Running head: WONDER 1

Wonder: Overcoming Disability

Connor J. Hall

Virginia Wesleyan University

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Abstract

The film, Wonder, is about a 10-year-old boy living in Brooklyn, New York named August

“Auggie” Pullman. Auggie has Treacher Collins syndrome, a rare medical facial deformity.

Treacher Collins syndrome causes downward sloping eyes, vision problems, small or missing

ears, hearing problems, underdeveloped or missing cheekbones, cleft palate, and breathing

problems. As a result, Auggie has undergone 27 different surgeries in order to see, smell, speak,

and hear without a hearing aid. Throughout his life, Auggie was home-schooled, but his parents

enroll him into private school for his fifth-grade year. Auggie immediately finds himself being

bullied by many of his classmates because of his different appearance except for Jack, a fellow

classmate that Auggie has become close friends with. On Halloween, Auggie is betrayed by

Jack as he overhears Jack say, “If I looked like Auggie, I would kill myself”. Hurt by his mean

words, Auggie wants to quit school as he has lost his best friend and another classmate, Julian,

and his friends continue to pick on Auggie. This paper will discuss how Auggie overcomes his

challenges, the realism of Auggie’s condition, Treacher Collins syndrome perception to society,

and how Auggie is affected physically, mentally, socially, and emotionally throughout the film.

Keywords: Treacher Collins syndrome, bullying, treatment

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Wonder: Overcoming Disability

To fully understand the problem and research question, it is imperative to know the plot

of the movie. The main character of the film, August “Auggie” Pullman, is a 10-year-old boy

who has Treacher Collins syndrome. As a result, Auggie has undergone 27 different surgeries in

order to see, smell, speak, and hear without a hearing aid. For the entirety of his life, Auggie had

been homeschooled until his fifth-grade year, when his parents decided to enroll him into

Beecher Prep, a private middle school. Before the school year begins, the principal, Mr.

Tushman, has three students take Auggie on a tour on the school. One of the students is named

Jack, and him and Auggie quickly become best friends while Auggie is bullied by another one of

the students in the tour group named Julian and the majority of the student body. On Halloween,

students at Beecher Prep were allowed to come to school dressed in costume. Auggie decides to

come dressed in a Ghostface mask and cloak so know one could see his face and, in turn, make

fun of him. Not knowing that Auggie was dressed in the mask, Jack joins in making fun of

Auggie with Julian and makes the comment that “he would kill himself if he looked like

Auggie”. Auggie overhears this without Jack knowing and stops hanging out with him. Auggie

quickly makes a new friend in a girl named Summer. Jack asks Summer why Auggie has quit

hanging out with him and she tells him. Realizing what he has done, Jack partners with Auggie

for the science fair instead of Julian, causing Julian to call Auggie a “freak”. Jack and Julian

fight causing Jack to get in trouble until the principal hears about the situation. Julian is then

suspended and Auggie wins the Henry Ward Beecher Medal for silent courage.

Treacher Collins Syndrome

Treacher Collins syndrome, also known as mandibulofacial dysostosis, is a hereditary

condition that causes facial deformity. The condition is caused by “mutations in the TCOF1,
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POLR1C, or POLR1D gene” which code for proteins that are essential “in the prenatal

development of bones and tissues in the face” (“Children’s Hospital”, 2014). As a result, those

with Treacher Collins Syndrome such as Auggie have a very distinct facial appearance. People

with this disability have vision problems as a result “downward sloping eyes, slight notching of

the lower lids, and underdeveloped or missing eyebrow bones” (“Children’s Hospital”, 2014).

They also have hearing problems as a result of “small or missing ears, no ear canal, and missing

bones in the ear” (“Children’s Hospital”, 2014). Most concerning, they oftentimes have trouble

talking, swallowing, breathing, and sleeping because of “underdeveloped cheekbones,

underdeveloped maxilla or mandible, cleft palate, wide mouth, and tongue displacement”

(“Children’s Hospital”, 2014). The diagnosis can be made either before birth or directly after

“based on physical appearance” and DNA testing to determine if the specific genes affected by

Treacher Collins syndrome have been mutated. Treatment for Treacher Collins syndrome varies

case to case depending on “the severity of the deformity and long-term needs of the patient”

(“Children’s Hospital”, 2014). All treatment requires surgery of some sort; however, some issues

such as trouble breathing requires immediate attention while other issues can be addressed later

in life after certain developmental stages. The quality of life for someone with Treacher Collins

syndrome is dramatically lowered because of the vision, hearing, and breathing problems as a

result of their condition as well as the surgeries oftentimes required and the mental, social, and

emotional effects because of how they are treated for looking different than others.

Physical, Mental, Social, and Emotional Effects and Limitations

The physical effects of someone with Treacher Collins syndrome are very obvious as they often

have downward sloping eyes, small or missing ears, underdeveloped cheekbones, and cleft

palate. This was portrayed very accurately and with great realism in the film as Auggie
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displayed all these characteristics. These differences cause vision, hearing, swallowing,

breathing, and sleeping problems; however, the most damaging and lasting perhaps are the

mental, social, and emotional ones. Mentally, someone with Treacher Collins syndrome would

maybe have low self esteem as they are unhappy with their own appearance despite the disability

having no effect on their intellectual or cognitive ability. For example, in the film realistically as

Auggie is oftentimes seen wearing a space helmet because that is escape from reality and nobody

can see how he looks. The mind is a very powerful tool and this poor self-image can affect

someone socially and emotionally as well. Those with Treacher Collins are more skeptical to go

out in public and engage in social situations because, again, they have a poor self-image and

would be afraid of people staring. In the film, Auggie is terrified of going to his new school for

this very reason, and even though he found friends in Jack and Summer, people like Julian made

him dislike his new school and affected him greatly emotionally. Auggie was bullied throughout

the film by Julian and his friends, and then even by Julian’s parents at the end of the film when

Julian’s mom admits she cut him out of their class picture because of how he looked and because

she felt her son “shouldn’t have to look at that”. Despite the cruelty of this, it is very realistic

and really took a toll on Auggie as he wanted to quit going to when he heard Jack say, “he’d kill

himself if he looked like Auggie”. Auggie would prove to prevail with the support of his family

and his few friends.

Prejudices, Discrimination, Rejection, and Feelings as a Result

There is definitely prejudice, discrimination, and rejection of those with obvious

craniofacial deformity like Auggie. A study done of the stigmatism surrounding those with

Treacher Collins Syndrome was done that involved 185 adolescents with facial differences.

Participants, at the beginning of the study, were asked “to report stigma experiences that
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occurred within the previous week” (Loewenstein, 2008). The results were shocking as “35%

reported that they noticed people staring at their face, 29% overheard people say something

about their face, 12% felt excluded from peer activities because of their appearance, 31% either

got into a fight or were teased about how their face looked, 38% reported discrimination in the

workplace, and 71% reported discrimination in social situations” (Loewenstein, 2008). This is

factual prove that a disability someone has no control over can affect their life in more ways than

physical problems. Prejudices and discrimination make it hard for them to find jobs and engage

is social situations. Luckily there are laws in place to protect people with genetic differences.

Legislation and Acceptance

There are several pieces of legislation that protect people with disabilities including

Treacher Collins syndrome. The people mentioned in the study are protected by the U.S Equal

Employment Opportunity Commission which can be found in Title I of the American Disabilities

Act (ADA). This prohibits “private employers, state and local governments, employment

agencies and labor unions from discriminating against qualified individuals with disabilities”

(“Americans,” n.d.). Legislation facilitating those with disabilities wasn’t included in the movie,

but acceptance of people with Treacher Collins syndrome can be facilitated effectively and

efficiently through media such as this film in which people with Treacher Collins syndrome are

portrayed as normal people, just the same as everyone else by educating a mass audience through

portraying the condition realistically.

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References

Americans with Disabilities Act. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.dol.gov/general/topic/

disability/ada.

Children's Hospital. (2014, May 12). Treacher Collins Syndrome. Retrieved from

https://www.chop.edu/conditions-diseases/treacher-collins-syndrome

Loewenstein, J., Sutton, E., Guidotti, R., Shapiro, K., Ball, K., McLean, D., & Biesecker, B.

(2008, June 15). The art of coping with a craniofacial difference: helping others through

"Positive Exposure". Retrieved from

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3113488/
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