THE MAZE RUNNER

The Maze Runner is a dystopian novel by American author James Dashner, the story sets in a postapocalyptic world ravaged by disease. The center of the story runs on the young boy named Thomas who was suddenly brought to the maze with no recollection of his past except for his name. Upon arrival in the Glade, Thomas discovers a society who also lost their memories and are attempting to escape the maze that surrounds them. According to them, a new boy arrives in the Glade and supplies were sent weekly. However, things started to change when the first girl Teresa came to the Glade which Teresa knew who Thomas really was. As Thomas meets his fellow residents of the Glade, they enforced Thomas as an outsider as he is connected to Teresa and his belonging will only lead to peril. However, not everyone treated Thomas the same, as days passed some residents gradually made companionship with Thomas which leads him to becoming a Runner for the Glade. Minho, Chuck, Newt, and Alby the leader of the Glade accepted Thomas as one of the residents of the Glade. When Thomas and Minho were on their usual run trying to decipher the maze, they found a new passage that could lead to the base of operations. They shared the information to the Glade and arguments and debates arise. Some of the residents were scared of the possibility that many Grievers would be lurking beyond the passage and staying would be better while Thomas wanted to take the risk and wanted to know the truth. After some time, some residents including Gally stayed while Thomas and some residents proceeded to the passage. Many of Thomas's followers were killed by the Grievers but ultimately got into the entrance of the passage. At the same time, the Glade who should be peaceful got raided by numbers of Grievers but many people was able to escape the Glade. Gally then got reunited with Thomas's group and just accepted it because they got no other choice. When they entered the passage. they were shocked that it was a science lab and a monitoring room that connects to the Glade. All of the scientists were dead but only a pre recorded message was left behind stating that the world has been devastated due to the solar flares and the purpose of the maze was to select certain individuals that they believe can find a cure. The message then challenged them as the maze was only the phase one of the trial and there were many mazes similar to them. 

The themes and techniques that are present in the movie is the dramatic irony and horizontal intertextuality. Dramatic irony was present when we knew that the Grievers were actually equipped with cameras and they were under surveillance all along. Horizontal intertextuality was present because a similar series was released on the same contemporary era. Hunger Games and Maze Runner share the same themes such as rebellion and dystopian control where young protagonist are tying to overrun the system and want to be free. Mythological and Marxist Lens can also be applied in the story as Thomas can be classified as the chosen hero, he encounters trials which is the maze and faces dangers such as the grievers. There is also Newt which was Thomas's best friend and mentor and the trickster can be Gally as he was the bully of Thomas. On the Marxist Lens, we can say that the WCKD represents the power who has the knowledge and resources to manipulate the Glade. We can classify the runners, builders, and growers as the labor role and they promote rebellion against the upper class which is the WCKD.

References:

https://www.audible.com/blog/summary-the-maze-runner-by-james-dasher?srsltid=AfmBOoq9u2ry2mystTG6vMjIPYmkUiS_2sQPlUTOhy243QtSNf4GT9Jt

https://hub.edubirdie.com/examples/the-maze-runner-critical-analysis-essay/

https://www.sparknotes.com/lit/maze-runner/plot-analysis/