Adolescent Profile

Everyone was once an adolescent. It is, the most maddening yet increasing enjoyable
experience of anyone’s life. It is the stage in life where children are way too weak to
be adolescents, and a bit too young to be adults. According to Urie Bronfenbrenner,
to be able to understand the processes of the way in which individuals, especially
adolescents develop, he came up with: “The Bioecological Model of Development”, in
1970s. This model highlights the importance of the nested environment the child
develops in, known as an arrangement of structures, each having an equal influence
on the next. His model has four main structures: microsystem, mesosystem,
exosystem and macrosystem.

Microsystem:
August Pullman, the main character of the book, is 10 year old and is the brother of
his older sister, named Via. As the author R.J.Palacio suggests, he is thought as an
“underdog of the world”. This is one beautiful way to call special people like August
Pullman, who suffers from Mandibulofacial Dystosis. In order to escape from his
facial anomalies, he underwent many different surgeries, which unfortunately, made
him look worse, than he originally looked like. As a consequence, his parents thought
that it would be better if he participated in home-schooling. Throughout the novel it
can be seen that August feels normal on the inside, but no one really preferred to
call/look at him that way. As an individual, he may be undoubtedly different, which
influences the relationships he chooses to form later on in his mesosystem, but the
fact that his parents decided to home-school him, it shows how protective they are of
his feelings. This allowed them to shield him from the awful reality of the society.

Mesosystem:
As August Pullman is home-schooled, the only members that he sees regularly are his
family members. This affects him mainly mentally because of the fact that he cannot
see his friends on a day to day basis as he would do if he would go to school. Not only
this, but he doesn’t get on that well, with his older sister Via. The home-schooling
idea that his parents had before, disappears as he goes to a private school named
“Beecher Prep” at the start of fifth grade. This is good news for August as he stars to
get to know the world a little more. (A strong yet essential perspective when it is time
to re-experience an event/memory is highlighting the consistent influence which
affected in either a positive or negative view, the individual. Sharing the way in which
emotions affect this relationship may take August on a right path, as long as his
parents would recognise the benefits or drawbacks those experiences had for him, in
his eyes.)
Exosystem:
Before beginning fifth grade, August Pullman was being homeschooled by his
parents. This meant that he only had contact with his parents and his sister, but not
with his friends. This has changed when he got to go to the "Beecher Prep School", to
try and get integrated into the school life again, which brought back so much joy to
him, because of being able to have an interactive conversation with his classmates
and teachers. Such an aspect is very important as it can affect the way that his
teachers view his overall academical progress, as they can decide if he needs extra
time in lessons for instance to ask questions and clarify his uncertainties. There was a
bit of a shock as seen in the chapters of the book though, due to the unexpected
decision of his parents by adding him back into a social environment, when they
thought this would not be beneficial for his growth, both mentally and physically.
(There is a slight debate going here: individual vs situational. August’s parents
believed before homeschooling their son, that the social environment he was in was
affecting his development because of bullying/discrimination; however after
realizing the weak points he was struggling with outside of his social community like
socializing, making friends, sharing ideas they instantly changed their point of
view.)

Macrosystem:
As a cultural background, August Pullman grew up in a normal family, with his
parents and his sister. According to the way in which the book describes his
relationship with his parents, there’s a strong bond between him and them,
compared to him and his sister. Due to his facial anomalies, he has had a lot of
surgeries which unfortunately, distorted his face, in a way that it couldn’t ever be
restored. This attracted negative emotions from his parents as well as negative
comments from his classmates. Having known that his parents, fit well under the
permissive role of parenting, the way in which they supported him throughout this
unpleasant experience, helped him gain his confidence back. (That is the main
reason they introduced him again into the social environment, which made him be so
thankful for their decision). However, his relationship with his sister, although it was
all full of hatred and nasty comments in the beginning, rekindled the atmosphere, for
them as a family. (August can now be able to handle upsetting experiences, from a
new positive light.)