The Maze Runner: Author's Craft

             This world is full of problems. Some are not easy to solve but none are impossible. We have to solve them because that’s what we live for. There are only two types of people in this world: those who have given up and those who endured and succeeded. In the book “The Maze Runner” by James Dashner, these characters face so many problems. The maze imprisoned them. The Grievers threaten their lives every time they set foot in the maze. Dashner uses the Gladers to symbolize people who are persistent problem solvers.

             In the beginning of the book, the Gladers thought that the maze was impossible to solve. The maze kept changing at night, it’s enormous and dangerous at night. They kept going in but no one ever found an exit before sunset. Dashner also put the Griever in the maze to make it harder than it had to be. The Grievers are terrifying mechanical beasts. Its “stung” give intense pain and extremely dangerous poison; if you don’t get the antidote and go through the Changing, you won’t make it. Every Gladers that face the Griever never even thought of standing up to it, they just give up hope when they see it. Until Chapter 21 when Thomas and Minho was stuck in the maze at night. They ran at first but then they tried to send it off the cliff and it worked. On top of that, when Thomas and Minho returned they told the council their story and Thomas came up with a plan. Forty people agreed with Thomas and came along. They fought with the Grievers and they won; however, they lost 20 people.The rest of them exited the maze. The author is trying to say that if you meet a small obstacle like the Griever, you stand up to it and if you still failed but you don’t stop trying, you will succeed in the end.

             Furthermore, the author let the Gladers be “stung” by the Griever to demonstrate to the reader that no matter what hardship you endure in the time of solving the problem, it will pays off in the end. In the book, Dashner told the reader that every time the Gladers got “stung” by the Griever they get the serum and they go through The Changing and then they heal. When you get stuck with a problem you don’t keep going with the same way; you need to stop and change your strategy then try again. The Changing, in the story, let the character remember their past but also intense pain that have been left by the Griever. Thomas wanted to remember so he got himself stung on purpose and he went through the Changing then he came up with a plan that work successfully. In other word, the author is trying to tell you to endure hardship that is in front of you, it’s always pays off in the end. That’s why Dashner added The Changing to the healing process when getting stung by the Grievers.

             However, some people might argue that the maze, rather than the Gladers, is the main symbol of the story and it symbolizes the whole problem that we face everyday of our lives. The maze kept changing which tell the reader that our problem are changing as well. There are Grievers in the maze that represent people who keep making the problem, or the maze in the story, harder. That certainly can be true; however, it doesn’t account for the way the story goes, it isn’t about the problem itself but about the people who solve it. The maze is created for the Gladers for an experiment by W.I.C.K.E.D(a group of scientist that work together to study the Gladers’ brain and how they react to problems that seem unsolvable and study the brain wave so they can find a cure to the disease). It is about finding people who is truly persistent that will solve the problem no matter how bad the situation is or how many people they lose. From the beginning throughout the end, the author talked about Gladers themselves: how they thrive to find the solution, how some of them being scared and give up and how they succeed in fighting back.

             All in all, Dashner thought that we all need to solve the problems we faced and he encouraged us not to give up, stay calm and act accordingly to guarantee one hundred percent success. If you don’t get it the first time, you altered your approach and try again.

By Sewen