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August: How I Came to Life
Themes
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
Early in the spring, August's family visits Christopher and his family. When August and Christopher come inside for snacks, August overhears Mom and Lisa, Christopher's mom, talking about August going to school in the fall. Mom seems as though she didn't mean for August to hear, but she asks August if he's ready to go to school. August and Dad both say no, and August sits in Mom's lap. Mom reminds him that she's struggling to teach him fractions, but Dad insists that August doesn't have to go to school. August thinks that his parents will surely fight about this later, and he hopes that Dad will win, but he also secretly agrees that Mom is terrible at fractions.
August's actions and thought processes in this chapter illustrate that he's hovering between childhood and adulthood. He sits in his mom's lap like he's a child (with the goal of encouraging her to continue seeing him this way), while his admission that Mom is actually bad at fractions shows that he's capable of thinking about things from a more mature standpoint.
Themes
