44 pages • 1 hour read
Todd StrasserThe Wave
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 1981A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 9-12Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 9 Summary
Ben is conflicted as students from other classes begin attending his history class. Even with greater numbers and the potential distractions of more students with less space, however, the classwork stays on schedule. The students prepare well, but they don’t analyze the material; instead, they produce facts as if mere recitation is the goal. They work harder on their assignments so that they can spend more time on The Wave, which disturbs Ben. In addition, he’s anxious about The Wave meshing with the football team, although the coach, Norm Schiller, thanked Ben for introducing the movement to the team.
At the publications office, one of the writers, Carl, proposes covering The Wave in The Grapevine. Laurie agrees, but she hadn’t wanted to write about it yet. She assigns them to gather information about what students think about The Wave.
Mrs. Saunders tells Laurie that Robert’s mother says he’s a new person, but she finds the movement increasingly cultish. She asks Laurie what will happen to Robert since he couldn’t function before The Wave, and The Wave will eventually ends. Laurie is disturbed to learn that they’re calling the upcoming pep rally a Wave Rally. The group will welcome 200 new members during the event, but she says Ben wouldn’t lead them into something cultish. Laurie says the main thing that bothers her is how seriously Amy is taking it. Alone, Laurie tries to convince herself that her mother is overreacting.
Chapter 10 Summary
Principal Owens calls Ben to the office. Students salute him on the way. Other grades are now participating in The Wave as well. Robert has changed just as his mother said, and he contributes to the class now. Like Mrs. Saunders, Ben worries that the end of The Wave could devastate Robert, returning him to his outcast status. Uneasily, Ben realizes that he often thinks of himself as his students’ leader. Owens compliments Ben’s suit: He was formerly averse to wearing suits, until The Wave. Then, Owens asks Ben about The Wave. He isn’t complaining, but the salutes and mottos bother him. Owens says The Wave is too open-ended for him as an experiment. Ben tries to reassure him, saying it can’t get out of hand as long as he’s in charge. Owens agrees to give him the benefit of the doubt for now.
Chapter 11 Summary
Laurie finds a letter on the floor of the paper’s office. The letter has a title: “Welcome to the Wave—or Else” (80). It’s allegedly written by an anonymous junior at Gordon High. He resisted recruitment attempts by a senior, but two of his friends joined The Wave, although one of them backed out when the senior threatened his friend. The senior told him that soon it would be too late to join. The writer concludes the letter by asking, “Too late for what?” (82). Laurie’s ideas begin to crystallize, and she envisions the goals of The Grapevine special issue.
Ben now must salute constantly in the halls. Brad and Eric are shouting the slogans and passing out pamphlets when he passes them. Then, he feels someone following him. It’s Robert, and he says he’ll now serve as Ben’s bodyguard, insisting that Ben needs protection. Ben has overheard students describing his instructions as orders, and sometimes he knows they’re following instructions that are allegedly from him but that he didn’t issue. Ben agrees to Robert’s offer, simultaneously realizing that he’s accepting the role of someone who needs a bodyguard. For the experiment, however, he thinks that enhancing his image as the Leader might be productive for maximum thoroughness.
Chapter 12 Summary
Laurie views the anonymous letter as a symptom of a greater sickness. She now believes that The Wave is frightening for anyone who isn’t a member. She hears shouting in the quad and goes out to see Brian Ammon fighting Deutsch and shouting The Wave mottos. David tells Laurie that Deutsch isn’t in The Wave and he hopes the coach will kick him off the team.
When Laurie says she doesn’t want to go to the rally, this shocks David. He says she must go, particularly since the new members will be there. Laurie says he’s being unrealistic:
“You’re so intent on creating some kind of Utopian Wave society full of equal people and great football teams that you don’t see it at all. It can’t happen, David. There will always be a few people who won’t want to join. They have a right not to join” (88).
David thinks she’s upset because equality means she’s no longer special. When she says he’s being stupid, he says she should find a smart boyfriend and leaves. She listens to the roar of The Wave Rally from the publications office as Alex and Carl enter. Carl escaped the rally by leaving to use the bathroom. Laurie calls an emergency staff meeting, excluding Wave members, at her house for Sunday.
That night Laurie waits for a previously planned date with David, but he never comes. She deflects her mother’s attempts to talk but is surprised when her father comes in and says they’re worried about her. While he was on the golf course, one of his partners mentioned a boy getting beat up because he didn’t attend The Wave Rally. Mr. Saunders says the boy is Jewish. Some of the men are going to talk to the principal on Monday morning. Laurie tells him she’s working on a special edition of The Grapevine.
Chapters 9-12 Analysis
The parallels between fascism and The Wave grow clearer in these chapters, foregrounding The Lessons of the Past as a theme. Ben acts almost like a caricature of a dictator. His demeanor, propaganda displays, and elevated sense of importance seem cartoonish in the environment of a high school. Before The Wave, Gordon High seemed as uneventful and tedious as most high schools, but it was stable. The Momentum of Dangerous Ideas is especially relevant thematically because The Wave wasn’t introduced into a system that was broken or dysfunctional; it infected a mundane, solid school system and student body.
Receiving the anonymous letter at the office of The Grapevine is the pivotal moment for Laurie’s character arc and forces everyone involved to declare their loyalties more firmly. The letter’s title includes the ominous phrase “or else” in reference to joining The Wave, alluding to negative consequences for anyone who doesn’t join. The letter couldn’t be a product of a healthy experiment. Rather, it’s a cry for watchfulness and a plea for help.
Ben tries to convince himself that he’s still in control, but he can’t account for The Wave’s growth. He can’t explain why students from other classes and even other grade levels are following his instructions. He also can’t deny that he feels important. Although he hesitates at the thought of taking Robert on as his bodyguard, he enjoys feeling that he’s special enough to merit protection. He tells himself that he’s going further into the experiment to exhaust his methodology and create more robust data, but he’s unconvincing. Ironically and tragically, as a passionate student of history, Ben knows at some level that he’s refusing to heed the lessons of the past, insisting that he’ll be a different sort of leader despite evidence to the contrary.
In addition, these chapters also depict the first two instances of violence in association with The Wave. The fight in the quad is unambiguous. Deutsch refuses to join The Wave, and he fights back when pressured. The beating of the Jewish boy occurs off the page, and later speculation holds that the muggers called him a Jew because they wanted The Wave to be a scapegoat for the beating and robbery. Regardless, physical violence is now a reality in the experiment, and outsiders (parents and concerned citizens) are investigating.
When Laurie has the idea for a special issue of The Grapevine, Laurie becomes the story’s “hero.” She knows she’s asking for trouble, and she judges the potential risk as less important than resistance to the momentum of a dangerous idea. Thematically, Laurie (with guidance from her parents) sees mounting evidence of the need to remind the school’s students about why individual thinking is essential, emphasizing The Importance of Individuality. The threat of “or else” in the title of the anonymous letter wouldn’t be necessary if everyone unquestioningly conformed. However, no dissenting group has been able to match The Wave’s growth and speed. Realizing the nature of the threat has taken much longer than conceptualizing, introducing, and spreading fascist ideas in the school.
As Chapter 12 ends, the characters have each entered the final stage before the resolutions of their arcs. The Grapevine will be the spark that makes the dissent public and threatens The Wave.
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By Todd Strasser
