Thursday, May 2, 2013

Dead Leader? Taking it Well?


“There!” Ben shouted at the auditorium full of students. “There is your leader!”- p. 139


My reaction to this quote is that I didn’t see it coming. It’s a picture of Hitler, and Ben is saying that it’s their leader. Hitler is dead, but somehow he’s their leader. Unless  if he influenced them that much, that he became a leader again that couldn’t lead. My reaction to the end of the book was that everyone took it well. Almost everyone was really into the Wave, and I thought that at least someone would stand up to sat not to end it. Another thing I was surprised about was when Ben put up a picture of Hitler on the projector from the movie that Ben showed only a few weeks before and said

A theme I can connect the end of the book to is ‘identity and individuality’ because Ben is giving it back to them by ending the Wave. I think this because Ben is trying to make things right and stop things from getting worse. Examples are: the kid being beat up that religion was Jewish, because of resistance; forcing people to join or else; etc. Another theme I can connect to is ‘upstanding’ because Laurie was upstanding for most of the Wave once she saw what going on; David once he got over came with anger and pushed Laurie; and the anonymous kid who wrote the letter the senior asked him to join, and then tried to force him; and Ben’s wife, Cristy. I think this because there’s a few people who are going against it one way or another because they realized that the Wave isn’t what most people think, it also has a bad side to it.

1 comment:

  1. Wally,
    That's q;uite a moment, isn't it, when the followers are faced with the truth? In The Wave is's dramatic, but it isn't always. Think about what in your class is "cool" or "hot" whatever means popular and desirable. Is there any harm in it? Do people follow trends and fads (get in line) because they think they have benefits or do they follow blindly, or for acceptance. Most trends don't lead to genocide (Whew!) but often those whio are left out, either by choice or like the Jews were in Nazi Germany, are harmed. maybe they are not killed or scarred for life, but the kind of emotional harm lack of acceptance, ridicule and exclusion create. Do you see any of that in your class? I hope not. But you might keep an eye out for the potential for it.
    Posted by Bob Cohn

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