Wonder: Feel-good Book and a Movie to binge
Wonder is a feel-good book and movie to binge on your free time for a perfect escape. We all have that one movie or book that make us feel good whenever we re-watch or reread them.
Wonder: Feel-good Book and a Movie to binge
The book and movie
Wonder is a novel written by R.J. Palacio published in 2012 and gained significant popularity, especially among young readers. “Wonder” tells the story of a young boy named August Pullman, who has a facial difference due to a genetic condition.
The story follows Auggie as he enters fifth grade and faces various challenges and experiences both at school and in his personal life. “Wonder” received critical acclaim for its heartfelt storytelling and has been adapted into a film released in 2017.
In over 300 pages, the novel perfectly illustrates the different perspectives of each character towards life. We get to see how each character navigate through life’s adversities with kindness and love. The book explores themes of empathy, acceptance, and the power of kindness.
The film adaptation made a fantastic translation of the story from the novel to the big screen. Director Stephen Chbosky along with the writers and producers of the film truly stuck by the source material.
The movie also had the perfect cast line up with Jacob Tremblay as Auggie alongside Owen Wilson and Julia Roberts as Auggie’s parents. The child actors for this film truly breathe life to each character which made the simple storyline interesting and wholesome.
Even though the film drew criticism for its unrealistic depiction of schools in America, it’s still a great book and movie to watch to make us feel more optimistic about love, friendship, and life.
Innocence of children
The story revolves around Auggie and how he deals with his genetic conditions as he enters a new chapter in life. And this is where we see how children develop their own consciousness through the challenges they face.
Along with Auggie, we see other kids in the school that become his friends as well as the not so friendly ones. Here we see the innocence of each of them dealing with a person who is different from them.
However, each child’s reaction towards Auggie’s situation is their upbringing from their parents. Although we do get a glimpse of the negative effects of peer pressure but that’s also because of how children mirror their parents in action.
Of course, we all have an instinct of differentiating good from bad, fundamentally we learn our morals through our parents. The book and movie reminded us of that fact while also reflecting on our parents being also just humans.
All of us, including our parents who we never often see as anything else, are humans trying their best.
How to be kind to everyone
Living in this world is already such a struggle. Having to deal with other people and their problem can be too much so, we tend to become selfish.
However, something that we learn early on is how being kind doesn’t need much effort. And whenever you get a choice between being right and being kind, you should be kind. As much as you are struggling so are the people around you.
Life isn’t measured by who suffers the most but by how memorable we choose it to be through our emotions and the people we stick with. With your own and other’s kindness, the world feels much brighter and hopeful.
Be kind to yourself, that’s a step closer to being kind to others and hopefully, Auggie’s story reminded you of that.
