stared at him, and said hurtful comments about him. Even his thought to be best friend Jack didn’t like him. 

On p77 Jack said when he thought he wasn't listening, “He always follows me around. What am I supposed to do?” and “If I looked like him, seriously, I think I’d kill myself.” Auggie didn’t have many friends at school, or people that were kind to him. All of these things had a huge negative effect on Auggie’s feelings. He tried to push it off and not think about it, but it eventually got to him.

On p77 and 79 Auggie narrated, “The tears were so thick in my eyes I could barely see” and “I ended up in the second-floor bathroom. I locked the door and just cried for I don’t know how long.” This shows that Auggie is hurt. All of the negativity that Auggie receives also makes Auggie feel worse about himself. 

On p60 Auggie asks, “Why do I have to be so ugly, Mommy?” Although Auggie had those few people who liked him, like Via, the negativity outnumbered the kindness he received and had a bad effect on him

Opinions then start changing about Auggie into positive. On p 210  Auggie narrated, “I found a little Uglydoll keychain sitting on my chair with a nice little note from Maya that said: For the nicest Auggie Doll in the world! xo Maya.” Right after that Auggie stated, “Six months ago stuff like that would never have happened, but now it happens more and more. . . People have been really nice.” The actions of the characters were making Auggie feel better and more confident about himself.

A while after these events Auggie got bullied by some kids from another school, but was defended by Amos, Miles, and Henry. Because popular kids stood up for Auggie, people thought of Auggie as normal. On p282 Auggie said “And now that they’d protected me, I was different to them. It was like I was one of them.” Auggie finally got an idea of what being normal is. He felt proud of who he was, and didn’t fear what people would think of him.

Auggie's classmates first met him they judged him on his looks rather than his personality. Thus meaning people would look at him differently and ignore him, however this all changed. If the characters’ views of Auggie never changed, then Auggie would still feel bad about himself. The negativity would have kept building up to the point where Auggie might have dropped out of school. These events in the book taught the reader an important lesson, to not judge a book by its cover. Wonder’s side characters judged Auggie by his deformities and thought he was a freak, which impacted August’s self-esteem and opinions. But only after getting to know August did the other characters understand who he really was.