Wonders Difference Between Jack And Maggie

My initial response to reading Wonder was centered on my beliefs about the difference between what it means to be nice and what it means to be kind. Western society is socially nice and plagued with false pleasantries, but often lacks kindness. According to Merriam-Webster, the definition of nice is “pleasant; agreeable; satisfactory.” Whereas the same source defines kind as “having or showing a gentle nature and a desire to help others: wanting and liking to do good things and to bring happiness to others.” The difference is one can be disingenuous; nice, and the other is grounded in a sense of benevolence; kind. This is characteristic of our society as a whole. We often say such things as “he is such a nice person” but seldom say “he is
Jack personified the inner turmoil we all struggle with in regards to societal acceptance versus our own belief system. When the character of Jack is first introduced, through the eyes of Auggie, he is portrayed as a genuinely kind child who easily adjusts to Auggie’s disfigurement. He and Auggie seemingly become friends and a bond begins to form. This bond helps acclimate Auggie to being in a school setting for the first time. At first Jack, like most of the characters, are stunned by Auggie’s appearance but Jack soon adjusts and realizes Auggie is just a “cool” kid. Further into the story, Auggie realizes that the bond he and Jack had formed is questionable and that the principal had instructed Jack to be Auggie’s friend. Additionally, Auggie over hears Jack telling the antagonist in the story, Julian, disparaging remarks about Auggie. This conversation takes place on Halloween, unfortunately, Auggie’s favorite day and soon sets into play a series of events that serve as the basis of transformation for several of the characters. In addition, it crushes Auggie’s spirit and seemingly destroys the relationship between the two boys. During the chapter being told from Summer’s perspective, Jack is provided a clue to the reason why Auggie will no longer speak with him. The following chapter, entitled Jack, the reader is finally given Jack’s struggle with his own acceptance by his classmates and how Auggie’s friendship threatens to destroy his popularity among the cool kids. The interesting component with Jack’s struggle is that he is also battling acceptance, just as Auggie does. It is a mirror into how we, as human beings, battle with some type of insecurity that separates us from others. Ultimately, Jack has the epiphany and realizes what he has done and in fit of rage punches Julian. This I believe to be a metaphor for punching his own insecurities. A new groundwork is formed and soon the relationship between