Maze Runner Essay

Maze Runner is a science fiction book by James Dashner. It takes place in a testing facility that is a giant maze in a post apocalyptic world. The main character Thomas' greatest fear is being stung by a griever. Grievers are large half mechanic half slug monster with mechanical arms and if it stings you will die with out the Grief Serum, if you do get it in time you go through a terrible process called the changing. During this process you remember things from before the maze. So this is a reasonable fear. He confronts these fears by exploring the maze were the Grievers live. He is also afraid of being trapped in the maze overnight because that means you will most likely get stung, even with this he still rushed into the maze to save his friend. Gally is the one person who hates Thomas from the start and says he remembers him from the changing. Gally is also of afraid of the outside because he remembered something awful called the flare. It seems to be unreasonable to everybody else because they have not seen it on the outside... Or so they can remember. He remembers it is called the Flare, they later learn that solar flares have made places near the equator uninhabitable and there is a virus that targets the brain making it so that you are reduced to nothing but a wild animal with nothing but the need for survival. Gally is also banished from the glade and is later forced to kill Thomas' best friend Chuck. Teresa is the first girl in the glade and the last not just the last girl, the last person. They did not trust her because she was the first girl and "Wicked is Good" written on her arm. This made them distrust her because they had always thought Wicked was bad because there are signs that say W.I.C.K.E.D. in the maze. It stands for World In Catastrophe: Killzone Experiment Department who are trying to find a cur for the Flare. The characters in this book all have reasonable fears but are all brave and for the most part they confront them at one point or another. I'm also surprised that none of them are afraid of the fact that they are trapped in a maze or who put them there. Instead of being afraid they work together to escape the maze. Fear is not always a bad thing it can help keep people on there toes. It helps Thomas because when he is in the maze he is always careful and alert for grievers. It can also be a bad thing like in Gallys case it got him banished and ultimately killed.