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August: Daisy's Toys
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
Very early in the morning, August wakes up and crawls into bed next to Mom. He asks about her hand and if Via is ashamed of him, and he apologizes for his words at dinner. Mom seems tired and tells August to go to sleep, but August asks if Daisy is with Grans in heaven. He wants to know if people look the same in heaven and if not, how people recognize each other. Mom explains that nobody forgets who they love, and you don't need to see to love. August wonders how it'd feel to not have his face matter when he's in heaven and thinks it never mattered to Daisy.
Even though August may have behaved maturely last night by handling his grief on his own and putting himself to bed, getting in bed with his parents makes it clear that August is still a child in need of parental guidance. By reminding the reader that looks didn't matter at all to Daisy, the novel holds her up as one character who was unconditionally kind to all and saw August how he wanted to be seen—as just a normal kid.
Themes
