The Influence Of External Conflict In The Maze Runner, By James Dashner

In The Maze Runner, by James Dashner, Thomas, the main character, is faced with a lot of conflicts. The book even starts off with an immediate conflict, of getting placed into the Glades with no memory. He faces some tough conflicts, both internal and external. Whether it is the memory loss, the Maze, or even a decision Thomas has to make there is always a different conflict in the Glades. This is shown due to the fact that without external conflict the internal won’t exist. Also in the way that man influences Thomas’ internal conflict, the way that technology influences Minho's internal conflict, the way that nature influences Gally’s internal conflict and, the way that the society influences Alby's internal conflict These correlations

At the end of Maze Runner, Gally kills Chuck. Chuck is Thomas’ best friend, so this leads to Thomas fighting Gally. Even though it was more of a beating than a fight it is still a man vs man conflict, which results in Thomas having an internal conflict. The internal conflict of having his mind clouded by rage. “He held Gally down with his left hand, pushing down on the boy’s neck, as his right fist rained punches upon Gally’s face, one after another. Down and down and down, slamming his balled knuckles into the boy’s cheek and nose. There was crunching, there was blood, and there were horrible screams. Thomas didn’t know which was louder—Gally’s or his own. He beat him—beat him as he released every ounce of rage he’d ever owned.”(Dashner 357). This demonstrates how the external conflict of man vs man, or Gally killing Chuck leads to an internal conflict of self-control. Thomas, who is not normally a hot head, was heavily affected by the external conflict and was filled with rage. The rage controlled him, and the rage from Gally killing Chuck leads to an internal conflict within Thomas. Gally’s external conflict with Chuck directly affected Thomas’ internal emotions and actions which highlights how the external conflict influences his internal

So when the nature of the Glades changed, it was absolute chaos. It was also another external conflict that influenced an internal conflict. When the sky went dark, Gally said, “ You shut your shuck-face, Thomas. You shut up! I know who you are, but I don’t care anymore. I can only do what’s right.”(Dasher 257) . You can tell that Gally is clearly being influenced by the abnormal conditions of the Glades. You can also see that he is fighting an internal dilemma, because he says he is trying to do what is right. The external conflict of the Glades going dark has made Gally a little insane. Which has then made him face an internal conflict of trying to do what he thinks is right. Whether it is right or not, the only reason he has this conflict is because of the problem at hand, nature, also known as the sky going dark. This is a clear example of nature vs man, which leads to an internal conflict. This leads to the next example of an external conflict influencing an internal