Conformity And Power In Todd Strasser's The Wave

Additionally, he makes overgeneralizations regarding the unfair attitude of educators towards their students when he says that “[The hostile attitude is common] in many educational circles, but no student deserves to encounter it (7)”. The essence of his argument is that the behavior of one professor is representative of all

For three generations of boys, Mr.Hundert in the short story “The Palace Thief” by Ethan Canin has molded his students into the leaders of tomorrow. Mr.Hundert is candid about the Senators and other successful men that he has produced from his classroom at St.Benedict’s school. Being as certain as he was about his ability to create future leaders, when Mr.Hundert’s belief is challenged by Senator Bell, he surely goes against his moral compass in order to prove that Senator Bell is wrong. Mr.Hundert is aware that he is making a mistake however, he proceeds to augment Sedgewick Bell’s grades so that Sedgewick Bell would be able to participate in a prestigious school competition. At first, Mr. Hundert does this furtively, however when Sedgewick Bell cheats during the competition, Mr.Hundert’s initial actions of changing Sedgewick’s grade begin to to spin out of control. Called into question by the Bell’s, Mr.Hundert simultaneously ruins his reputation as an honest man, yet also proves his ability to not merely teach his students, but rather mold them, repeating his own mistakes of allowing himself to be used by others.

Early in his dissertation, he says, “... the story of the innocent who is persecuted despite his innocence, perhaps even because of it. The superior child whose virtues are not recognized. The adults who fail to protect. The vicious bullies who get away with their bullying. That was the world as I saw it in seventh

This is modeled by the quote “For it may be said of men in general that they are ungrateful and fickle, dissemblers, avoiders of danger, and greedy of gain”. The stated exposes the power thirsty side of man that has been conversed about by philosophers since the early sixteenth century. Additionally, in the short play “The Wave,” high school children are shown easily being brainwashed into forming a type of school government similar to the S.S. of Nazi Germany and feeling so powerful they could not even see the damage they were causing to others. The students build their government within a few days and are against anyone who tries to oppose them. A character named Laurie tries to stop them and the group makes plans saying, “Laurie Sanders is a threat.

Why did the Holocaust occur? Why did people not try to put an end to the cruel and vicious Nazi behavior earlier on? In Todd Strasser’s novel The Wave, the students at Gordon High School also pondered these questions. In response, their history teacher, Ben Ross, creates an experiment designed to give his students a sense of what living in Nazi Germany would have actually been like. Mr. Ross does this by creating The Wave, a rule intensive, highly structured movement. In The Wave, the students are all equal and they learn strength through discipline, community, and action. However, Mr. Ross and the members of The Wave do not realize the trance like state that The Wave has put them in. They take this small experiment way too far

On the other hand, Paulo Friere argues about the authority educators exerts over the students, how educators believe they have more power and knowledge than their students. “His task is to "fill" the students with the contents of his narration” (Frierre 1, paragraph 2). We memorize other people’s information and we think we are doing a great job, but what would happen if one of us unfolds and break the boundaries between authority and communication. What will be the consequences for us; are we going to fail the class for thinking outside of the box. We are not empty receptacles to be filled with recited words; we have the right to express our point of view and listen to our way of thinking. When are going to get the benefit of the doubt, what educational system do we have to follow, we are lost between consumerism and the lack of

They say history repeats itself, and in order to keep mistakes from the past happening again we have to teach the younger generation what happened, and what were the outcomes. though it was proven in the novel The Wave by Todd Strasser, history can repeat itself. The author makes us question how easy it is for mistakes in the past to recur. as the wave became a more serious situation in the book, characters in the book completely changed their attitude and personality for better or worse. In this literary essay I will assess the educational value, the risks involved with the experiment, and weather or not this experiment should have been done without the consent of the parents and supreme

The students did not understand why the German people followed Adolf Hitler. The teacher, Ben Ross, made an experiment called “The Wave” which showed how the Nazis controlled the German people. The theme “Following the crowd is not always right” has a huge effect in the story and is the main point of the book. The people in the school followed the crowd , the Wave, and if someone did not follow, they were bullied. “The whole idea of The Wave is that the people in it have to support it.

Projecting an absolute ignorance onto others, a characteristic of the ideology of oppression, negates education and knowledge as processes of inquiry” (58). If knowledge is treated as a gift, then who is worthy to receive it? In this oppressive society, only the minority of the upper class is treated as worthy. If a teacher treats students as if they are beneath his worth, how can students be expected to learn? In the society Freire wishes for, knowledge would be shared. Teachers would learn hand in hand with students to develop critical thinking skills. Not only does Freire make clear that he does not support his current government’s way of education, he flat out despises it. He continually refers to his country’s current teachers as “oppressors” (60) and calls the banking system “necrophilous”(64).

Themes such as the power of knowledge, conformity, censorship, governmental control, and responsibility for self-provide students with the foundation with which to explore their roles in society” (Tarner, Danielle, and Adam Umak). The Giver explains that if one should be their own person then one should have themes of power. Having a sense of responsibility is an important characteristic of being an

And, therefore, fascism and the governing and publicising industry, moreover, exploit individualism and the masses, which accept their fabricated destinies. This mental depravity while it antagonises free singularity and personality of the mind promulgates sham hopes as hierarchical superiority; furthermore, it advocates hostility and war when fear prevails.

From his grief state, he decides to seek solace in revenge. After all, it is natural instinct for humankind to have malevolent thirst for the blood of their enemies. First, it is the school, which destroyed his heritage and self-respect; how he hates it. Then, it is the evil imperialists, who executed his parents and sister and caused his abject existence.

In “Hungry” and “On Becoming Educated” by Joy Castro as well as “Our Secret” by Susan Griffin, personal and political history work in similar ways to uncover the magnitude of similarities everyone contains. Castro uses her personal stories to emphasize societal norms, in relation to feminism, and how they affect and have affected learning similarly in history and modern times. Griffin takes on a similar task, but she relates her childhood interactions with family to those affected by the Holocaust, particularly Heinrich Himmler. Both writers identify sections in which they utilize elements of autobiography to connect individual life to the larger cultural and political implications by placing similar stories in order and broadening their choice of words and phrases. Castro and Griffin portray exactly how similar actions and occurrences can be due to the way society influences people and their ignorance, deception, and hidden intentions.

The movie, “The Emperor’s Club” tells a story concerning a passionate and principled teacher, Mr. Hundert, who finds his world a little shaken when a new student, Sedgewick Bell walks into his classroom. Mr. Hundert teaches at Saint Benedict, a private school for boys. The movie begins with Mr. Hundert stating that a man 's character is his faith and that for the most of us, our stories can be written before we die. This movie is very powerful, regarding principles, virtues, and ethics that revolve around a teacher.

Caught up in the compelling experiment Ben falls for the role of a dictator as his student’s improvement increases his lust for power. Once the students embrace the ideas about community and discipline, Ross begins to have more power over them as “…they wanted him to lead them …something he could not deny”, indicating that he had a good feeling which rapidly developed and controlled him. They were eager to learn more about the Wave and as a result Ben Ross becomes defensive of his project when questioned by the school principal. Ross longs to lead as being the leader of the movement makes him thirsty for power, thus he becomes manipulated. He ‘slipped into the role of a dictator’ but as the experiment progressed and Ross came across his students saluting in the hallways, he realised that his class is not ‘a science lab’.