The Wave
The Wave is a novel written by Todd Strasser and published in 1988. The book takes place in a high school in America and is about an experiment where a teacher tries to show the kids how people can follow orders without thinking like they did in WWII. The events of The Wave demonstrate how being a member of a group can improve well-being, productivity, and behaviour.
Being a member of The Wave can improve well-being as we can see when we examine Robert's behaviour. We can see that he is not happy before The Wave because he doesn't believe that he can follow in his brother's footsteps so he doesn't see the reason to even try. He becomes much happier after he joins The Wave and he even says that he feels as if he finally is part of something bigger. Robert is a perfect example of how being a member can improve well-being. I believe that the opposite is to say about non-Members of The Wave. They are threatened and beaten up for not being a part of The Wave. We can see that in the anonymous letter to The Grapevine where it told us about Junior that was threatened by a senior if she wouldn't join The Wave. We can also see it when we hear about a kid that was beaten up for not being a member of The Wave.
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A great example of this is before Ben Ross started The Wave the kids in his class were disorganised and not very productive. Some kids didn't even feel motivated to do their homework because it was more exciting to be popular. After Ben started The Wave the kids finished their homework on time, were ready to answer all the questions they were asked and some kids even started to skip other classes to sit in on Ben's class. The downside that Ben noticed was that there was not much thought behind the kid's answers. But I would say the positives outweigh the