Vince Lombardi's 'The Wave'

Vince Lombardi once said, “If you can’t accept losing, you can’t win”. In The Wave, the Nazi party social experiment proved this to be true. Gordon High School students who were a part of the wave were viewed as the “winners” in this novel, and the “losers” were those not committed to the wave. The members of the wave did not accept the other students who were not associated with the wave. Members of the wave even harassed and abused the students not devoted to the wave. When it was revealed at the wave rally that the wave was akin to the Nazis, the wave members were stunned to find out that they were the real losers. Students not a part of the wave would turn out to be the real winners since they were not involved with the negative demands of the wave, and did not succumb to the brainwashing ideals of the wave. The wave members turned out to be the losers because they did terrible things to other students. Luckily for all Gordon High School students and a middle school reader like myself, losing has a potential to teach us all how to win in the end.

In my personal experience, losing has been a good teacher. Whenever I lose, I always question what I did wrong, and how I should do it next time. When I was, younger I lost a cash-prize fishing tournament because of poor time management. What I had yet to learn was that when a fish is out of the water it begins to lose weight. I decided to leave my fish in a bucket of water and wait instead of taking it to the way-in station as soon as I caught it. I chose to continue fishing to try to catch an even larger fish. My fish was losing weight with each additional cast, and I was oblivious of it. From this I learned the importance of time management, a lot like Robert from The Wave. Robert was a social outsider before joining the wave, but once he got involved with the wave he started to change. He started to see the importance of time management when he felt like he could do better. Robert realized in order to do better and fit in with the “winners” he had to give himself more time to get ready and actually do his assignments, which later helped him get friends and respect in the wave. Just like me, Robert gained from the loss by learning how to manage his time. Loss can change your point of view. David, Laurie’s boyfriend, has his views completely …show more content…
Robert exemplified this since he started at the bottom, as the class loser, and then worked his way up to being the bodyguard of the wave’s leader, Mr. Ross. Before the wave, Robert was an unorganized nerd with no friends, who put no effort put towards his education or social life. Soon after being introduced to the wave, Robert started to come out of his shell. He put more time towards socializing, dressing, grooming, and his studies; because of it a new him was born. If Robert maintains this new him, then he would have a true win from the wave. This will help him if he maintains it, but if Robert just forgets the only lesson that will be burned into his