The Maze Runner (Quarter 2 - Assignment 2)

Summary

What is going on in my book The Maze Runner by James Dashner is mostly discovering about what is going on. For example, we meet this teenaged boy named Thomas who comes out of a box with no memory of anything that is surrounded by a whole group of strangers. Two other teenagers from the group help him up named Alby and Newt. They introduce Thomas to the Glade, a farm like/forrest like land in the middle of nowhere. When Thomas arrives at the Glade he encounters a lot of conflicts for a, what the Gladers call, a "Newbie". He meets Alby & this other boy Gally on the wrong hand and almost gets devoured by a cannibal named Ben who was "stung" by what they call griever. But besides all the conflicts, something weird occurs the next day Thomas arrives. The Gladers get another Newbie from the Box where their supplies and Newbies come in. But this time, its a girl. This was weird because I have not read of a girl living in the Glade before and the Gladers get newbies every month. Furthermore, the girl came with a note that read, "She's the last one. Ever." This note meant that she was the last Newbie or "Greenbean". Alby starts to interrogate Thomas to see if he knows the unknown girl. But Thomas doesn't. What Thomas does know is a feeling he gets for the girl. He knows nothing about the girl only that he wants to be with her which is insanely weird. One important element or symbol from the Glade is the maze that they have. The Glade has "Runners" who go into the maze to try to find a way out. They've been there for TWO YEARS but never found a way out. The Runners can't stay in the maze though, because the maze closes every night and re-opens every morning. Until something weird happens. A Runner found a dead griever in the maze and that has NEVER happened before. EVER.

Genre

The genre of my story is futuristic fiction, which I figured because I've noticed that a lot of humans are not around. I always wonder where is everybody? But the main question that everybody is dying to figure out is why are the Gladers trapped in the Glade? They can't escape the maze so is it some kind of prison? This genre is pretty familiar with me because I've read a lot of futuristic books that I've made connections with. One connection I've made was the memory loss with The Giver. Jonas in The Giver notices that he's been completly wiped out of his memory ever since he was born. He didn't know who his real parents were like Thomas or where he originally came from just like Thomas. Also, Jonas doesn't know where they are or what's outside the Enviroment like Thomas with the maze. There is a way out of the Environment, but not in the maze that they know of yet. Finally, just like in The Giver they "banish" people or "release" people in the Giver. In the Maze Runner, the leaders force the person who is being banished to get crushed by the ginormous walls in public. But in The Giver, they are "released" privately but Jonas finds out what really happens. Two other connections I've made were to Divergent and The Hunger Games. My connection with Divergent is a line I've taken from The Maze Runner, "Those are called beatle blades, its where they watch us." Just like in Divergent, the people watch the citizens in Chicago through secret cameras to watch the citizens' every move. I'm guessing that's what "they" want to do in The Maze Runner as well. My last and very last connection is the The Hunger Games. The Gladers live in the Glade of course but the so called buildings they have are "Looking like they want to collapse." as it says in the book. Also, they have almost to no power and have to do mostly everything themselves. This reminded me of The Hunger Games because all the districts have to provide for everybody to work as one. But this mostly connected to District 12 who is really really poor.