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

Term Paper , 2020 , 9 Pages , Grade: 1

English Language and Literature Studies - Literature

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”.

CONTENTS

Introduction

1. Stages of Development
1.1 Insecurity
1.2 Despair
1.3 Gaining Trust
1.4 Misery
1.5 Confidence
1.6 Respect
1.7 Delight

2. Song Analysis & Interpretation
2.1 Ordinary Kid
2.2 Break the Rules
2.3 Graduation

3. Conclusion

Bibliography

Introduction

“The music is not used repetitiously to create film atmosphere. It is, in fact, the leading character” (Mondello). This quote by the American film critic Bob Mondello perfectly shows what a fundamental role music plays in film. Music evokes emotions in us; it gives us an insight in the thoughts of certain characters. In other words, music makes a film experience complete und unforgettable.

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”.

1. Stages of Development

1.1 Insecurity

At the beginning of the movie the audience gets to know that Auggie is not an ordinary kid. He was born with a facial deformity because of which he already had to go through several surgeries. His genetic disorder is also the reason why he does not go to school because his parents fear that he will be a victim of bullying. When Auggie turns ten his parents decide to enrol him in a private school, for his mother does not want to home-school him any longer. Auggie’s life is about to change completely and that makes him very insecure as he feels safe at home. Except for his family, he has not had any social relationships so far. Auggie is aware of the fact that his future classmates have probably never seen someone like him; for that reason, he is scared to become an outsider, but at the same time he is curious of what is to come.

1.2 Despair

In school Auggie is very shy. He feels a certain pressure not to make any faults so that nobody can harass him. Unfortunately, a kid called Julian does not miss out on any situation to make fun of Auggie, which hurts him so much that he does not even want to go to school anymore. He feels very lonely because he cannot stand up for himself and he has nobody to support him.

1.3 Gaining Trust

Auggie helps Jack during an exam, which breaks the ice between them. Jack becomes Auggie’s first real friend. Because of him, he starts to be himself because he is not scared anymore to show himself and to hide his true feelings.

1.4 Misery

In every relationship there comes a point when you get deceived. Auggie also has to experience disappointment when he hears Jack talking to Julian about him in a rude way. He feels betrayed and questions everything that has happened so far. Auggie sort of reverts to his old habits and shuts everyone and everything out of his life. He is in a very vulnerable state and the fact that his beloved dog passes away makes it even worse for him to endure his pain.

1.5 Confidence

When Auggie makes up with Jack, the hierarchy changes: Julian and his bully friends now get laughed at and Auggie’s group of friends extends. He learns what it’s like to be part of a group and he certainly regains his strength.

1.6 Respect

The ultimate culmination of Auggie’s personal journey happens during a school trip. When a group of teenagers want to beat him and his classmates (including his bullies) up, he manages to stand up for himself and his classmates in a way he never did before. Stunned by Auggie’s reaction, his classmates apologise for their rude behaviour. Auggie has finally earned his place and he gets accepted by everyone.

1.7 Delight

To honour Auggie and his personal development throughout the school year, he gets an award at the year-end ceremony. It is by far his greatest achievement in life and at that moment Auggie realizes that he is not ordinary; he is a real wonder!

2. Song Analysis & Interpretation

In the following, I am going to analyse and interpret three different songs that mark a certain stage in Auggie’s life. The first song, Ordinary Kid, is an original song by Marcelo Zarvos played right at the beginning of the movie when Auggie tells the audience what he has already been through and what is about to come. The second song We’re going to be friends by The White Stripes accompanies the scene when Auggies’ classmates apologize to him for their behaviour and accept him as a full member of the class.

The last song I am going to elaborate on is Graduation by Zarvos, which brings the movie to an end. It is played at the very last scene when Auggie gets his award and reflects on the journey he made throughout the year.

In my analysis I am going to discuss and interpret mood, structure and instrumentation. As the music is presented to us as a finished product, I am not going to explain each aspect separately, for I want to stick to the chronology of the songs and describe what happens one by one as the songs progresses. It would not make sense to elaborate on these aspects separately because they are closely connected and influence one another.

2.1 Ordinary Kid

The song starts with flat chords played by strings that are getting more and more intense in volume. At the same time, the viewer sees a night sky and an astronaut moving up slowly as the volume increases. It seems as if the flat chords represent weightlessness; In fact, there is no key change, no variation and no melody—it is just the strings that create an atmosphere of solitude. The composer clearly has applied the technique Underscoring which is used to articulate and punctuate mood mainly through flat chords. Furthermore, using only one single instrument (strings) colours the mood blue (Fischoff 13).

When the astronaut starts moving down again the volume decreases; the viewer suddenly sees Auggie jumping up and down his bed while wearing an astronaut helmet. Corresponding to Auggie’s movement, the strings play a stable rhythmical figure of quavers. In this case, the composer used Mickey Mousing to visualize Auggie’s movement in music (Fischoff 11). This theme also provides the foundation for the song because it is first thing to be heard and then more and more instruments join in. According to Fischoff, strings are the perfect instruments when accompanying a dialogue, which is exactly what happens in this scene (Fischoff 9). While the viewer sees different pictures of Auggie’s life, Auggie introduces himself to the audience.

As soon as Auggie starts talking, the piano plays the main sequence of the movie. It is a quaver sequence first climbing up the tonic triad moving up to the dominant triad. This sequence is repeated several times and therefore creates movement and progression. As stated by Willimek, a transition from the tonic triad to the dominant triad is supposed to express contradiction (Willimek 17). Auggie experiences an inner conflict because he cannot let go of his past, but at the same time he is curious about what is ahead of him; This is exactly what the tonic-dominant transition expresses.

After the piano introduction, the audience sees pictures of Auggie’s birth and surgeries that are accompanied with slow sustained chords that create musical stasis. Because of that, the attention is completely drawn to the actions on the screen.

The song ends with a repetition of the main theme and finishes with a triad built on the dominant. This passage represents the future as the audience usually expects to hear the tonic triad; instead, they hear the dominant, which creates an open end and hints that there is more to come.

2.2 Break the Rules

The school trip should finally change Auggie’s life forever. When he and a group of his classmates get attacked by some teens in the woods, Auggie stands up for them, which was completely unexpected as he has never done so before. When the teens run away, his classmates realize what actually happened and apologize to Auggie for all the harm they have caused.

This is exactly when the song Break the Rules starts. Auggie bursts out in tears because he notices that he has managed to be completely accepted by everyone. He goes to the lake and watches the waves go by while the audience listens to a delicate guitar triad and the calm and fragile voice of Caroline Pennet. The voice of Caroline Pennet could be an allegory for Auggies’ feelings. She has a rather breathy voice, which could be seen as a sign of shyness. As the song goes on, Pennet uses a different singing style which is called belting. She creates a sound using her upper and lower resonances at the same time. Being able to do this requires complete control and it seems as she would transfer her power to Auggie in this moment. This technique is called Characterization and it is used to establish a connection between the music and Auggie in order to give the audience an insight in his feelings (Fischoff 14).

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• College: University of Salzburg
• Grade: 1
• Publication Year: 2020
• Pages: 9
• Catalog Number: V1289046
• ISBN (PDF): 9783346747617
• Language: English
• Tags: august, pullman, wonder, stephen, chbosky