Empathy in R. J. Palacio’s Works Wonder (2012) and Auggie & Me (2015)

Abstract

Literature is considered as one of the effective tools that teach people about life. It is quite vital for readers from different ages to be selective regarding the literary works they engage with. As a matter of fact, children literature is loaded with valuable themes and subjects which are likely appreciated by children and adults. Thereby, children’s books highly tackle themes that help in the building of a good personality or to develop a growing one. Indeed, empathy is a strong motif in such works, and any author who wishes to convey a message of compassion and kindness generally adopts the empathetic narration in his or her work to allocate the reader of a vivid imagination. Recently, children’s literature is receiving more interest in the mainstream of literature in general. Consequently, the research work is concerned with the very first novels of R.J. Palacio Wonder (2012) and Auggie & Me (2015) which focuses on empathy as a major theme. As a matter of fact, the author employed more than one narrative point of view to put the reader in a lifelike experience of the centre character of the story. The protagonist represents a little kid of ten-year-old who has facial deformity. Starting from his rough challenges and dealing with people’s reactions, the reader can develop the sense of empathy and sensitivity to behave kind in the right moments. Thus, the literary works which are concerned with such matters can relate with people whose faces are abnormal real life, so, it can be translated as a healing process for readers with facial deformities.