Literary Stimulation of Wonder

In a world of mindless scrolling, drive-through everything, and constant consumerism, very few people’s minds are calm enough to marvel at life. Beauty remains all around: in other people, in clouds, in the sound of tree frogs after a light rain. Everything under the sun, all of God’s creation, is a masterpiece unable to be fully comprehended. So many things in life are bigger than our problems, things that lend a wondrous perspective to the world.  

Yet the wonder is missing. The sense of wonder within all of us at birth is not being protected or valued. Some people don’t even know it exists inside of themselves. 

If all the wonder in the world were to disappear, all the joy would leave too. There would be no reminder of an all-powerful Creator. There would be nothing but an overly high sense of self-importance that we’d never have the right to earn. 

So, we must rediscover wonder. We must nurture it in our youth and cling to it in our adult years. We must unobtrusively reintroduce wonder through our children’s literature, to the audience most impressionable. 

What is Wonder? 

While there is not any one all-encompassing definition for wonder–for none of us experience emotions in exactly the same way–the best definition for our purpose is this: wonder is an intense feeling of amazement for something outside of yourself. It is a feeling that makes our human selves seem small. It puts our tiny lives into perspective within the humungous universe in which we exist. 

Many, if not all, previous researchers on the topic of wonder, have admitted that a working definition is hard to establish; they don’t want to leave out any sensations. The most comprehensive way to think about wonder is by dividing it into two categories: “verbalized wonder” and “bodily wonder.” The first comes through asking “big existential questions” and the second is “often characterised by silence, and a lack of conversations, as [people’s thoughts] are directed inwards” but are not focused on self (Heggen 6-7). Either way, both put human existence into a new perspective. Both are powerful enough to change the trajectory of life forever. 

Why Do We Need Wonder? 

So, if wonder is just a feeling, why do we need it? What good could it possibly do the human race or us as individuals?  

Ultimately, we need wonder for personal joy, fulfillment, and the appreciation of a creation made by a being more powerful than us; wonder gives a purpose and meaning to existence. One of the most renowned researchers in this field theorizes that wonder draws our focus outward, away from ourselves, and enhances “virtues, such as humility and modesty, wisdom, and care, respect, and compassion – and thus [is] a potential contributor to flourishing” (Schinkel 152). Wonder makes us better people, with objectively better morals because our focus is outwards. An article from a reverend in 1899 beautifully asks: 

Need we proclaim that due appreciation of the real grandeur of the universe, its exaltation to the uttermost limits of the sublime, the setting of its every curve and color in composition most beauteous and impressive, is…the offspring of religious contemplation, whereby the sweet face of Nature…grows more thrilling in its glow, more mystically fair? (McSorely 3) 

This reverend may not use the word “wonder” in this passage, but that is the experience he describes. He talks of wonder inspired by the natural world. In this case, he sees how it can lead to belief in a higher power, acquisition of personal religion, and thus a God-given purpose in life. Wonder has been innate to the human soul forever, but it has faded in the past century. Humans are too distracted by everything, including their own selves. This is where wonder comes in. It ties us together. With purpose, attitudes change and apathy vanishes. Wonder promotes “enjoyment” of the world and thus allows us to feel that we are living good, worthwhile lives and that there is a higher power over us all (Schinkel 153). We are not any more important or special than another person, but rather we are all small creatures in this wondrous world, navigating it all for the first time, held together by the highest power of all. 

Then, in a more practical sense, wonder also creates a joy in education, thus contributing to one’s ability to build a better life for themself. It gives “children access to the means to provide for themselves when they are adults, but also directly, in the sense that it fosters experiences” (Schinkel 157). Opportunities open up when you are educated, fears vanish, and “When we live in the world with a belief that our personal experience enriches our understanding, we in turn experience a connection to the world in which we live. And with a sense of wonder, we can redefine the nature of that world which encompasses a kinship toward others with whom we share that same society” (Solow 6). Very simply, wonder creates softer, more compassionate people because they now have the ability to recognize themselves in the people around them. 

On a wider scale, promoting wonder in nature, specifically, is essential for leading us to a “sustainable future” because wonder creates a genuine care for the natural environment and can “develop relationships with nonhuman nature” (Washington 2). People who wonder at the world are more conscious to avoid lifestyles and choices that are detrimental to the environment. We need wonder, so our earth is not destroyed and resources depleted. And this part is cyclical: a thriving, healthy earth creates more opportunities for wonder inspired by nature, resulting in a care for sustainability, then resulting in a thriving earth, and so on, and so forth. Wonder allows us to care for every living and nonliving thing around us: “Falling into wonder is a faithful act. It involves caring deeply about the world, the people in it, and how they interact” (Solow 3). Wonder is a lifelong commitment. Once you open your mind to the beauty and awe that is life created, there is no going back to your old mindset and your old self. 

How to Promote Wonder Through Literature 

Promoting wonder through literature is most effective when the target audience is children, young people with minds in the most impressionable stage of development. That being said, it is not necessary for a book to be written for a specific age; it just needs to have the ability to be digested by younger audiences as well as older ones. Ben Horslen, a Puffin publisher, says that a story’s main character “should be the same age, or slightly older than the reader” (Horslen). He gives this advice so a child reader is better able to connect to the story and feel interested in what the character is going through. If this is truly the case, however, I argue that we must not let age distract any reader from finding the wonder behind words, thus there should be no mention of that defining characteristic. So, the first step in writing wonder-inducing literature is to not distract the reader with minor details like age, appearance, etc., that could prevent a reader from naturally connecting to the story or appreciating the world being built with words. As a writer of stories, one must use characters whose physical attributes are vague, but whose way of thinking and their personalities are deep. Stories written with the intent to inspire wonder, must not be superficial; they must be thought-provoking through the use of internal character development. In this sense, a squirrel would be just as fitting as a human when used as the main character of a story. A story needs a character to experience the jaw-dropping wonder that comes just from existing on this big ball of earth. A story needs to bring the perspective that every life is beautiful, important, and fleeting, that existence is a miracle and everyone, in the end, is given the same opportunity to live. 

After character development, one must also focus on setting. Environment, even a mental one that encapsulates a story’s setting, is highly important when it comes to stimulating wonder. In a study of teachers trying to promote wonder in the classroom, the intention of a room’s design is found to have a huge impact on encouraging a student’s sense of wonder. A space that is “‘clean and not cluttered’” but offers materials and “opportunities for exploration and wonder” is what a child’s mind needs to be stimulated but not overwhelmed (Donelson 92-93). Similarly, the setting of a story, the environment it creates in a reader’s mind, is highly important when it comes to the written word being a stimulator of wonder. If a story is to have its intended, everlasting effect, the reader must be able to digest it. It must not be overstimulating with extra details that bog down the reader’s thoughts and make it difficult to explore any one idea more deeply. Reading must be digestible and not overwhelming to have the intended effect: “The recognition of the familiar is balanced by the seeking out of the startling or different. The sudden shocks or excitements are embedded in the everyday” (Cullingford 3). Children need to see the wondrous within a mundane background, otherwise a story will be unable to have any significant impact; the reader, the children, will be unable to draw any connection to their own lives and the world they live in. Wonder comes from “novelty” mixing with the familiar, according to Solow: “It is a part of seeing the extraordinary in the ordinary, and from this, something altogether new and fresh” (Solow 126). That is to say, a story can–and should–be simple. Readers must see the realness of a story in order to discover the wonder that exists within it and thus apply it to their own lives and experiences. 

Examples of Wonder in Literature 

Books and stories have been changing people for centuries, influencing thoughts, and shaping the way they’ll view the world for the rest of their lives. For two reasons, it is difficult to find specific instances when a person is forever changed by a book they read. First, the wonder they experience through a story can be nearly impossible to articulate. The intense internal feelings and emotions that come through wonder cannot be completely described to another person, and this incomplete description, once passed on, cannot have the same effect as it did on the person experiencing it first-hand. Second, sometimes, recognition of wonder only comes in retrospect. A person doesn’t always realize that a process of wonder has occurred until they are later able to see the changes it has wrought in them. However, an anonymous user on Reddit, of all places, beautifully described the impact the Little House on the Prairie books had on them. They said they were moved by the way the author “described the physical environment around her with such loving details.” This anonymous, but real, person continued: 

I remember that having a big influence how I paid attention to things like the feel of grass under my bare feet or the taste of a cool glass of milk…not just noticing them but describing them to myself in my head in similar language to those books. So those books actually shaped the way I learned to think and, well, appreciate my interactions with the world through my senses. (u/KillsOnTop) 

Without knowing it, this user shared their individual experience of wonder–stimulated by literature–with the world. Laura Ingalls Wilder, the author of the Little House books, uses her words to show the real world in a new light. People like this Reddit user are able to apply the feelings they get through reading to the world around them. They gain the ability to feel wonder simply by reading words on a page like this: 

There was only the enormous, empty prairie, with grasses blowing in waves of light and shadow across it, and the great blue sky above it, and birds flying up from it and singing with joy because the sun was rising. And on the whole enormous prairie there was no sign that any other human being had ever been there.” (Wilder 29) 

This Reddit user would have read the above sentence at some point. They are simple words, not used to enhance the plot but rather to draw attention to the landscape, the natural world of immense beauty. These words have the power to open the human mind, to emphasize pre-existing beauty, and to kindle the belief in the creator of it all.   

Author’s Note: Literary Wonder’s Impact on Me 

“But the wood had a sleeping, otherworld appearance that made you want to speak in whispers. This, at least, is what the cows must have thought: ‘Let it keep its peace; we won’t disturb it'” (Babbitt 6). 

As a child, I thought this sentence was poetry. As an adult, I know this sentence will forever have the power to lift my spirit and soften my heart, no matter how many times I read it. There is just something about the way the landscape is given human qualities, like it is a sentient being. In a way, it is, for God can be found in His creation, right? 

For me, Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt is the most wonder-full book I have ever encountered. It is the one book that taught me to look upon the mountains outside my bedroom window with awe every morning. Babbitt’s words helped me understand the fleeting beauty of my life. 

While the themes of Tuck Everlasting–love and mortality–are wonder-inducing on their own, the beauty of the sentences, the simple, raw description of the natural world, is what changed me. Babbitt conveys her perspective through the care she takes to write about the woods, shafts of sunlight, cows, frogs, etc., showing readers that there is so much beauty in the world in which they already exist. She opened my sense of wonder for the landscape in which I still dwell. I’ve never felt the need to see the Seven Wonders of the World, for I am always taken aback by my place in the world. I am grateful for the chance to be alive, for the ability to hear the tree frogs at dusk. It is a feeling that will always be within me. And I hope everyone else can discover it too. 

Works Cited 

Babbitt, Natalie. Tuck Everlasting. Macmillan Publishing Group, 1975. 

Cullingford, Cedric. Children’s Literature and Its Effects, Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, 1997. ProQuest, https://www.proquest.com/legacydocview/EBC/436355?accountid=12085. 

Donelson, Brian J. Wonder-Inspiring Teachers and Schools: A Descriptive Phenomenological Study, University of Colorado Springs, 2026. ProQuest, https://www.proquest.com/dissertations-theses/wonder-inspiring-teachers-schools-descriptive/docview/3371456276/se-2. 

Heggen, Marianne P., and Anne M. Lynngård. “Wonder and Curiosity Beyond the obvious—a Dynamic Model of Bodily and Verbal Understandings of these Phenomena.” Humanities & Social Sciences Communications, vol. 13, no. 1, 2026, pp. 167. ProQuest, https://www.proquest.com/docview/3300982039/fulltextPDF/BAD9EAD0205D4981PQ/1?accountid=12085&sourcetype=Scholarly%20Journals. 

Horslen, Ben. “How to write a children’s middle grade book.” Penguin Books UK, https://www.penguin.co.uk/about/company-articles/how-to-write-a-children-s-middle-grade-book. 

McSorley, Joseph. “Nature-Worship A Christian Sentiment.” The Catholic World, A Monthly Magazine of General Literature and Science, vol. 70, no. 416, 1899, pp. 212. ProQuest, https://www.proquest.com/magazines/nature-worship-christian-sentiment/docview/125570492/se-2. 

Schinkel, Anders, et al. “Human Flourishing, Wonder, and Education.” Studies in Philosophy and Education, vol. 42, no. 2, 2023, pp. 143-162. ProQuest, https://www.proquest.com/docview/2787062858/89D7241861374655PQ/43?accountid=12085&sourcetype=Scholarly%20Journals. 

Solow, Jamie E. Living with Wonder: A Phenomenological Investigation of Adult Lives, The Fielding Institute, 2000. ProQuest, https://www.proquest.com/dissertations-theses/living-with-wonder-phenomenological-investigation/docview/304654798/se-2?accountid=12085. 

u/KillsOnTop. “The Little House on the Prairie books” 2023, Reddit, https://www.reddit.com/r/books/comments/1b7bxyz/comment/kthlja6/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button. 

Washington, Haydn. “Education for Wonder.” Education Sciences, vol. 8, no. 3, 2018. ProQuest, https://www.proquest.com/docview/2125236720/fulltext/89D7241861374655PQ/1?accountid=12085&sourcetype=Scholarly%20Journals. 

Wilder, Laura Ingalls. Little House on the Prairie. Arcturus Publishing Ltd, 2019.