Rhue, Morton: The Wave

-Ben Ross was a very good history teacher who always tried to involve his pupils in his lessons, therefore he did everything to make the students understand the subject.

He also communicated with them like a friend. With an experiment he wanted to make his students understand the people’s attitude in the 2^nd world war when Adolf Hitler reigned the Nazi regime. After his experiment Mr. Ross was popular for planing “living lessons”.

-Laurie Saunders was the best and most ambitious student in her class. Her honesty, kindness and openness with her boy-friend David who was the captain of the High School’s Football-team, made her to the most popularly girl at school. Even half the parents of the school said to their kids “why can’t you be like Laurie Saunders?”. Her best friend Amy always felt that people only liked her when she was able to keep up with Laurie.

-David Collins , Laurie’s boyfriend, loved her very much, but when he became a member of The Wave he promptly was against Laurie when she wrote an article about The Wave, which considered the negative aspects of the Wave. But in the end he realized, that The Wave movement was manipulating him. Therefore Laurie and David tried everything to stop The Wave.

-Members of The Wave: Students who were members of The Wave thought that they were equal and part of a community which could manage all problems. So they forgot the negative aspects: they expelled students who weren’t in The Wave; students weren’t free any longer, because members told outsiders if they didn’t join the Wave they wouldn’t have friends who were members of The Wave; and members even beat a boy who was Jewish.

One day Ben Ross’s students saw a film about the Nazi regime. After seeing the film the class was shocked about the attitude from the German, so they also couldn’t understand why people hadn’t done anything against Nazis. But Mr. Ross couldn’t answer their questions because something like that could only be understood by being in this time or by creating a similar situation. The next lesson when Mr. Ross was talking about discipline he tried to attract the student’s attention. He reported that he wanted to become the class in a community in which all pupils were equal and in which they weren’t competing against each other. But for that experiment everyone had to follow his instructions; that meant to stand up beside the desk and say “Mr. Ross” as the first words when he is asking a question and they also had to take a better sitting position. On the next day the students were already sitting on their seats in their posture. Therefore Ross added the words “Strength through Community and Strength through Action” to their common salute. After drawing a circle on the blackboard with a wave in it, the community had also a common sign and with this sign they were called “The Wave”. After this information the pupils were really enthusiastic about The Wave. Even the outsiders thought they were equal and part of a community. But Laurie Saunders questioned if The Wave only had positive aspects. But she was the only person who worried.

The members had to actively recruit new members by demonstrating knowledge of their rules and pledging strict obedience to them.

David liked that idea because so he got hope to win a match with his football team when the football team was also part of The Wave because equality within the group ruled.

Laurie worried because The Wave got out of hand when the members expelled those people who wouldn’t like to join The Wave and when they beat a Jewish boy. The idea was to show how something like Nazi Germany could had happened. It wasn’t for them to become little Nazis. Therefore Laurie wrote an critical article for The Grapevine (the school paper). It condemned The Wave as a dangerous and mindless movement that suppressed freedom of speech and thought and ran against everything the country was founded on.

But Amy, Laurie’s best friend, didn’t agree with her and the publication of The Grapevine because for the first time in three years she felt like she didn’t had to keep up with Laurie and nevertheless people would still like her. Before The Wave was grounded, Amy learnt very much to get the same grades like Laurie. She also did everything like Laurie only to be as much as popular as Laurie.

Then Amy added that the only reason Laurie was against The Wave was because it meant Laurie was not a princess any more. Laurie was stunned but nevertheless she published The Grapevine although Amy was against this publication.

After the publication, the first reaction she realized was that David promptly was against her because he couldn’t understand why she was against a community in which all students were equal. But as soon as that story appeared in the paper, other stories began to circulate. Stories about threats and abuse directed at kids who, for one reason or another, had resisted The Wave. Mr. Ross realized that something had gone wrong and in his mind Ross suspected that he was to blame for it. But nevertheless he didn’t want to stop the experiment, because if he stopped now the students wouldn’t learn from The Wave.

One day David waited for Laurie because he wanted that Laurie just listened to him for a minute. In this discussion he tried that Laurie would join The Wave. But when she refused and wanted to go David suddenly grabbed her arms, shouted at her and out of control he threw her down on the grass. He always was denying that The Wave could hurt anyone, and at the same time he hurt Laurie, his own girl friend, in the name of The Wave! He really regretted his action.

Then both went to Mr. Ross’s to tell him that he had to stop The Wave. For Mr. Ross it was essential that the members of The Wave decide the matter for themselves to be a true success for the experiment.

Mr. Ross ordered a meeting for all Wave members in which the leader would speak to them. When the meeting began, the pupils were staring on a huge, blank movie screen. Then Ben Ross shouted "There is your leader” and the film started. They saw a film about the Nazi regime with Hitler. Ross added that they had made some good Nazis. The pupils were shocked and realized that it could happen again and they could be the victims. They learnt a lot about this experiment and also could see the Nazi time with other eyes.

After reading this book it also opened my eyes and now I also see the Nazi time with other eyes. When I read that this book based on a true episode in a Californian high school, I was really shocked. It shows how easily a group can lose its freedom without realizing it. I think the book describes its action very good and I enjoyed reading it. The speech isn’t hard to understand, therefore I only can recommend it to my classmates.

About 1230 words.