Media homework-a piece of media that has impacted my perspective on life

                                            Wonder (2017)                                     

Wonder is an incredible, meaningful film that I absolutely loved when I watched it. I’d already read the book and the film was absolutely spot on. It tells the story of a young boy, Auggie, with Treacher Collins syndrome and how it affects his life and those around him. The perspectives of these characters are shown within the film too. Auggie’s perspective is the one most commonly followed so the audience can understand his personal experiences with the syndrome, evoking sympathy and understanding. However, the perspective that really interested me was that of his sister, Via. Often, the protagonists of films are the ones with the illnesses and disabilities, as a method of teaching audiences about personal experiences with these sorts of things. It’s not very often you get to see how it affects the family and friends of the protagonist.

Via is supportive of Auggie, though we see how she struggles with him usually being the centre of attention. She feels left out and insignificant, specifically when her mum has to go collect Auggie early from school during a girly, ‘stay at home’ day. She’s jealous of him and I felt a lot of sympathy for her when watching the film. She has to settle with being second best every time and rarely complains about it, despite how it makes her feel. This caused her to be a realistic and well rounded character, with her own struggles and flaws, something which doesn’t often happen with side characters. Auggie is, of course, the main focus in the film but I really enjoyed learning about a different point of view in the story. Via even feels embarrassed about her brother when it’s suggested he comes watch her in her school play. Other characters in the film are shamed for this kind of attitude, so seeing this coming from his sister created an intriguing and different type of perspective. She eventually gets past her embarrassment but her struggle with these negative emotions towards someone she loves a lot made her the most relatable- and my favourite- character within the film.

The character of Via has encouraged me to be considerate of family members to those with illnesses and disabilities, not just those who are suffering. These are the people who aren’t shown any attention for all the effort they put in to help their family. They deserve recognition too and I love how this film acknowledges this. Overall, it’s just a really heartwarming and impactful film that encourages people to kind to those who are different, as well as encouraging those who are different to embrace who they are. It’s an important message everyone should know about.