Ben Ross

Outer characterization

Ben Ross is the main character in Morton Rhue’s novel The Wave. He is a young, ambitious history teacher with wavy brown hair who has only been teaching at Gordon High School for two years. He is regarded as “contagious” by his students, as he is always coming up with new and exciting ideas for teaching. 

Within the teaching community, however, the opinions regarding Mr Ross are divided, as many feel that he is too young, overenthusiastic, or even naïve (Chapter 1, 50%-63%). Ben is married to a woman named Christy, who always makes fun of him because he is not skilled at crafts (Chapter 1, 50%). The two live in a house together and often talk about their jobs, as Christy is also a teacher at Gordon High School (Chapter 1, 38-50%).

Inner characterization

Ben Ross is a very idealistic teacher who covers his material with great dedication and always tries to make the students understand the teaching content. If his class doesn't quite understand something, he looks for new methods to present the material even better. His approach is often slightly unusual, which the students find exciting and interesting (Chapter 1, 50%).

The idea for the experiment “The Wave” (Chapter 4, 25%...