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The Wave

1007 Words5 Pages

There is always a science to everything, whether it’s taste in style, reactions to different events or even taste in friends. Our human brain reacts to social conformity in a peculiar way. Research reveals “the brain activity that underlies our tendency to "follow the crowd” and how human behavior can be guided by the perceived behavior of other individuals. Our natural human conformist nature leads us to do things that are dangerous, silly or even crazy. In the novel, “The Wave”, individuals in Gordon High are under the severe influence of a classroom experiment lead by Ben Ross. “ The Wave” impacted many students by making them feel part of a greater good, giving them a leader with reasons to follow, and letting conformity get to the best …show more content…

In “ The Wave”, conformity plays an essential part. Many students were under the influence of others, whether it be through want or through pressure. Members of “The Wave” felt equal to other peers in their school. They felt desired and in order to keep feeling desired, they became caught up in whatever actions everyone else were taking. The biggest reason the students were so entangled in “The Wave” was because of fear. Fear had control of their minds. It was the fear of being unwanted, the fear of being left out, and especially the fear of being invisible. Many did feel left out and threatened because of their choice not to participate in “The Wave”. For example, in the book, a boy name Deutsch was attacked due to his lack of wanting to participate in “The Wave”. Though “The Wave” was an event that damaged students, it also brought students back to life from their idealistic …show more content…

Though “The Wave” had negative effect on the students most of the time, it also brought the students to realization. Students were broken out of their trance, their trance of living in perfection and it revealed to them that the greater good was not really that great. Their idea of perfection was no different then Hitler and the Nazis view of perfection. The students were out of focus before ‘The Wave” was created, which is one of the main reasons they became so quickly attached to “The Wave”. Even though “The Wave” had varying reasons on why everyone was so interested, the largest reason was conformity. The students let conformity run their minds, and instead of thinking as individuals, they thought as one idealistic group. “The Wave” truly enhanced the views of different students at Gordon High. They cannot be blamed for their actions but they can be blamed for lacking courage to stand up because the opposite of courage in our society in not cowardice, it is conformity (-Rollo

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