District Writing Assement

Authors Note: This is a my district writing assessment. Which is a character analyses piece on the book The Maze Runner by James Dashner.

Adversity is a thing in life that we all go through at some point in time. Some challenges are vastly harder than others. For example in the book The Maze Runner by James Dashner, a young teenager by the name of Thomas, has his memory wiped and is put in to a maze with other boys around the same age as him. All without memory of their past. With the hope of escape from the maze dwindles. Thomas must shake his cowardice and man up to lead his friends out of the maze.

Thomas in the beginning starts off nervous, frighten, and cowardly, at one point hiding in the elevator that brought him there saying “No,No,No…take me back”. At which his new friends laugh at the him and whisper jokes about him. Once Tomas finally comes to grasps with his situation and realizes that he’s going to be here for awhile,  he ,makes friends with a guy named Chuck which shows him around the “Glade” and he makes new friends. After becoming accustom to the “Glade”, Thomas  starts taking up jobs around his new living space, working in the kitchen, helping  in the hospital, taking care of small tasks around town. Until one night the “Runner’s” two don’t return, in the spur of the moment Thomas rushes in to the maze to help rescue the two. Thomas has to fight off the “Grievers” the half man, machine, they’ve been killing people in the glades. For the first time Thomas becomes full beast and kicks one off the cliff, becoming the first to kill one.  

Life throws you many curve balls. Now you can either stand there, watch and blend in to the background as your past life crumbles around you. Alternately you could adjust and make the best off you scenario. Thomas does this quite well, leading and rallying the men around him in a situation that is pretty shaking considering that he has no memory . This isn’t an uncommon occurrence in many stories people over come hurdles in life to achieve something great even in the darkest of hours. For example in the book “The Outsiders” by S.E Hinton a young man named Ponyboy grows up in a town that has a social divide between the Socs and Greasers. Pony wants to be like his older brothers a rough and tough hoodlum. As Pony grows up he sees that life in an everlasting war between the two classes will never work as at some point they will kill each other off so he goes changes his  view on what he aims to be when he’s older. Pony instead focuses on making peace with the Socs and becoming smarter.

When your life spins you upside down it maybe be hard to come to grasps with the new changes.  Thomas saw only one choice after waking up and realizing that he was the one to lead his friends to freedom. He handled adversity very well going from a chicken to a fierce leader that could take charge.