Rhue, Morton - The Wave

The characters:

Laurie Saunders ,is a pretty girl, having a perpetual smile. She is used to chew on pens when she feels nervous. The reason could be her giving up smoking. She is the editor-in-chief of the school’s newspaper, called "The Grapevine". Laurie Saunders is a cheerful nature.

Laurie is a smart, clever and intelligent student. She gets A-marks. So all in say that all we can she is a strong personality.

Amy Smith, a petite, fair girl, is Laurie Saunders' best friend. She also is smart and intelligent. She gets A-marks.

Mr. Gabondi, is a French teacher who isn't loved by the students. His courses are too boring for them.

Ben Ross, is a young History teacher, who has been at Gordon High for two years now. His wife is Christy Ross, teacher in music and choir at the same school. He has a good reputation at school. Students think that he is charismatic. He is very engaged in teaching, interested and involved in his topics. He brings a new outlook to his classes and tries to teach the practical, relevant aspects of history. But his colleagues have different opinions on his way of teaching. Some like his energy, creativity and unusual methods, but others are sceptical about him. They think he would calm down after a few years, use the traditional ways of teaching and would wear suits and ties like they do. Maybe, there are some aspects of envy or jealousy. Brian Ammon ,is a quarterback on the football team. Enjoying social life is important for him. He often gets bad marks, although he is able to do better. Robert Billings ,is the class loser. He usually gets bad marks. Ben Ross thinks he is a real problem. He is a heavy boy and looks a little bit untidy and unkempt. Robert has to struggle to come on. The other students like to make fun of him. So he is often tormented by others, especially by Brian.

David Collins ,is a tall , good looking boy who is on the football team too. He is Laurie's boyfriend, has good marks and a natural technical skill.

Summary:

The class saw a film about the Nazi Regime. They couldn’t believe why people had not done anything against the Nazis. Ross had no answer to the questions. It must be something one could only understand by being there or if possible by creating a similar situation. In the next history lesson Ross wrote on the blackboard: "Strength through Discipline". This was the first part of his experiment. When he was talking about discipline he was talking about power and success. From that point the students became more interested. First they had to take a better sitting position and they had to wander through the classroom and sit down as fast as they could. At the beginning there was chatting and a big mess. For the next twenty minutes the class practised, then they did it in half the time. Ross told them three rules: everybody must have pencils and notepapers for note taking; asking or answering a question you must stand at the side of your seat; the first words you say asking or answering a question are „Mr. Ross". On the next day the students were already sitting on their seats in their posture. Ross added to the words Strength through Discipline the word community. Their mottos were „Strength through Discipline" and „Strength through Community". The whole class stood up and repeated the mottos. Then Ross drew on the blackboard a circle with the shape of a wave in it. This was their common sign. They also had a common salute. David tried to get the football team into the wave. He saw a possibility to win more games and making a real team. On the third day Ross gave them yellow membership cards. Some had a red „X" on the other side like Brian’s and Robert’s cards. Those pupils were like monitors. They had to denounce other students who didn’t obey to the rules of the way direct to Mr. Ross. Then they enlarged the motto by a third word „Strength through Action". From this day Ross wanted that all are equal and there are no competings against each other. The Wave was no longer an idea or a game. It was a living moment in the students. Laurie was the only one who felt strange about the Wave. The other liked it because they were all equal, they didn’t have to worry how populate they were. Laurie got a letter from a younger student who was with his friends in Mr. Ross´ class, too. After the lesson a senior student asked them if they wanted to join in and how great it is. The student’s friends joined in but the boy didn’t. So the senior told him that he never will have friends because they didn’t want pupils who weren’t in the wave and if he joined not soon it will be too late. Robert wanted to be Ross´ bodyguard because such a big leader needs bodyguards. At the beginning Ross had some doubts but he agreed because he saw it as a part of the experiment. Laurie found some students who were against the wave, too. They were writing an article about it. It explained the wave as a dangerous and mindless movement. After school Brian and David were waiting for Laurie because David had to talk with her, but Laurie didn’t want to listen to him. So David grasped her arm. He said that Laurie hadn’t the right to disturb what is so good for nearly all students. When she shouted that she hated the Wave he threw her down on the grass. David couldn’t believe that he had done such a stupid thing for the wave. Laurie and David visited Ben Ross for telling him to break up the wave. Ross already had a plan but he couldn’t tell it to Laurie and David because if the student recognized that he wanted to end it they would have learned nothing or they would fight against Ben Ross and giving up the wave. Next day Ross explained the students that there is a rally where all members should come because their leader speaks to them. At the rally they had guards who controlled the membership cards and where aware that only wave members at the rally. All the pupils were staring on a huge, blank movie screen. Then Ben Ross shouted „There is your leader!" and the film started. All the wave members now saw the same film about the nazi regime with Hitler they already have seen at the beginning of the experiment. Ross added that they have made some good nazis. The pupils were shocked. They saw that it could happen again and that they could be the ‘victims’. They learnt a lot about this experiment and will now see the Nazi time with other eyes.

Critical evaluation:

This book shows how quickly you can get involved in an idea. It is very hard for young people and also for adults as the second World War showed not to join a group which stands for strength, power and community. And the terrifying thing is that when you are already involved in it you don’t recognize it. Most of us would follow a ‘leader’ without having an own opinion. So it should be very important for us to have an own opinion. Hitler knew how he could catch people for his idea. The other thinking people were eliminated and so it was very hard to stop him. When you were different you had no chance to survive. I think a big mistake of us is that we think that such a cruel thing could never happen to us. But the terrorists acts in America showed that the world hasn’t become better. People acted in a group and killed many others and also one man stood behind these attacks. These persons act like robots without thinking or feeling anything. That sounds terribly but that’s reality and in this world we all live together. Nobody can say that doesn’t concern me. Laurie and David recognized that the experiment has gone too far when he hurt his girlfriend by grasping her arm and throwing her to the ground just for defending the wave. After this happening he really was shocked. But fortunately nothing more tremendous happened. The situation after World War2 was similar to that. The people recognized which regime they supported but it was too late. 6 million Jews already died and many soldiers lost their life for nothing. So it should be a sign for us to leave our eyes open. We often don’t recognize things like racism, violence and many others. This book is very good because it showed the situation of teenagers in our age and so it was definitely topical. Peer pressure also played a big role. It’s not easy for teens who are not integrated in a group. The example was Robert Billings. He liked the wave because now he was accepted and integrated. In World War 2 also many people felt that they were part of something new and exciting but it became a very big tragedy. Especially the young people are affected. They often are inspired by new ideas. This experiment gave the whole school the chance to understand what fascism means. The second World War was reality but we already forgot it.

I personally liked the book because it showed me that peer pressure is something we should prevent. We should keep our opinions and not forget democracy. I remember one statement we treated in class: Democracy is the worst form of government but there is no better! So we should not throw it away.