August Pullman

## Auggie

*"I know I'm not an ordinary ten-year-old kid. I mean, sure, I do ordinary things. I eat ice cream. I ride my bike. I play ball. I have an Xbox. Stuff that makes me ordinary, I guess. And I feel ordinary inside. But I know ordinary kids don't make other ordinary kids run away screaming in playgrounds. I know ordinary kids don't get stared at wherever they go."*
— August Pullman describing himself

**August Matthew "Auggie" Pullman** (b. 10 October 2002) is the main protagonist in *Wonder*. He was born with a facial deformity, a combination of Treacher Collins syndrome and a hemifacial microsomia, which prevented him from going to a mainstream school up until the fifth grade when he enrolled at Beecher Prep. Though he struggled at first to show his classmates that despite his appearance, he was really an ordinary kid, he eventually succeeded in proving that there was more to him than meets the eye. He is the only son of Isabel and Nate Pullman and the younger brother of Olivia Pullman.

## Biography

#### Birth

Auggie was born August Matthew Pullman October 10th, 2002. Before he was born, no one knew what he was going to look like, and therefore no one expected anything out of the ordinary. His mother had his elder sister, Olivia, in 1998, and saw no reason to run any tests. In August of 2002, 2 months before he was born, the doctors realized something was wrong with his face and dismissed it as a cleft palate. However, it turns out that he had both Treacher Collins syndrome and hemifacial microsomia, and his doctor predicted he would not survive. However, he survived the night and was deemed a "medical miracle".

## Personality

August is quite shy, and happy most of the time. He is creative and has a passion for Star Wars and outer space. His favorite planet is Pluto. August is also extremely sensitive and sometimes insecure about his appearance, especially when kids insult him about his face. August is also highly intelligent, and would be considered a science and astronomy fanatic. He enjoys learning, and enjoyed playing Star Wars games with Christopher (who was revealed to have moved away 3 years ago) when he was younger. August shows much affection to those he loves the most.

## Appearance

"His eyes are about an inch below where they should be on his face, almost to halfway down his cheeks. They slant downward at an extreme angle, almost like diagonal slits that someone cut into his face, and the left one is noticeably lower than the right one. They bulge outward because his eye cavities are too shallow to accommodate them. The top eyelids are always halfway closed, like he's on the verge of sleeping. The lower eyelids sag so much they almost look like a piece of invisible string is pulling them downward: you can see the red part on the inside, like they're almost inside out. He doesn't have eyebrows or eyelashes. His nose is disproportionately big for his face, and kind of fleshy. His head is pinched in on the sides where the ears should be, like someone used giant pliers and crushed the middle part of his face. He doesn't have cheekbones. There are deep creases running down both sides of his nose to his mouth, which gives him a waxy appearance. Sometimes people assume he's been burned in a fire: his features look like they've been melted, like the drippings on the side of a candle. Several surgeries to correct his palate have left a few scars around his mouth, the most noticeable one being a jagged gash running from the middle of his upper lip to his nose. His upper teeth are small and splay out. He has a severe overbite and an extremely undersized jawbone. He has a very small chin. When he was very little, before a piece of his hip bone was surgically implanted into his lower jaw, he really had no chin at all. His tongue would just hang out of his mouth with nothing underneath to block it. Thankfully, it's better now." - Via, Part Two

## Pets

### **(Darth) Daisy**

The Pullmans' first dog. It was revealed the dad bought the dog off a homeless man for $20 and taken home to be washed. August cared deeply about Daisy. She cuddled with him and cheered him up when he was upset. However, she passed away as she was an old dog.

### **Bear**

The Pullmans' second dog. He is described as a small, black puppy who is adopted by the family after Daisy passes on. August is seen to develop a close bond with him as well, giving the pup his name.

## R.J. Palacio on August

*"I'm not sure why I found it so easy to get into the head and heart of this ten-year old boy. I wasn't born with what he has, and I don't know anyone who was. In that way Auggie is unlike anyone I've ever known. And yet in just about every other way he's like every other child in the world. So while I can't know what it's really like to walk in Auggie's shoes, I can try and put myself in his situation, and that of his sister and his parents and his friends. I've always loved the underdogs of the world. And I've always admired those who can pull themselves up by their bootstraps and march on. I love Auggie's pluck most of all."*