Maze Runner

Book by James DashnerPower point by Emily Brasch

Setting

• The setting takes place in the Glade. There are four main sections, The Blood House, is in the south east corner and has the animals where they slaughter them for food, The Gardens, where they grow the crops, Homestead, where some Gladers sleep, and The Dead-heads, where the grave yard is and where the forest is. Also, right outside the Glade is the maze. In the middle is the box. That is where they get supplies and other needs like clothes, food, and water.

Setting

This is how I imagine the maze. It has big walls of ivy and endless path ways.

Characters

Thomas• Thomas is the main character, he’s about 16 years old. He is

5’9’ and has brown hair. He is curious and very adventurous, he likes to explore and get all the details of any situation. He feel like he knows Teresa from before the Glade. He knows she looks familiar but doesn’t know how he remembers that because his memory had been wiped before he got to the Glade. Thomas is the protagonist in the book and a major character. He is a dynamic character because he keeps trying different plans to escape and I think he becomes more intelligent because he learned and re-taught him self so many things and concepts.

Teresa• Teresa is the first girl to ever be in the Glade. She has very pale

skin, bright blue eyes, and pink lips. Thomas has some recognition of her when she first appears in The Box. She is mysterious and very bright. She is caring and believes in staying strong. She can communicate mentally with Thomas through her thoughts. She feels like she has a special connection to him. She is a major character in the book because she helps motivate Thomas and she knew him before they got to the maze. Teresa is a static character.

Chuck• Chuck is a young boy, about 12 to 13 years old. He has long

brown hair and blue eyes. He is very annoying and persistent. He wants to have friends, but what he really wants most of all is to have his mom and dad back. Chuck is very kind and caring. He is a major character in the book because he is Thomas’s best friend and gives Thomas hope that after they get out of the maze, life will be good. Chuck is a dynamic character because as the book goes on he becomes more confident and brave.

Minho• Minho is the Keeper of Runners. He is a very good runner and

super athletic. He is a thick, heavily muscled Asian kid. He has strong arms with big biceps. He appears to be brave, which most of the time he is, but compared to Thomas he’s just another kid who dreams of getting back to the real world. He is intelligent with an amazing memory and very good reflexes, which makes him a perfect runner. He is a static character because he doesn’t change. Minho is a major character because he becomes he trains Thomas how to be a runner.

Alby• Alby is the oldest boy in the Glade, about 17 years old. He is in

charge, he’s like a leader and a role model to all the other boys. He is dark skinned with short cropped hair and a clean shaven face with a permanent scowl. He is a good thinker and wants everyone to be happy and really does care for everyone. He is generous and courageous. He is a dynamic character because slowly through out the book, his hope that their going to get out fades until he goes crazy. Alby is not a major character in the story, but he does guide everyone what to do when they get into bad situations.

Gally• Gally is 15 years old and has a scratchy voice. He is tall and skinny

with black hair. His nose is the size of a small fist and resembles a deformed potato. He is mean, untrustworthy, a bully, and also a traitor. He is a major character in the book. He is static because he stays evil through out the whole book. The Creator’s are the antagonists because they ignite the fury and rage inside of Thomas to get back to real life and out of the maze. They are the ones that put all of them there and they are the ones who put all of kids through this, even if it meant killing some.

Figurative Langauge

Imagery • 1. “It’s body resembled a gigantic slug, sparsely covered in hair and glistening with

slime, grotesquely pulsating in and out as it breathed. It had no distinguishable head or tail, but front to end it was at least six feet long, four feet thick.”

• 2. “A twisted, pale figure writhing in agony, chest bare and hideous. Tight, rigid cords of sickly green veins webbed across the boy’s body and limbs, like ropes under his skin. Purplish bruises covered the kid, red hives, bloody scratches. His bloodshot eyes bulged, darting back and forth.”

• 3. “The Gladers were quiet, not a soul moved. A distant scraping of metal against wood echoed through the house; it seemed to Thomas like a Griever was climbing on the back side of the Homestead, opposite where they were.”

Foreshadowing

• 1. An example of foreshadowing that I found in my book was when Thomas first gets to the Glade and their describing Gally. “One boy’s eyes, flared with hatred, stopped him cold. He looked so angry, Thomas wouldn’t have been surprised if the kid came at him with a knife.”

• 2. Gally says this to Thomas in the beginning of the book. ‘ “Listen to me, Greenbean. I’ve seen you before. Something’s fishy about you showing up here, and I’m gonna find out what.”’

Metaphor/Simile

• Metaphor- Pg. 293 “The air in the room seemed to freeze into solid ice.”

• Simile- Pg. 291 “The end result looked to Thomas like an army of drunk guys had done the work…”

Alliteration, Personification, Onomatopoeia

• Onomatopoeia:• Pg.127- “Whirrrrrrrrrrr, click click click, whirrrrrrrrrrr.”• Pg.119- “Buh-bump, buh- bump, buh-bump.”• Pg.123- “Clangs from the Maze. Whirrs. Buzzes. Moans.”

• Alliteration:• Pg. 126- “…Receding back through the moist skin with a sick slurping sound.”

• Personification:• Pg.124- “The terrible sounds he’d heard escalate for the last hour took on a high-

pitched, squeal, like a robotic death yell.”• Pg.124- “He ached with weariness; his muscles screamed.”

Plot

Rising Action

• Rising Action- Rising Action is the part of the book that leads up to the Climax. The Rising Action of the story is when Teresa declares “she has triggered the ending”. This is when things just start falling apart in the Glade and the real action starts to take place. The sky turns gray, the walls don’t close, and the Grievers have full access to the Glade. And also when they figure out the code of the Maze, “FLOAT, CATCH, BLEED, DEATH, STIFF, PUSH.”

Rising Action Picture

Climax

• Climax- The Climax is a big part of the story where everything starts to piece its way together. The climax of the story is when the Gladers’ figure out that they have to go to the computer room. The computer room is through the Griever Hole, the only way you can get there is by jumping off The Cliff. Thomas purposely got stung by a Griever and goes through The Changing to remember something of his past life, to see how to get out of The Maze. This is how they get their plan on how to leave.

Climax Picture

Falling Action• Falling Action- Falling Action is part after the Climax and the problem has

usually been solved. The falling action is when most of the kids go out in the Maze to fight the Grievers and attempt to escape by making a safe path for Teresa, Thomas, and Chuck to get to the Griever Hole. Once they get inside they have to go to a computer and type in the code of the Maze that they found by observing the maps that the runners make everyday after being in the Maze. After the code gets punched in then all the Griever’s will shut down and everyone can come in the Griever Hole and they can leave. When the leave, the find them selves in a large Laboratory. Gally shows up in the lab and throws a knife at Thomas but Chuck intercepts it to save Thomas and gets stabbed by blocking his best friend. One of the ladies at the lab starts talking but then suddenly, masked people come in and kill the woman, and lead all the Gladers outside and load them into a bus. They find out that there is a horrible sickness going around called “The Flare”, and the Glader’s are supposed to save everyone.

Falling Action Picture

Conflict

Conflicts in the Story• A man vs. man conflict is between Gally and Thomas, Gally doesn’t like

Thomas because of the images he saw of Thomas when he went through The Changing.

• A man vs. nature is when the sky turns gray and the plants aren’t getting light so they can’t get a lot of food.

• A man vs. society is when the Keeper’s call a meeting to discuss what to do with Thomas. Thomas is not allowed to say anything and the Keeper’s have to decide what to do with Thomas, put him in the Slammer or make him a runner, or even better, Keeper of the Runners.

• A man vs. self would be when Thomas is trying to prepare himself to get ready to get stung by the Grivers. Another example is when Thomas is trying to search his brain for memories of Teresa, or anything from his past life.

• A man vs. fate is when Thomas, Chuck, and Teresa are trying to escape the maze. They have to jump through the Griever Hole, which is only a few feet wide. They had to trust themselves that they would make it in when they jumped off The Cliff.

Theme and Resolution

Theme The theme of a book is the most important thing the author wants the

reader to understand, the moral of the story. I think the theme in The Maze Runner is keep trying. I say this because the kids in the Glade tried multiple times to escape, but it never worked. They never gave up and they finally found a way out. On page 264 there is an example. “ ‘You’re right- you’re right! But the Runners have been looking at it wrong this whole time. They’ve been analyzing it the wrong way!”’ They never gave up which is how they found out the code of the maze. Another part where Thomas doesn’t give up is when he first goes into the Maze with Alby and Minho. Thomas was trying to help Alby because he had been stung by a Griever. He had to protect him so he wouldn’t get killed by them. A piece of evidence is on pg. 120, “Quickly, Thomas grabbed other vines, ripping them away from the wall, creating a series of climbing ropes. He tested each one, and they all proved to be as strong as the first. Encouraged, he went back to Alby and dragged him over to the vines.”

ResolutionThe resolution of a story is the ending when the

conflict is solved. The resolution is my book is when they finally escape the Maze and are in the bus with the people that took them away from the Wicked Laboratory.

Links

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maze

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