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August: North Pole
Themes
and Colors
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Wonder, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
The Difficulty of Kindness
Independence and Growing Up
Status and Bullying
Identity
Parenting and Guidance
Summary
Analysis
February is the worst month for "the war." Julian leaves notes in August's locker that call him a freak and an orc, but August refuses to report the notes. Summer, August, and Jack leave notes in Julian's locker, but theirs aren't mean. They make up a character named Beulah and leave love notes from her. Julian, Miles, and Henry also do things like steal Jack's gym shorts.
By refusing to report the notes from Julian, August starts taking his adolescent independence too far—it is Mr. Tushman's job to shut down bullying like this. The fact that Mr. Tushman isn't trying other means of helping August suggests he's unaware of what's going on.
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All the girls but Savanna's group are neutral, but by March, people start to get sick of it. Amos even stops Julian from pouring pencil shavings into Jack's backpack. Finally, Julian starts spreading rumors that Jack hired a hit man to "get" him, Miles, and Henry. Nobody believes him and they even start making fun of him. By the end of March, everyone stops playing the Plague and lots of people will even accept pencils from August. One day, August sees Maya writing a note on Uglydoll stationery and he jokes that Uglydolls are based on him. The girls laugh and the next day, August finds an Uglydoll keychain from Maya on his chair. People are also pretty nice about August's new hearing aids.
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