All they know is that they need to survive, keep their heads down, and hope that the runners will one day find the exit to the complicated, ever-changing maze.

None of them can remember anything prior to the box, nor do they recall why they are in the Glade or who put them there. But soon, Thomas learns that the rest of the boys are just like him. Every day, a small number of the boys, the Runners, leave the Glade and head out the maze to find a way and Thomas wants to become one of them.Īs the new boy, Thomas, grows increasingly frustrated when no one answers his questions about the Glade, the surrounding maze, and the mechanical creatures called Grievers that roam the maze during nighttime. Dashner has created something strange and clever in the striking scenery of the Glade which is ‘The Maze’ to which the community of Gladers revolved in for two years. Thomas is the latest addition to the Glade described as a large open green square, surrounded by a gigantic maze. Here he meets Alby, the eldest and the leader of the group Newt, the next in command and Chuck, young and chubby boy who was the newest Glader until Thomas arrived. When the box stops, Thomas is pulled out of the dark room and into a strange new world where he is greeted with smirks and dirty looks by teenage boys of different ages and sizes. The obscurity and the rustling of ‘The Box’ combines on to increase the sense of mystery as to where will the book actually begin. The Maze Runner begins with profound confusion in the reader as well as the protagonist, a sixteen year old boy, named Thomas. All that he can understand in the remote darkness is a name - My name is Thomas. A lurching tremor shook the floor carrying a young lad who awakens with no idea where he is. A dark room arises, surrounded by cold gloom and stale, dusty air.

The maze runner by james dashner