6/11/12
The Maze Runner by James Dashner
Pages 282-325

1) In this passage of the book, Thomas starts out by running with Minho in the maze. Teresa contacts him through their telepathic link, and they discuss the progress that Teresa and the other are making with the Maps. Minho and Thomas found nothing, and after seeing a few Grievers roaming around, they thought they should just return home. Minho went to rest, but Thomas was eager to see the words that were found with the Maps. The words seemed to be useless, for they didn't know how they related to an escape plan. Thomas then came up with a secret idea that only he knew. He would get stung by a Griever to retrieve memories that would help them. When evening rolled around, the usual procedure took place. As soon as a Griever took the next victim, Thomas follows the Grievers and jumps on one of them. After fighting it, Thomas gets stung many times, and the Grievers leave. Thomas is brought back to the Homestead, where he spends the next three days as he goes through the Changing. When he wakes up, he is greeted by a happy Chuck, and Newt sees him. Newt calls a Gathering in which Thomas would talk about what he knows from the Changing. At the Gathering, with all of the Keepers present besides Gally, Thomas explains what their entire life is about. Essentially, everyone in the Glade were smarter than average children who were chosen and put in a special facility until they reached a certain age, when they were put in the Glade. The Maze and Glade were a test to weed out those that were survivors, a survival of the fittest type of thing. The entire ordeal was more or less and experiment. The Ending only means that the experiment is coming to a close, and now the Creators wanted to see how the kids in the Glade would escape. Thomas explains that the Maze has no solution, and that Teresa and himself had helped design the Maze with the Creators against their will. Now these two were to be the key to the escape. Thomas's escape plan happened to be jumping through the Griever Hole and shutting down the Glade and letting everyone escape. Since the Grievers took one kid a night, Thomas thought that one person might have to sacrifice themselves for the rest of the group, and he volunteered himself. This was all explained, and Thomas was dismissed from the Gathering for Newt to convince the rest of the Keepers. Newt met Thomas later saying that he convinced the other Keepers to the plan. The other Gladers agreed as well, and they began to prepare for the battle to come.

2) "It doesn't do the Creator any good if we all die-this thing is meant to be hard, not impossible. I think we finally know for sure that the Grievers are programmed to only kill one of us each day. So somebody can sacrifice himself to save the other while we run to the Hole. I think his might be how it's supposed to happen."
         The room went silent until the Blood House Keeper barked a loud laugh. "Excuse me?" Winston asked. "So your suggestion is that we throw some poor kid to the wolves so the rest of us can escape? This is your brilliant suggestion?"
        Thomas refused to admit how bad that sounded, but an idea hit him. "Yes, Winston, I'm glad you're so good at paying attention." He ignored the glare that got him. "And it seems obvious who the poor kid should be."
        "Oh, yeah?" Winston asked. "Who?"
        Thomas folded his arms. "Me" (Dashner 313-314). I chose this quote for a few reasons. One of these reasons would be that it ends a chapter. If a quote ends a chapter, generally it tends to be more dramatic. The information displayed more often than not carries more significance, and this time is no exception. When Thomas says these words, it causes the whole Keeper Board burst into arguments. Another reason why I chose this quote is because it gives a clue of what will happen later in the story, also known as foreshadowing. With this information, one can predict that Thomas will likely try to sacrifice himself in the height of the battle. With him being the protagonist, you can expect that he will not be taken by a Griever. However, this doesn't mean any other Gladers are exempt from this fate. By saying this, Thomas makes it seem like not him but a main character will get taken by the Grievers, for I expect some tragedy.

3) As far as connections to the text go for this passage of the book, there are few for me personally. If I were to make one very distant connection to this text, it would probably be his impulsiveness. When Thomas got stung by the Grievers, he did it mostly on an impulse. Like the old saying goes, there is no drug like adrenaline. I feel as if I would do something similar to Thomas if I had enough adrenaline in me. I do a lot of things that I don't think of first, which is very alike to what Thomas acts like in this book, and this passage.