Scribbled Thoughts: The Maze Runner

Author: James Dashner

Title: The Maze Runner

Genre: Dystopian

Dashner, James. The Maze Runner. Delacorte P, 2014.

Grade Level: 8th - 10th

Pages: 375 pages

The Maze Runner is a dystopian novel that involves a group of young boys who are sent to a maze as an experiment for science. The book follows the perspective of sixteen-year-old Thomas, who arrives at the Maze with now memory of who he is and where he is from. Together with his friends, they solved the puzzle of Maze in order to gain back their freedom.

Possible Teaching Concerns:

I believe I read this book as a 10th grader and it gave me nightmares (lol). It is definitely a thriller and at times can be very dark. This book shows how dark humanity can get when trying to preserve themselves. I don't think this would be a book to read for the whole class, but a book chosen for literature circles. For the most part, the book has no language as the boys have made up their own array of swear words that mean nothing to our own society. There aren't any sexual moments, other than some of the boys commenting about wanting to kiss or call dibs on Teresa -- the only girl in the maze. The violence is the main concern for this novel as some of the boys are killed by monsters that reside in the Maze.

Personal Reactions:

This is one of my favorite series. I went through a phase where I was really into dystopian novels and this series quickly became my favorite. I would love to have this in my classroom and possibly use it in literature circles. It is a fantastic book for those who like dystopian novels and I think this particular book would be very engaging for young men as there is a lot of action and very minimal amounts of romance in it.

Canonical Work:

1984 is a novel set in another dystopian world following the perspective of Winston Smith. In Winston Smith's world, the government keeps close tabs on all the people that they govern. Propaganda is pushed out to the public, reminding them that "Big Brother is watching you", basically saying that the government is keeping an eye on everyone's actions and words. Although 1984 has a very different plot when compared to The Maze Runner, they both are worlds where power has been taken away from the people through advance technology after a catastrophe that strikes the world. For Maze Runner, the world is shaken by a deadly pandemic, while 1984 is after a devastating world war.

Maze Runner Trailer (2014)