Author: James Dashner
Pages Read: 0-360 (Finish)
Prompt: What challenges do the characters face in the book?
I just finished reading the first two books of the Maze Runner series. In the series they go through challenges and have to suffer through a lot. This is all for the survival of the human race from the flare(a virus or sickness) that is wiping out the population. In the first book they faced grievers (mechanical/bug type killing machines), the maze, and the sustainment of their civilization. In the second book the challenges are more severe, and they face more of them. The beginning of the book they start off in a building in which they were "supposedly" saved from. They are stuck there for a long time and Teresa(Thomas's best friend) is missing. To go along with that they are starving and are on the verge of giving up. Then this man shows up, tells them the rescue was fake and they have to take some tunnel to whats known as the Scorch. They travel through this tunnel, after being told they will face worse challenges. It is pitch black and all of a sudden someone is attacked and is killed. It turns out there is these creatures that some down over your head and decapitate you. Then your head is trapped in some medal ball that just rolls away. I found this part really gruesome but you knew something like this was coming.
The next challenge is the travel across this scorching hot desert, in order to get to their rescue point. At first travel seems impossible because of the brightness and heat of the Sun. I wouldn't have lasted a day especially considering they had to walk for miles and miles. They continue to progress and Thomas runs into Teresa. She tells him to run and Thomas does so because he thinks she is saving him or something of that sort. The village continues to approach and they are at the point of exhaustion when it gets even harder. A storm comes, and not just any storm, it was a storm that basically rained lightning. One kid gets his leg blown off by lightning. Minho, their leader gets caught on fire by the lightning but Thomas is able to help him. It basically becomes every man for themselves as they continue to move and the ones who survive end up in a building. At this point if I was one of these kids I would just give up. I would have given up a long time ago but things just get worse and worse. Especially now that it looks like there is little to no chance of survival.
In the village they encounter lives the cranks. The cranks are those who have been infected by the flare and are being quarantined by the government. Cranks go through different stages, at first being almost normal. Then after they go into the last stage they are crazy, eat other humans, and other gross things. Its not actually a real quarantine, just more of a drop off zone for those who are doomed. In order to survive the group allies with two cranks(still sane) who agree to take them to the safe haven as long as they get to ride along. Right after their alliance the group gets split up. Thomas is alone with one of the cranks, Brenda who has feelings for him and he does too, but feels sorry because he denies her because of his guilt about Teresa. They end up running into these cranks that are already mad. They get away and then get captured by another set of cranks. Their situations stink because no matter how hard they try they always end up in tough situations. They reunite with their group after Minho and them rescue them from the cranks. Thomas gets shot but now they are away from those dumb cranks. Finally something good happens right? Well no not exactly, even more goes wrong for Thomas because the girls group (group B, another maze trial group that were put in the Scorch) take Thomas and plan on killing him. He convinces the group not to kill him and they march towards what is supposed to be the safe haven.
At this point I'm thinking okay maybe stuff happens to everyone else but not Thomas right. Wrong Teresa tricks him to go with her where her and Aris put him in a room supposedly for his death. But he doesn't die, no surprise for me. What does surprise me is that its all an act, Teresa never meant to betray him, WICKED told her to otherwise Thomas would die. At first I was really mad and the fact that Thomas even spoke to her angered me. Then I realized she risked their friendship just to save him so I guess I should forgive her. Finally all the members trying to get to the safe haven ally and decide to get through together. When they get their nothing is there until theses pods come out. In them these machine/human looking things with blades. Oh great another thing to have to fight. I thought that one of the leaders or at least a larger population would get wiped out. Especially since another lightning storm was coming and the way the book goes theres a whole lot of death. Yet no only two die and the rest make it aboard. To start the next book Thomas wakes up in an empty room alone. Here we go again but they have been promised no more trials. So I'm excited in seeing whats to come.
Make sure you don't spend your whole post giving a plot summary!
ReplyDeleteGreat Job! You wrote a lot this week. You did a good job telling what challenges the character faces but sometimes you wrote run on sentences or fragments. At the end your writing became very random and confusing. Overall great job.
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