Wonder by R.J. Palacio

Wonder by R.J. Palacio

 

“I won’t describe what I look like.  Whatever you’re thinking, it’s probably worse.”

                This quote is spoken by the narrator who is also the main character, August

Pullman, an eleven year old, fifth grader in the book Wonder by R.J. Palacio.  What struck

me as a major theme in this book is August’s struggle to be accepted and loved despite his

physical differences in the community of his peers who are middle schoolers faced with their

own social challenges and peer pressure to accept a boy with extreme facial deformity.

                R.J. Palacio allows us to understand different characters perspective and feelings

for August by switching narrators throughout the book including his sister, his mom, his best

friend, his dad, his classmate and others.  The characters perspective come together to

form a picture of this community’s struggle with empathy, compassion and finally

acceptance.

                I’ve read other books about middle schoolers who had a difficult time fitting in

because they were different, such as the character Joe in both The Misfits and Totally Joe

by James Howe and Melody in Out of My Mind by Sharon Draper, and though these

characters’ struggle for acceptance was great, none of them reached the depths of pain that

I felt for the character August Pullman.  What comes through is that those people that allow

themselves the chance to get close to Auggie and to get beyond the gruesome deformity in

his face, find a bright, funny, warm and caring person who impacts their life in a very

positive way.  Every middle schooler should read this book as it will make them think about

being a better person to those around them who may not fit in with the norm and how those

people should be treated.

Discrimination in Revolt of the Evil Fairies

Discrimination in “Revolt of the Evil Fairies”

Jacob Sutton 708

In the short story, “Revolt of the Evil Fairies” by Ted Postman, a young African American boy with a dark complexion tells the story of how African American children in a small “colored” school in Kentucky are discriminated against because of their skin color.  The annual play at the Booker T. Washington Colored Grammar School of Prince Charming and Sleeping Beauty was presented as “the modern mortality play of conflict between the forces of good and evil.”  However, the real conflict is the evil of discrimination that both this boy and the community share as a result of being African American and also African American with dark skin.

            From the very beginning of the story, the reader begins to feel the unequal treatment of the black people in Hopkinsville Kentucky.  Blacks are allowed to use the Cooper Opera House but as the text notes, “the first two rows of the orchestra were always reserved for our white friends, and our leading colored citizens sat right behind them – with an empty row intervening of course.”   “The yallers” had a lighter skin tone and were the more privileged in the black community.  Being closer to white gave African Americans in this community more opportunities and opportunities led to a better life.  In the text it states, “The yallers had the best of everything.”  It goes on to explain that the yallers were doctors, lawyers and insurance salesman for example.  Blacks with darker skin had none of these positions and none of these opportunities for a better life.  They were considered to be the lowest class citizen.

  This gives the reader a sense of the kind of discrimination that was used against African Americans during the time in history when this story took place.

            There are different, but similar forms of discrimination within this story.  The narrator of the story is a young boy who is denied the role of Prince Charming, a role he has desperately wanted for years, but that role is given to the “yallers” (African Americans with a lighter skin tone).  In the text, he states, “I made the best grades in my class, I was the leading debater, the scion of a respected family in the community.  But I could never be Prince Charming because I was black.”  What he basically means is that he would never get the role because his skin tone was darker than some of the others.  Even within the black community, being closer to white was considered better.  Being closer to white gave you the opportunity to be Prince Charming.  Being a darker skinned African American got you the role as the evil fairy or a part with no speaking lines.  This mirrors the discrimination that blacks in Hopkinsville experienced by the white community.

                        Discrimination in “The Revolt of the Evil Fairies” is particularly horrific because blacks who are lighter skinned see themselves as better and superior and more deserving than their darker neighbors.  The yallers show the same discrimination that they have felt from white people on those from their own community with a darker skin tone.  Martin Luther King Jr. once said,

Discrimination is a hellhound that gnaws at Negroes in every waking

 moment of their lives to remind them that the lie of their inferiority is

accepted as truth in the society dominating them.

In this story, the dark skinned blacks feel a kind of discrimination that “gnaws” at their very soul.  The narrator feels this intensely and understands that his own community practices the same kind of discrimination as the white community does toward the blacks.  He teaches us that when a group believes that they are superior to others, they put themselves in a position of power over those less able.  This kind of unequal treatment creates feelings of weakness and inferiority.  The narrator teaches us that there is no truth in discrimination – there are only judgments and opinions that attempt to define a person or group.