The personal evolution of August Pullman presented in the score of "Wonder" by Stephen Chbosky

Abstract or Introduction

In the film Wonder by Stephen Chbosky music contributes significantly to the character development of Auggie Pullman, the protagonist. Auggie is a ten-year-old boy suffering from Treacher Collings Syndrome who tries to find his place in the world. The following text is going to focus on three songs of the film that present Auggie’s personal growth from the beginning to the end of the film.
The main aim of this paper is to show that Auggie’s development can be clearly seen in music. Marcelo Zarvos, the composer, uses various techniques of film music to highlight Auggie’s feelings and actions, which I would like to investigate based on three different songs.

At first, I am going to outline the stages of Auggie’s development referring to the plot. Afterwards, I am going to analyse and interpret the songs Ordinary Kid, Break the Rules and Graduation concerning its mood, structure and instrumentation. Each of the songs marks a certain point in Auggie’s life; therefore, they are adequate to keep track of Auggie’s process of growth to maturity. Finally, I am going to present that the interplay of mood, structure and instrumentation shape Auggie’s character and also help the audience to empathize with him.

For my analysis, I am going to examine the musical score of the film based on the theory of musical equilibration of Daniela and Bernd Willimek from their book “Musik und Emotionen: Studien zur Strebetendenz-Theorie” and the film scoring composition concepts of Stuart Fischoff from “The Evolution of Music in Film and its Psychological Impact on Audiences”.