Wednesday, February 4, 2015

Literary Essay


“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our Light, not our Darkness, that most frightens us.” Marianne Williamson helps us understand that we are poweful, and we are able to overcome our own challenges. Auggie is constantly being judged and discriminated my his physical difference. An important idea is the support he gets from his friends and overcoming obstacles in life. In "Wonder" by RJ Palacio, Auggie keeps asking himself the question, "How will I get through school?" I can't imagine what it is like to be Auggie! So, Auggie was always homeschooled, and now he has to go to school. People will judge him and worse, in the end he makes a lot of friends. Marianne Williamson would want Auggie to stay strong. This story tells us the challenge Auggie has to face. But mostly, "Wonder" is about overcoming obstacles in life to grow. (7)

Throughout the story, Auggie faces many obstacles in school. He is like a captive zebra, in a herd of wild horses. Like the zebra, he was babied, and different, but still heading in the same direction and with the same roots. At first Auggie struggled to accommodate to his new life. I guess he just didn't know what to expect! For example, on page 37 in the second paragraph the Palacio writes, "I still kept my head way down… no one sat down next to me." This excerpt shows that Auggie didn't know how to handle getting through his normal school day, yet. And what made it even worse was that no one would sit next to him! Can you even comprehend how that must have been for Auggie?  (7)

Also in the story, Auggie gets constant support from his few friends and family, they help him grow while he overcomes obstacles. He is like a newborn eagle stranded in his nest. Like the eagle, Auggie doesn't know how to metaphorically "fly", he is stuck in his own world, and overcomes his own difficulties. For example, on page 267 the first and second paragraph the author writes, "Yo, dude… and we started walking over to Amos." This shows that people do really care about Auggie, because in this excerpt the most unlikely people- Henry, Miles and Amos- come and help out Auggie when the other kids were bullying him. But Henry, Miles and Amos also bullied him at one point. Why did they help him? Because they cared. They used their strong "wings" to help him fly. That proves that Auggie gets support from his friends. So he grew to become stronger. (11)

By the end of the story Auggie has gotten through school and all of the challenges it had for him. Not only has he overcome obstacles but he has met them head on. These challenges are other kids and classmates, and he has grown to become great friends with them. For example: on page 307-308, Palacio writes, "And the next thing I knew… everyone wanted to get close to me." This shows that all of the people in his class and school have disregarded his differences and now became great friends. Because it is not enough to be friendly, you have to be a friend. Even the"popular" kids came over to him, they wanted Auggie to be in their memories of picture. Like Augie says in the excerpt, "… Everyone wanted to get close to me." (8)


This essay has proven, that overcoming challenges and obstacles makes you grow. And indeed Auggie has grown to a more confident. No more will he fret a school of kids discriminating him. He made it through school! If Auggie decided to continue being homeschooled do you think he would have grown so much? This connects to the real world because we all have to overcome challenges, but sometimes we will need some support doing so. In my life, when I go out on on my own in the "real" world (past college) myself and others will run into problems and obstacles with running our lives. Most of the time those challenges will prepare us for the next one, failure leads to success. But sometimes friends and family will have to help us. Now, as I think of the power of overcoming challenges, I realize that much of what we accomplish in life comes from that and the growth. (10)

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