assignment 1 compare contrast essay

SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE, BUILDING AND DESIGNTHE DESIGN SCHOOL

FOUNDATION IN NATURAL BUILD ENVIRONMENT

NAME: LIM ZI SHAN

STUDENT ID NO: 0320372

FILMS SELECTED: Maze Runner & Divergent

WORD COUNT: 1001 words

ENGLISH 2 (ELG 30605)

WRITTEN ASSIGNMENT 1: COMPARE – CONTRAST ESSAY

LECTURER: CASSANDRA WIJESURIA

SUBMISSION DATE: APRIL 9th, 2015

Science Fiction Films are generally scientific, visionary, and imaginative, and

usually portrayed through unrealistic yet imaginative settings, and it sometimes contain

advanced technology such as talking robots or programmed with awesome special effects.

Many Sci-Fi movies highlight time-travels and are situated either on Earth, into outer

space, or most often in the future time. Regardless of all those details, I’ll be writing

about the difference between two Sci-Fi movies which is The Maze Runner and

Divergent about their main character, settings, themes and ending of the movies.

Main character which also known as protagonist is a special character that a

writer has to create that the audience will root for or hate. Protagonist is normally the one

with most screen time and face with most of the obstacles in the movie. In Maze Runner,

Thomas, a simple ordinary guy, found himself woke up in the Glade only knowing his

name. Thomas is a brave person who is eager to find a way leaving the Glade even if that

risks his life while the others intend to survive in the Glade until there’s an exit was

found. Thomas is also a clever and loyal person where he saved Minho from the Griever

and managed to find a way out of the Glade. As for the movie Divergent , Tris is a 16-

year-old girl who chooses Dauntless which devoted to courage and toughness. However

through her aptitude test it was presumed that she was a Divergent - which means that she

can’t be controlled and if she somehow happened to be found out, she will be killed. Tris

is a strong-willed, courageous, where she managed to complete all the challenges given

for the exam to get into Dauntless without any fear. She is also reluctant to show her

weakness when she found out that Four can see her fear during the aptitude test.

To make it easier to understand what’s the movie is about, this paragraph will

be talking about the theme of the movies. One of the themes of The Maze Runner is

friendship. Friendship between the Gladers in such harsh condition in the Glade allow

survival. They relied on each other to fill certain roles which allows self-sustaining life.

Thomas is able to make friends with Chuck when he first arrived in the Glade despite the

fact that he was occasionally annoyed by Chuck. He also managed to form a working

bonds with Minho which allows him to lead the others out of the Maze. But it seems that

Thomas has the closest bond with Teresa. They were able to recognize each other even

when they’ve lost their memory about themselves. However in Divergent, the theme

showed is fear. Dauntless are known for their courage but in reality they’re actually more

focused on fear. The Dauntless spent a lot of time confronting their fears, making effort to

move on and refuse to be tormented by their fear any longer. During their confrontation

with their fears, they’ve come to point where they start questioning what courage actually

is. Eventually Tris have come to realized that courage is about standing up for what she

believes in.

You also can see the difference in the settings for both movies. The Maze

Runner was set in the Glade which was the living place for the Gladers. The Glade is

surrounded by four high concrete walls with an opening in the center called the Door. The

Door would be closed during the night and re-opens the next morning. The Glade has

four sections which is Gardens, Homestead, Bloodhouse and Deadheads. Gardens is

where the Gladers grow their crops and pump their water, Homestead is where the

Gladers sleep and the Slammer which functions as jail where Thomas was imprisoned

inside when he broke the rules in the Glade is located behind Homestead. The livestock

are raised and slaughter in the Bloodhouse and Deadheads is a small forest area with a

graveyard. In Divergent, The Pit is a large underground cavern with uneven rock walls

that rise several stories high. This is also the place where Tris and others stay after

they’ve chosen their desirable faction which is Dauntless. They also have their training

for shooting and fighting skills to prepare for their test in The Pit. All of the Dauntless

gathered at The Pit after dinner and was injected with some kind of serum that enabled

the Erudite took over their bodies to kill the Abnegations to find Divergents.

Lastly I’ll be writing about the differences between endings of both movies.

Some of the people in the Glade chose to leave the Glade with Thomas while some of

them chose to stay with at the Glade with Gally. During their way out, they had a tough

fight with the Grievers and eventually got out of the Maze. They entered a lab full with

dead bodies and discovered a video that reveals that they were a new generation that

could survive a deadly virus that attacks the brain. At the end of the movie, they were

taken away by some soldiers to another place by a helicopter. In Divergent, reaching the

end of the movie, Four was injected with the serum by Jeanine. He fought with Tris but

right before he could kill her, with her love for him , he fights back against the serum.

Four and Tris then defeated others in the lab and take over Jeanine’s mind with the serum

to stop Tris’ friends from killing innocent people. Tris with her comrades then heading

out of Dauntless as they board the train.

To summarize, despite of both movies’ interesting point of their main

character, settings, themes and their endings, both movies are well-known and well-

enjoyed by the viewers. Both of the movies are popular books that made into movies

shelf and viewers are still looking forward for the continuation of the movie.

ReferencesFilmsite.org,. (2015). Science Fiction Films. Retrieved 7 April 2015, from

http://www.filmsite.org/sci-fifilms.html

Gradesaver.com,. (2015). Divergent Characters. Retrieved 7 April 2015, from

http://www.gradesaver.com/divergent/study-guide/character-list

Gradesaver.com,. (2015). The Maze Runner Summary. Retrieved 7 April 2015,

from http://www.gradesaver.com/the-maze-runner/study-guide/summary

Roth, V. (2015). Divergent (2014). IMDb. Retrieved 7 April 2015, from

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1840309/

Shmoop,. (2015). The Maze Runner Setting. Retrieved 7 April 2015, from

http://www.shmoop.com/the-maze-runner/setting.html

Themoviespoiler.com,. (2015). Movie Spoiler for the film - DIVERGENT.

Retrieved 7 April 2015, from

http://www.themoviespoiler.com/Spoilers/Divergent.html

assignment 1 compare contrast essay

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