A girl stepped into the waves9/20/2023 ![]() This exchange between Laurie, Ross, and two other members of the class, Brad and Eric, sets up many of the fundamental thematic questions that The Wave will investigate. Laurie Saunders is the most perturbed member of the class, unable to understand how the Nazis could “slaughter” Jews, Roma, and homosexual and disabled individuals in their death camps-and how ordinary Germans could stand by while the atrocities occurred. “I wouldn’t let a couple of Nazis scare me into pretending I didn’t see or hear anything.”Īfter Ben Ross shows his senior history students a film about the Holocaust, their reactions range from disinterested to deeply disturbed. “I would never let such a small minority of people rule the majority.” We just don’t know the answers.”Įric’s hand was up again. ![]() The behavior of the rest of the German population is a mystery-why they didn’t try to stop it, how they could say they didn’t know. “All I can tell you,” Ben said, “is that the Nazis were highly organized and feared. “How could the Germans sit back while the Nazis slaughtered people all around them and say they didn’t know about it? How could they do that?” Laurie’s dedication to truth, individuality, and doing the right thing separates her from her classmates-and serves as a testament to the power of a single person’s free will in the face of intimidation, fear, and corruption. Laurie uses the Grapevine as a platform to investigate and explore the more sinister effects of the wave, and even exposes a violent attack on a Jewish student as Wave mania sweeps the halls of Gordon High. Laurie resists being part of The Wave, even as her classmates-and David-pressure and intimidate her to join its ranks. Ross creates The Wave as an attempt to get his students to see how easily groupthink can take over a community, but as the experiment grows more and more out of control, Laurie is horrified by how The Wave transforms her classmates, and indeed her teacher as well. When her history teacher, Ben Ross, shows Laurie and her class a documentary about the Holocaust, Laurie is deeply emotionally affected by the footage of the concentration camps, and she begins to ponder deep questions about how ordinary people could commit such terrible atrocities-or merely stand by while they occurred. Laurie is popular and well-liked throughout school-but harbors anxiety about the future of her relationship with her self-centered boyfriend David and her friendship with the overly-competitive Amy. ![]() Laurie is sunny but thoughtful, and she takes her editorial duties and her studies very seriously. Laurie Saunders, the protagonist of the novel, is an intrepid and bright-eyed high schooler and editor-in-chief of her school paper, The Gordon Grapevine. Textbook content produced by OpenStax is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License. We recommend using aĪuthors: William Moebs, Samuel J. Use the information below to generate a citation. Then you must include on every digital page view the following attribution: If you are redistributing all or part of this book in a digital format, Then you must include on every physical page the following attribution: If you are redistributing all or part of this book in a print format, ![]() Want to cite, share, or modify this book? This book uses the ![]()
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