Ella’s Parents

Ella's parents are connected to the idea of status, but they represent something more: What happens when ordinary people who have never had power suddenly receive it?

One influence on this idea was the German film Die Welle (The Wave).

What made it even more fascinating was that the story was inspired by something that actually happened in California. In 1967, history teacher Ron Jones conducted an experiment called The Third Wave with his students at Cubberley High School in Palo Alto. He wanted to demonstrate how ordinary people could be drawn into a movement like the Nazi movement through discipline, unity, belonging, obedience, and a sense of shared purpose.

The experiment grew far beyond a simple classroom lesson. Students became increasingly committed to the movement, adopted its rules and symbols, and some began excluding or reporting classmates who refused to participate.

That real experiment later became the inspiration for The Wave.

The story explores how an authoritarian or totalitarian movement can develop among ordinary people. People who may previously have felt unimportant or like outsiders suddenly become part of something. Some are given status, authority, and influence they never had before.

And very quickly, something changes.

What begins as belonging becomes conformity.
What begins as unity becomes exclusion.
What begins as importance becomes power.

And power can turn into hostility toward anyone who refuses to follow.

I definitely see parallels to our own time. Different circumstances, of course, but the psychology behind it still feels very familiar.

Sometimes it arrives offering belonging. Purpose. Order. Importance. Power. A common enemy. Someone to blame for your failures.

I first saw the movie in Austria when I was in school. It was basically a must-watch at my school, and the idea behind it stayed with me. I remember that after I moved to the United States, I talked about the film with another friend from Europe. We both found it strange that so many people in the U.S. had never heard of it, especially because the original experiment had actually taken place here.

To me, it was such a powerful lesson in how people can be drawn into something harmful while believing that they are becoming part of something good. That idea stayed with me when I created Ella's parents. They do not play a big role in my book, but I added them because they gave me another way to put some of my own emotions into the story—and to reflect on things from the past that had stayed with me.

In my book, they have finally tasted importance. They have status. They have influence. People suddenly listen to them.

And now they are terrified of losing it.

They are even willing to pressure their own daughter into staying with a man she does not truly want because preserving their position has become more important than her happiness.

They remind me of another kind of parent we sometimes see—in Hollywood, sports, business, or anywhere ambition takes over—where the child's life slowly becomes part of the parent's own identity and success.

At some point, support becomes pressure.
Love becomes ambition.
And eventually, love can become possession.