【Monthly Reading】The Wave
The Wave is a short novel based on actual events that happened in an American Highschool in the 1960s. The book is a novelization of a teleplay about those events. I found it a gripping and compelling read that kept me wondering what would happen next.
In a history class at the school, after watching a film about the holocaust, some of the students wonder how so many Germans were willing to support the Nazi party before and during the second world war. How could they have turned a blind eye to what Hitler was doing? How did they let the holocaust happen? When the teacher finds it difficult to answer these questions, he devises an experiment that will provide the answers for him and his students. He calls it the Wave. The motto of the Wave is:
- STRENGHT THROUGH DISCIPLINE
- STRENGHT THROUGH COMMUNITY
- STRENGHT THROUGH ACTION
He introduces the Wave to the class gradually starting with simple exercises in self-discipline, which the students respond to positively. As a result, he expands the concept to include community and action and before long, the Wave has expanded out of the classroom and across the entire school. The main dramatic tension in the book is driven by the two students in the school Magazine Office that form a small pocket of resistance against the Wave, who set out to stop it before it is too late.
I will not reveal the shock ending in the novel, as this exciting denouement is worth reading the book to enjoy fully. The novel is really all about the dangers of fascism and how anyone can easily be swept up by it. As various scientific psychology experiments have also demonstrated, there was nothing different or special about the German population that allowed Fascism to take root and prosper. One of the points that the novel clearly illustrates is that given the right conditions, this could happen anywhere. It reminds us how easily history can repeat itself under the right circumstances, which is why we need to remain vigilant and aware of the risks to ensure that it never happens again.
