The characters in The Wave were searching for an answer to why the Holocaust occurred. They wanted to know "Why didn't anyone try to stop them?" (Strasser 12) Questions like those haunted their teacher Mr. Ross. He tried to find an answer to their questions but failed. Until he decided to start an experiment called "The Wave."
             The Wave appealed to the students of Gordon High. It meant that no one was better than anyone else. Everyone was equal. This idea attracted a lot of kids who were classified as losers. This meant that they would be the same as the most popular kids in school. They chose to join a cult-like club, without realizing what it was. This proves that choice is very hard, especially if you see only to positive sides, not the negative.
             One student, named Robert Billings became very involved in the wave. He had been referred to as an untouchable (Strasser 17) before the wave. But once it started, he was one of the most active members. Laurie Saunders's mother referred to the wave as a cult, using Robert as her prime argument. She explained to Laurie how cults did the very thing the Wave was doing. She said that Robert had made a complete turnaround in the matter of few days. Once Robert was in the real world where there was no Wave, how would he manage? That is one of the turning points in the book where Laurie begins to realize what the Wave really was. (strasser 72) Robert had chosen the to join the Wave because he was unhappy and overshadowed by his star of an older brother. Choices never were easy for Robert to make. He must have decided to take a chance on The wave because he had nowhere to go but up.
             It is not until the last pages of the novel that the man who started the wave, Mr. Ross, realized what he had created. He had wanted to conduct a small experiment in one class that got out of hand and took over the whole school. Everyday he said to himself, "I can't end it now, just one more day." This one ...