Part 4- Jack

"We all know his name, though he doesn't know ours. And whenever I've seen him, I try to remember what Veronica said. But it's hard. It's hard not to sneak a second look. It's hard to act normal when you see him."- Wonder pg. 138

 

 

Jack knows August, and he knows he doesn't stand a chance in school. He's compelled to do the right thing by helping him, but it's hard for him to do the right thing.  He doesn't know how to act normal when he sees Auggie at first but he knows that he should. I think Jack is one of the most realistic characters. He's a kid whose struggling to fit in, but doesn't want to sell his soul to do so.

It's hard to really trust Jack after the terrible things he said about Auggie to Julian. But put yourself in Jack's shoes. It's either be friends with August, or be ridiculed with him everyday.  When you were in fifth grade what would you have chosen? Now I don't think that just because of the "Halloween Incident" that Jack is necessarily full of bad intentions, I just think he's struggling to make the choice to CHOOSE KIND.

The more I read about Jack though the more and more I related to him. A poor kid at a private kids school. It's not a fun time. Not that middle school is really a fun time for anyone.  We've all been through it, and it should be the best days of our lives, but there's always a bully. 

Even though this story is mostly about Auggie's struggle with bully's, Jack is being bullied too.  Julian is trying to force him to not be friends with Auggie, just so he can be "cool".  And the more I think about it... why do we all want to be cool so bad? What is cool? Who is cool? Oh that's cool. What does that word even mean. It's so objective. I realized that Jack taught me what cool is though.  It's all in our heads.  Julian thinks he's cool, but he's really a bully.  And Jack realizes this about Julian, so he punches him in the mouth...

 

 

 

But seriously... Who didn't get excited when Jack punched him?! That's right. No one.

So now Jack is in trouble and won't even explain himself to Mr. Tushman, but him and August are friends again! Not just because he punched Julian. He apologized to August too. But punching him made it a lot easier. Although I don't condone fighting, this was probably one of my favorite moments in the book. I'm a huge Harry Potter fan and I think this levels up to the awesomeness of when Hermoine punched Draco. It was sort of a big deal. It also showed were Jack's heart really lies. It's important to stick up for your friends. I have an inkling that Mr. Tushman might've been ok with Jack's response too. Sometimes bully's need to be put in their place. (Maybe just not with the punching next time)....(Even though we all secretly wanted to do it ourselves too). 

And then the WAR started.....

So now everyone's picking sides, and obviously Jack is on Auggie's side and so is Summer and Reid and the Max's, but just about everyone else is against them. This is the point were I just want to rip my hair out. These kids are ten!! They shouldn't be in WARS over whose friends with who. They should be playing basketball, goofing off, watching Star Wars, and having a GOOD TIME. But no. Life's not that easy when you're ten. Especially when your friends with the "uncool" kids.

This leads me back to how I felt when I started reading part 1. Why do kids have to be so MEAN?
WILL THIS QUESTION EVER BE ANSWERED?