Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Wave, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Groupthink and Coercion
History and the Past
Equality vs. Independence
Education
Summary
Analysis
As the Wave rally approaches, Laurie stands at her locker, feeling increasingly uncertain about whether or not she wants to attend. Something deep inside her is anxious about The Wave. Laurie is beginning to realize that there are people in school who are actually afraid of The Wave and its members. Laurie is snapped from her reverie as she notices a fight erupting on the quad—Brian Ammon is fighting another boy, and as a teacher separates them, Brian shouts out The Wave motto.
In this passage, as Laurie questions her own instincts about The Wave, she witnesses an incident of Wave-related violence—and realizes that the voice inside her head has been right all along.
Themes
David comes up to Laurie and explains that Brian was fighting another football player named Deutsch—a “jerk” who has refused to join The Wave. David asks Laurie to follow him to the rally, but Laurie says she’s not going—she thinks the school is taking The Wave too seriously. David retorts that Laurie is the one who isn’t taking The Wave seriously enough. She has always been popular and a natural leader, David says, and if she joins The Wave, many others will. Laurie says that students need to make up their own minds about joining The Wave.
David and Laurie continue to argue about The Wave. Laurie is nervous about joining The Wave and renouncing her individuality, but David accuses her of holding her social capital back and damaging The Wave in doing so. This shows that David doesn’t care about individuality in the face of the greater good, while Laurie is desperate to maintain her sense of self.
Themes
David says that The Wave is important because it makes everyone equal, but Laurie claims that he’s too idealistic, and is creating a “utopian Wave society” in his head. Laurie says that there will “always be a few people” who don’t want to join—and that’s all right. David nastily retorts that Laurie is against The Wave because it means she’s “not special anymore.” The two of them continue angrily sniping at one another until David stalks off towards the gym. As he does, Laurie realizes just how “out of control” everyone is.
When Laurie refuses to join The Wave and tries to confide her fears in David, he reacts with cruelty and verbal violence. He wants to break Laurie down and shame her for her individuality—a hallmark of fascistic thought and an important part of The Wave’s success.
Themes
During the rally, Laurie hides out in the Grapevine office. About halfway through, Alex comes into the office, denigrating The Wave rally as a militaristic freak show. Laurie agrees with him. Soon, Carl comes into the room too, and the three of them discuss putting out a new issue of The Grapevine—one that exposes The Wave for what it really is. Laurie tells the boys to come to an “emergency” meeting at her house that Sunday to plan the issue.
Laurie is relieved to find that though Amy, David, and her other friends have fallen prey to The Wave’s influence, there are still some likeminded individuals left at Gordon High who are willing to resist The Wave’s pull.
Themes
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That night, Laurie hides up in her room, having told her parents about her fight with David but feeling too embarrassed to discuss it in-depth. Mr. Saunders knocks on Laurie’s door and comes in to talk to her. He tells her he’s concerned about The Wave not just because it’s the source of her and David’s fight—but because he heard a story on the golf course about a Jewish boy being beaten up at Gordon High for refusing to attend the Wave rally. Laurie is shocked, and tells her father that she’s more determined than ever to use the school paper to expose the dark side of The Wave.
Laurie witnessed one incident of Wave-related violence at school with her own two eyes. Now, hearing about another—one that seems to target a Jewish individual, bringing The Wave one step closer to true Nazism—Laurie realizes that something at the heart of The Wave is very, very wrong. Rather than renounce her individuality to fit in, she decides to wield it even more proudly, and use it to try to stop The Wave’s advancement.
Themes
