In society there is constant change everyday. When a problem is solved, new ones arise. Ideally, we all should work to solve the problems and to make the world a better place and to do that the right decisions must be made. People, however, have interesting ways of making decisions and sometimes it’s really hard to know if you have made the right or wrong decision. The book “The Maze Runner" by James Dashner takes place in a dystopian world which is a maze that was created by an organization named W.I.C.K.E.D. (World In Catastrophe: Killzone Experiment Department) that used selected boys to study their brain functions to produce a cure for a disease called The Flare. This disease occurred in another dystopian world that Dashner had created. However, nobody really knows if this is the perfect solution for the problem, but they go with it, even though not everyone in the society agrees with it. So, one theory is sometimes you need to trust your instinct and ignore what your brain or society says in order to solve problems.
In this book, Minho, who is the leader of the runners and Alby who is the leader of the Glade were going to see the dead Griever (a mechanical beast that was part of the experiment). Minho had reported that Griever was dead, but then later turned out that the Griever was not dead and it “stung” Alby. They couldn’t travel really fast and reach the gate at seconds before sunset. They had to reach the gate before sunset, because it closed at sunset, when the Grievers would come out. Thomas was at the gate but didn’t know what to do but decided on his instinct that he would go out of the Glade and help the two. Later the gate closed right after Thomas had ran out. At that moment Minho was scolding him for how stupid he was instead of working on a plan. Minho was losing hope and still shaking when he told Thomas that they needed to separate so they would have a better chance of survival. However, Thomas didn’t do so, he trusted his instinct and tried to help Alby by tying him up on the trees where the Griever might not spot them. His plan succeeded. Later that night when Thomas reunited with Minho they figured out a trick to send the Griever off a cliff and Minho trusted his instinct this time because he saw Thomas did it and it worked, so he went on with it and succeeded.
Later in the book, after getting stung on purpose Thomas went through the changing and called a gathering. He remembered everything(everybody’s memory was removed when they were put into the maze) and he had a plan but that plan would take away many people’s lives but he trusted his instinct and told it to them anyway. Later the leader Newt agreed to it and took Thomas and 40 other people to the hole that lead to the exit. In the end, twenty of them were killed but the rest succeeded and exited the maze.
However, not everybody agreed with the W.I.C.K.E.D’s way of solving the Flare. W.I.C.K.E.D was responsible for putting pressure toward the children by putting them in the maze and even killing them. At the end of the book, a group of people that were tired of the W.I.C.K.E.D’s way, got into the lab and killed the crew and rescued the kids. W.I.C.K.E.D may have been harsh toward children but they were the only scientists that could have been able to solve the problem while the other group were just ordinary people with guns who used their instincts and thinking that by putting W.I.C.K.E.D to a stop the children would be alright, but if they couldn’t find the cure the people will suffer and so will the children. Certainly it could be said that if they use their rational mind they could have figured that out. While that is a good point the author clearly favor the use of instincts for decision making like the critical moments in the book when Thomas ran out into the maze to save Minho and Alby and actually found a piece of puzzle that lead to escaping the maze.
To conclude, in order to live happily, make the right decisions, and shape a better world, we need to give our instinct more voice, but we need to use our rational mind too. Everything exists for a reason and if we don’t trust our instincts it’s like not using part of ourselves and the same thing applies for our rational mind. You have it, you use it. However, consider doing what your instinct come up first.
By Sewen
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