Randall Fraley’s literature circle book, by James Dashner…

Randall Fraley’s literature circle book, by James Dashner…

SettingSetting; the place in which a story takes

place. For science fiction, it is commonly the future. Also, possibly on other planets, dimensions, places unknown on earth, or just the past or future of the known human or alien world.

Setting

The setting starts out in the Glade. A large, walled-off, unroofed, stone box with the Glader’s homes, some farmland, and a small woods. The surrounding stone walls have four stone sliding doors leading out to a massive maze that close during the night. When a mechanical box brings Thomas from an unknown world, he starts his new life here with the other Gladers (people who live in the Glade)

After Thomas runs out of the Glade to help Alby and Minho, he gets stuck in the Maze for a night. The Maze is a massive stone maze surrounding the Glade full of Grievers (giant evil, cyborg , slug-like animals) that changes everyday. It is the Gladers’ belief that there is a way out of the maze, and are hoping to find it eventually.

SThe maze in The Maze Runner was made of gigantic stone walls covered in vines and overgrowth of similar structure. http://www.philipstraub.com/The%20Maze%20Runner.htm

The Glade, at the center of the Maze, was a large grassy plain with a small forest and some of the Glader’s homes and structures http://my.opera.com/salitor/albums/slideshow/?album=816296

Setting (cont.)

When Thomas and about half the Gladers (that survived the battle between the Grievers and Gladers) make a rush to get through this invisible hole and shut down the Grievers, they go down a tunnel to a laboratory in which ‘the Creators’ were. It’s a huge underground chamber full of machinery about the size of a football field. With it there were windows which the Creators watched them through.

When a group of men and women rescue the Gladers from the laboratory, they take them onto a bus in an apocalyptic wasteland believed to be earth after ‘The Flare’

SIn the Creators’ laboratory, there were tons of machines and some sort of pod-like things to the right http://sitemason.vanderbilt.edu/site/ccmcak

Earth was turned into a large wasteland after a massive solar flare destroyed many ecosystems and organisms, also inflicting a disease called the Flarehttp://giantrockthemovie.com/2012/11/17/investing-during-the-apocalypse/

CharacterCharacter; basically the people in the story

dealing with the conflict, setting, mood, ect. In science fiction, the characters have similar attitudes and values as modern people. There is the possibility A.I., alien life, genetic engineering and such, so characters may be one of many different kinds.

Character: Thomas

Thomas is a protagonist, as the main character and as a runner, someone trying to help the Gladers escape the maze. He is a Major character, being the perspective in which the story’s told from. He is very dynamic and changes quickly throughout the book from being afraid and unsure to brave and sure of himself, as he also unlocks memories of who he is and what he needs to do.

The Maze Runner describes Thomas as about sixteen,

about 5’9, and has brown hair.

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Thomas is described as very brave in The Maze Runner http://www.mehlol.com/bravery-757330.html

Character: Chuck

Chuck is a protagonist because he’s on Thomas’s side in the book. Chuck is also a minor character because he doesn’t really change too many things in the book besides some of Thomas’s motives to help the Glade. Chuck changes a little bit throughout the book, from a sad, hopeless young boy to a braver young boy who in the end saves Thomas, making him more of a dynamic character

The Maze Runner describes Chuck as chubby, long, brown hair, blue-eyed and young.

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Chuck is described as pudgy and young http://www.topnews.in/health/first-direct-evidence-link-between-belly-fat-and-heart-disease-

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Character: Teresa

Teresa is a protagonist because even though she triggered something called ‘The Ending’, she is believed to be Thomas’s friend and wants to help them escape the Glade. Teresa is a major character because she triggered ‘The Ending’ forcing the Gladers to need to find a way to escape the maze, and affects Thomas’s judgment in what he does. Teresa is a

The Maze Runner describes Teresa as having brown hair, being pale, skinny and having blue eyes.

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This portrait of a girl with pale skin, brown hair and having blue eyes http://www.fotocommunity.com/pc/pc/display/20906112

Character: Minho

Minho is a protagonist because he is the Keeper (leader of a certain group of specialized Gladers) of the Runners, the people who run through the maze to find a way out. Minho is a major character because he helped Thomas survive in the maze the first night he got stuck in it, and helped Thomas become a runner. Minho is a dynamic character because he changes his personality from being in the maze, the Gathering (meeting in the Glade) and other occasions in the Glade.

The Maze Runner describes Minho as strong,

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The Maze Runner describes Minho as being strong

Character: Gally

Gally is an antagonist because he believes that Thomas is an enemy of the Glade, had proposed him as a traitor of the Gladers, and attempted to kill Thomas, accidently killing Chuck in the process. As a Keeper, one of the leaders of the Glade, and Thomas’s enemy, Gally is a major character in The Maze Runner. Gally never liked Thomas from the beginning of the book and had been very negative towards all other Gladers, with little change to grow to hate Thomas. This would make him a closer to a static character.

The Maze Runner describes Gally as having black hair, being skinny and tall.

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Gally wasn’t described as the friendliest person in the Glade

PlotPlot; the ‘story board’ of a story, what happens

throughout a story, such as: conflict, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution. In science fiction, the conflict is a catastrophe, natural or man-made. Also, invention and futuristic technology must be involved in the story, along with many specific plots to stories such as time travel, the end of the world, alien interaction and the such.

Rising ActionPRising Action; The events In the plot that build

up the conflict and the storyline and lead up eventually to the climax of the story, or in some more complex stories, there are multiple climaxes with even more rising and falling action.

Rising Action (cont.) There were multiple events in The Maze Runner that

lead to the climax of the story, such as when Thomas was attacked by Ben, a kid who went crazy after going through a mysterious process of memory regain, when Thomas ran into the maze to help Minho against the Glade’s rules, when Teresa was sent to the Glade, when the Maze and Glade weren’t working like they use to and they went through ‘The Ending’, when Gally assailed the Gladers (find more) and many other smaller details to The Maze Runner.

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As mentioned, Teresa triggered ‘The Ending’ where the sky went gray, the wall doors were always open, the Grievers attacked the Glade, and many things became very different. This, in my opinion, was a point of rising action http://jpmc2010.deviantart.com/art/Gray-Skies-89842576

ClimaxPClimax; the highest point of a story, where

usually something very significant happens that will affect the falling action. Usually comes almost at the end of a story. In science fiction, due to it being fiction, the climax can be a variety of outcomes.

Climax(cont.)

In The Maze Runner, I found the climax to be when Thomas, Chuck and Teresa make it through the battle between the other Gladers and the Grievers to punch in a code into a computer within a hole in the maze. It is then when they kill a Griever that followed them through the hole, turn off all the other Grievers, and make it out of the maze that the greatest amount of action commences, the story changes Thomas’s conditions of staying alive and figuring out a way out of the maze to them trying to get revenge on WICKED, the people who put them there in the first place.

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The Gladers had to suit up and go out into the Maze to fight all the Grievers to get Thomas, Chuck and Teresa out to a hole which the Grievers lived to shut them all down. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/history/9602114/The-First-World-War-the-war-that-changed-us-all.html

Falling actionP

Falling action; the point after the conflict is resolved and when the climax has been reached. In many book series, the falling action leaves the story at a point were the major conflict throughout the series is not completely resolved.

Falling action(cont.)

In The Maze Runner, the falling action was when Thomas and the other Gladers escaped the laboratory of WICKED and went on a bus with a group of men and women which told them about how the world had changed, and they were dropped off at a building which the book ended.

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The Gladers left the lab in bushttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bus

ConflictConflict; the challenges the main and major

characters face throughout the story. The five base conflicts are man vs. man, man vs. nature, man vs. self, man vs. society, and man vs. fate

Conflict

At the beginning of The Maze Runner, Thomas was brought into the Glade by a large metal box, I which he woke up without any memories but his first name and faint ones of home life was like in the real world. This would be man vs. fate because Thomas had no control of what he was put into, which was the Glade were survival was priority.

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Conflict (cont.)

At a fairly early point of The Maze Runner, Thomas was attacked by Ben, a very ill boy who had foreseen Thomas as a force of evil and assaulted him because of it. This would be man vs. man.

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Conflict (cont.)

In various points of The Maze Runner, Thomas had gone out into the maze were there were in his environment he had to survive Griever attacks and make it back to the Glade from the Maze, trying to find a way out. In this situation, the conflict was man vs. nature.

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Conflict (cont.)

In a later part of The Maze Runner, went out into the maze to save Minho and Alby. After he came back with both alive, he was questioned by a group of the elite Gladers whether he should be punished or promoted. In this Thomas was against the society of Gladers and therefore man vs. society.

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ThemeTheme; the main

message of a story. In many stories there is a conflict between good and evil, usually the theme is a lesson that the protagonists use to win against the enemy. Resolutio

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Resolution; how the story ends or is resolved. In all books there is a way the last few chapters or so in a book resolve some things specific to that book, or if at the end of a series, resolves the entire story in the falling action.

Theme Throughout this book, Thomas is part of the Glade’s society.

Together, they all work as a team to produce meat and fruit and vegetables and to find their way out of the maze one day. Eventually that shuts down and they still have to work together to fight their way to the exit of the maze. In my opinion, the theme is team work can overcome any challenge.

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Resolution The story was resolved when the kids were rescued from the huge underground chamber of WICKED, after they went down a big slide to escape the maze. CLIPART

At the end of The Maze Runner, The Gladers’ main problem was resolved when they escaped the maze and WICKED, after punching in the code into a computer to shut all the Grievers down and escaping the maze through a slippery, underground slide.