The Maze Runner Essay

In the book The Maze Runner by James Dashner, Thomas finds himself going up in a lift, with only the memory of his own name. When he gets to the top, he is introduced to the Glade, the maze that surrounds it, and the other boys that had once been in this same situation. Later, to everyone’s surprise, a seemingly dead girl arrives in the Glade. Thomas eventually builds a desire to be a Runner and ends up running into the Maze to save Minho and Alby. After Thomas survives the night, the girl wakes up from her coma and tells Thomas she had triggered the ending. Several days later, along with the girl and a few other companions, Thomas figures out the key to escaping the Maze and puts together an army to finally escape. Once they reached the exit,

When the doors to the lift first opened he was bombarded with overlapping voices that overwhelmed his head. Despite this he was able to acknowledge a boy who remarked, “‘Nice to meet ya, shank, …Welcome to the Glade’” (4). Though he did not know what that meant at the moment, he knew it was important. The truck is designed with different features of the Glade. The bottom of the truck has a maze on it to represent the maze that surrounded the Glade and the effect it has on the Gladers. When Newt was giving the tour to Thomas, stresses the importance of the Maze. He comments “‘Everything we do - our whole life, Greenie - revolves around the Maze. Every lovin’ second of every lovin’ day we spend in honor of the Maze’” (38). The wood and stone above the maze design represents the buildings and walkways of the Glade. While first adjusting to the Glade, Thomas notes, “The floor of the courtyard looked like it was made of huge Stone blocks, many of them cracked and filled with long grasses and weeds. an odd dilapidated wood building near one of the corners of the square contrasted greatly with the gray stone” (7). Lastly, the trees at the front of the truck represent the patch of trees that surrounded the graveyard and the place where Thomas sometimes went to get some quiet. Thomas described these trees as “ tall and with sturdy trunks, packed tightly together, [with a] canopy up above thick with leaves”