The Scorch Trials
Literature Analysis
BY ZACHARY M. HEATON
Table of Contents
Setting
2.
Settings
3.
Characters
4.
Characters – Thomas
5.
Characters – Minho
6.
Characters – Newt
7.
Characters – Frypan
8.
Characters – Teresa
9.
Figurative Language
10.
Figurative Language – Imagery
11.
Figurative Language – Foreshadowing
12.
Figurative Language – Simile
13.
Figurative Language – Onomatopoeia
14.
Figurative Language – Personification
15.
Figurative Language – Metaphor
16.
Plot
17.
Plot – Rising Action
18.
Plot – Climax
19.
Plot – Falling Action
20.
Plot – Resolution
21.
Conflict
22.
Conflict – Man v. Self
23.
Conflict – Man v. Nature
24.
Conflict – Man v. Society
25.
Theme and Resolution
26.
Theme
27.
Resolution
28.
Mood
29.
Mood
1.
Setting
S - Settings
There are multiple settings in the novel The Scorch Trials by James Dashner. The story starts off in a
relatively small condo-like building in which the characters were taken at the conclusion of the first
book in the series. There are five main rooms in this condo: Two dorms, in which the characters sleep;
two bathrooms, one in each dorm; and a common room located between the two dorms. The
construction of the building is never described in detail, but I pictured it to be made of a smooth, white
material that is harder than metal, and designed in a flowing, organic manner. The common room is a
large, circular room, while the dorms are smaller, boxy rooms that can hold 25 beds and 25 dressers
each. The doors leading from the common room to the dorms and vice versa have label holders
hanging on them. These doors are made of polished wood, upon which the grain is still visible.
After leaving the condo building through a Flat Trans, the characters find themselves in a long
underground tunnel. The tunnel is very narrow and dark; so narrow, in fact, that the 21 or so
characters must move through it two at a time. The whole tunnel is made up of some sort of metal; its
physical traits are unknown due to the lack of light. There are many holes in the ceiling, which drop
molten balls of metal onto the characters in an attempt to kill them.
S – Setting (cont.)
Eventually, the Gladers come to a staircase at the end of the tunnel. This staircase leads upwards until it
reaches a metal door. Beyond the door lies the Scorch, which the characters must traverse in order to
get to the safe haven.
The Scorch is a barren wasteland, and divided into three sections. These sections are physically identical
to each other in all ways except for their size, with the second section being the smallest and the third
being the largest. Due to the intense heat in this region, which is caused by a dramatic shift in the
Earth’s location relative to the sun, no living thing can survive for long. The ground consists of reddish
dust and, in the distance, looming mountains can be seen.
Approximately thirty miles inwards from where the Gladers emerged in the Scorch, a city lies. This city,
which I have nicknamed the City of the Cranks, is rundown and decaying, and all of its inhabitants are
Cranks. Most of the buildings have broken windows, and the few vehicles scattered throughout the
city are rusting and inoperable. The city is a very unpredictable, as some of the Cranks are friendly,
while others are beyond the Gone, which makes them insane and cannibalistic.
Beneath the city is a network of underground tunnels called the Underneath, which the Cranks use to get
from one place to another quickly and safely. These tunnels are maze-like, which means that if a
newcomer were to get stuck down there they would be lost for a long time. Throughout these tunnels
are many rooms of various shapes and sizes. These rooms are excellent for hiding from Cranks and
other hostile individuals.
S – Setting (cont.)
Beyond the City of the Cranks is the second section of the Scorch. This sections is the smallest, and it is
bordered on one side by the City of the Cranks, and by a large mountain range on the other. This
section of the Scorch is slightly rockier than the other two sections, but just as dry, dusty, and hot.
Bordering the second part of the Scorch is a long range of mountains. The mountains in this range are
relatively young, as they are both jagged and tall, indicating that they have not been allowed time to
weather down to a rounder, shorter form. These mountains are devoid of life, and there are only a few
dead or dying trees and shrubs in them. There are some worn paths in the mountains, which make it
slightly easier for travelers to cross the.
In the mountains are several small caves and crevices that provide shelter to anyone who might find
themselves in these harsh peaks. One of these caves has an adjoined, man-made room that Teresa and
Aris force Thomas to enter. This room is a shiny-white color, and it is completely featureless other
than several small holes near the point where the walls meet the ceiling. These holes release some sort
of gas that causes people to fall unconscious. Any other effects of the gas are unknown.
S – Setting (cont.)
Beyond the mountain range is the third and largest section of the Scorch. This part is so large that its far
boundary cannot be seen with the naked eye. It is identical in all other ways to the first part of the
wasteland, meaning that it is dry, dusty, and extremely hot. Nothing can survive here for an extended
period of time.
In the third section of the Scorch, the safe haven is located. At first, the safe haven appear to be simply a
stick embedded in the dusty ground, with an orange ribbon wrapped around it. This ribbon is labeled
“The Safe Haven”. However, the safe haven is more than it appears to be. The ground of the Scorch can
open up around this stick, revealing metal pods that release horrible abominations genetically
engineered by WICKED.
In addition to being somewhat of a deathtrap, the safe haven is also the location which the Berg lands and
takes the Gladers and Group B away. All the teens had to do was survive long enough for the Berg to
land.
S – Setting (cont.)
The inside of the Berg is relatively bland. Immediately inside the landing doors, which are very large and
open vertically, is the landing bay. This bay is made of a hard metal and painted an olive-green color;
there are two benches in this area, one on each side of the bay. On the side of the bay opposite the
landing doors is a door, which is made of the same green metal that the rest of the berg is made of.
Beyond this door is the common room, in which the Gladers and Group B rest and recuperate. There
are four rows of couches in the common room, with one on each of the left and right walls and two in
the middle. On the left and right walls of the common room are also bathrooms.
After falling asleep in the common room of the Berg, Thomas wakes up in a strange room. This room is
square and white; Dashner describes the room as such: “The floor beneath him was spongy, hard and
smooth but with enough give to be comfortable. …walls – they were padded, with large buttoned
indentations across them, about four feet apart. Bright light shone down from a rectangle in the
ceiling, too high for him to reach. The place had a clean smell to it, like ammonia and soap. …
“A brown desk sat about a dozen feet in front of him. It was the only thing in the entire room
that wasn’t white. Old and battered and scratched, it had a bare wooden chair pushed into the sitting
well on the other side. Behind that was the door, padded like the walls” (Dashner 355).
Characters
C - Thomas
Major dynamic protagonist
Thomas is the main character in The Scorch Trials, by James Dashner, and the three other
books in its series. Dashner does not describe Thomas in the novel, leaving his physical
characteristics up to the reader. However, you can tell from the story that he is both
strong and fast, and that he has a great degree of stamina. He is able to run for an
extremely long time, even under the intense heat of the Earth’s new climate. I have
pictured Thomas as having medium-length dirty-blond hair, and green eyes. He is tall
but not giant-like. While he is quite strong, he is not muscle-bound, having more of a
wiry strength. His skin is tanned and leathery, and his hands are callused.
In addition to his physical strength, Thomas is also mentally strong. He is one of the
smartest Gladers, and thinks situations through with surprising speed. He has a knack for
observation, which also makes him a skilled negotiator, as he can sense the motivations
of others with relative ease. Due to the traumatic events occurring during his time in the
Glade and during the subsequent escape from that place, Thomas is a very depressed
person and he very rarely smiles or shows any positive emotions. In addition, he is very
difficult to surprise, and feels only numbness when faced with new complications.
Thomas can also communicate telepathically with Teresa.
Thomas seems to play a pivotal role in the plans of the organization WICKED. He frequently
has “dreams” that depict him working with WICKED to design the Maze and the trials
afterwards.
C - Minho
Major static protagonist
Minho is one of the main characters in The Scorch Trials, by James Dashner. Like most of
the other characters, his description is not very in depth; however, it is known that he is
Asian in heritage and that he has tanned skin. His one of the strongest Gladers and,
unlike Thomas, is very muscle-bound. He is also quite fast, and he can keep pace with
and often pass Thomas while running. He is of equivalent height to Thomas, and he has
close-cropped black hair and hazel eyes. He is a capable brawler, and fights with ferocity.
Minho, while bright, rarely uses his intelligence to his fullest. He likes to rush into situations
without making complicated plans. One area in which he mentally excels is strategy, as he
has made several plans that have kept more Gladers alive than have been lost. His brash
nature often gets him into arguments with others, which makes him weak when
negotiating. The organization WICKED thrust Minho into the unwanted position of
leader of the Gladers when they tattooed all of the characters with their role in the group;
he is having a difficult time adjusting to this.
C - Newt
Major static protagonist
Newt is one of the main characters in The Scorch Trials by James Dashner. I have picture
Newt as being thinner than some of the other Gladers, like Minho or Thomas, but much
taller. At one point, he was a very good runner, but cannot run for long periods now due
to a serious ankle injury he took in the Glade. He has long blond hair and gray eyes, and
has a somewhat sad face.
While Newt is somewhat frail physically, he makes up for this weakness mentally. He may be
considered one of the smartest Gladers, and he frequently assists Minho in making
decisions. He has a wide range of emotions, and acts as the “glue” that holds all of the
Gladers together. Newt talks very little, but when he does speak, he usually says
something important.
C - Frypan
Minor static protagonist
Frypan is one of the frequently mentioned minor characters in The Scorch Trials by James
Dashner. He is large and burly, with thick arms and legs. He is a very hairy person, which
disgusts the other Gladers to some extent. He wears a shaggy beard, and he has blue eyes
and pale skin. He is physically strong, but cannot run for very long times due to his size.
Frypan is a very sarcastic Glader. He frequently mocks the other characters, and argues with
most decisions. He is also very concerned with his own safety, and it takes a good deal of
convincing to get him to do anything that puts him in any sort of danger. He is also the
Gladers’ head chef, and while his cooking is excellent, it is slightly offset due to the fact
that his body hair is frequently found in the food he makes.
C - Teresa
Major dynamic protagonist
Teresa is one of the main characters in The Scorch Trials by James Dashner. She is very
athletic and fast. She has long black hair and gray eyes. She is shorter than Thomas, but
he says that she could probably take on three-quarters of the Gladers at the same time,
including himself. Based upon this, we can infer that she is a very strong fighter, as
beating nearly 15 people at once, alone, is no simple feat.
Like Thomas, Teresa is very strong mentally as well as physically. She was critical in devising
the plan of escape from the Glade in The Maze Runner (also by Dashner). In addition,
she can talk mentally to Thomas, an ability she uses frequently.
Teresa, like Thomas, seems to play a very key role in the trials set up by WICKED.
Throughout the story, many major events occur that revolve around her, which seems to
stress her importance to WICKED.
Figurative Language
F - Imagery
The following excerpts from The Scorch Trials, by James Dashner, are examples of imagery.
1.
2.
3.
4.
“But there was a faint light, and lumps of dim shadow emerged throughout the huge room. Bunk
beds. Dressers. The soft breaths and gurgly snores of boys deep in slumber” (Dashner 1).
“…gripping the bars with bloody hands. His eyes were wide and bloodshot, filled with madness. Sores
and scars covered his thin, sun-burnt face. He had no hair, only diseased splotches of what looked like
greenish moss. A vicious slit stretched across his right cheek; Thomas could see teeth through the
raw, festering wound. Pink saliva dribbled in swaying lines from the man’s chin” (7)
“Throughout the large room, people hung from the ceiling – at least a dozen. They’d all been strung
up by the neck, the ropes twisted and trenched into purple, bloated skin. The stiff bodies swung to
and fro ever so slightly, pale pink tongues lolling out of their white-lipped mouths. All of them had
eyes open, though glazed over with certain death. By the looks of it, they’d been that way for hours”
(13).
“Roughly human-shaped, though at least a couple of feet taller than anyone around Thomas, it’s body
was naked and thick, pockmarked and wrinkled. Most disturbing were more of those bulbous
growths, maybe two dozen total, spread over the thing’s body and glowing with brilliant orange light.
Several on its chest and back. One on each elbow and knee – the bulb on the right knee had busted in
a flurry of sparks when the creature landed on the ground – and several sticking out of a big lump of…
what had to be a head, though it didn’t have any eyes, nose, mouth or ears. No hair, either” (329)
F - Alliteration
Having read and re-read my novel, I was unable to find any examples of
alliteration. However, while I cannot list any examples of alliteration from the
novel, I can make up several sentences that fit.
Randall ran rapidly in the rain.
2. My mom masterfully makes macaroni on Mondays.
3. The tall tower toppled in the tornado.
4. The cars cruised carelessly and crashed.
1.
F - Foreshadowing
The following excerpts from The Scorch Trials, by James Dashner, are examples
of foreshadowing.
“She spoke to him before the world fell apart” (Dashner 1). This made me think
that something bad or world-shaking was going to occur soon (for obvious
reasons).
2. “ ‘Tom, something’s wrong’ “ (4). Similar to the first example, this made me
think that something bad was going to happen involving Teresa.
1.
F - Simile
The following excerpts from The Scorch Trials, by James Dashner, are examples
of similes.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
“…felt a darkness around him like air turned solid, pressing in” (Dashner 1).
This excerpt compares the darkness around him to solid air.
“…currently breathing like a guy with ungodly amounts of phlegm lodged in his
throat” (2). This excerpt compares the mentioned character’s breathing to that
of a guy with ungodly amounts of phlegm lodged in his throat.
“…burned into his memories as strongly as a branded mark from a searing
iron” (2). This excerpt compares an event burned into his memories to a mark
branded onto something by a searing iron.
“Melancholy seeped into his brain with her words, stuck to them like syrup”
(3). This excerpt compares melancholy seeping into his brain and sticking to
syrup.
“…worry ate at him like spilled acid in his veins,…” (10). This excerpt compares
the emotions he felt to spilled acid in his veins.
F - Onomatopoeia
The following excerpts from The Scorch Trials, by James Dashner, are examples
of onomatopoeia.
“…heard a heavy scrape, then a clonk…” (Dashner 84).
2. “…the soft crunch, crunch, crunch of their footsteps” (108).
3. “Ow!” (74).
1.
BAAANG
F - Personification
The following excerpts from The Scorch Trials, by James Dashner, are examples
of personification.
“Darkness swallowed them…” (Dashner 168). This excerpt shows
personification, as darkness cannot swallow something.
2. “…darkness washed his troubles away…” (235). This excerpt shows
personification, as darkness cannot wash one’s troubles away.
1.
F - Metaphor
The following excerpts from The Scorch Trials, by James Dashner, are examples
of metaphor.
“…me and the birdface here have come to a resolution” (Dashner 162). This
excerpt compared the face of the mentioned character to that of a bird.
2. “…a billion pounds of dynamite exploded in his shoulder” (236). This excerpt
compared the sensation experienced by the character to that of a billion
pounds of dynamite exploding in their shoulder.
1.
Plot
Setup
Resolution
Climax
Rising
Action
Falling
Action
P – Rising Action
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Thomas wakes in the dormitory to Teresa communicating with him telepathically.
The Gladers discover the Cranks outside of their windows.
Thomas and the other Gladers discover the bodies of their saviors in the Common Room.
Thomas and the other Gladers discover Aris in the room that is supposed to be Teresa’s, and
Teresa is gone.
Aris describes his experience in Group B’s Maze. The story exactly fits the Gladers’
experience.
Thomas, Aris, and the Gladers discover the tattoos upon the back of their neck.
Thomas and the Gladers discover that their dormitory has been rearranged subtly, and that
the bodies in the Common Room have been removed.
Thomas goes to sleep, and wakes to find a pile of food for the Gladers. In addition, a strange
looking man is sitting a desk in the Common Room, surrounded by an invisible,
impenetrable barrier.
The man (who they nickname “The Rat Man” because of his pale, slender
appearance) tells them the whole point of the Maze, and that the hard part of
their tests is just beginning. He also tells them that they have the Flare, and that
if they get to the safe haven in the designated time limit WICKED will give them
the cure.
P – Rising Action (cont.)
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The Gladers follow the Rat Man’s instructions and enter the Flat Trans, which transports
them to a long underground tunnel.
The Gladers walk down the tunnel, and they encounter molten metal balls that fly through
the air and burn the boys’ heads off. Both Frankie and a nameless boy were killed by the
balls.
The Gladers discover an exit to the tunnel, which leads out into a barren wasteland scorched
by solar flares (this desert is nicknamed “The Scorch”).
A “death-ball” attaches itself to Winston’s head, but the Gladers, particularly Thomas,
manage to remove it. Winston’s cranium is severely burned.
Thomas, Minho, and Newt volunteer to go out into the Scorch; they find it unbearably hot
and sunny.
The Gladers, wrapped in bed-sheets to protect themselves from the sun, exit the tunnel and
begin their journey through the Scorch.
The Gladers encounter two Cranks, one male and one female, who provide them with advice
that will help if they intend to enter the nearby village.
The Gladers reach a small building in the middle of the Scorch, slightly out of
the way of their course. Standing near it is Teresa.
Thomas talks with Teresa, who tells him that the Gladers need to run as far
away as possible.
P – Rising Action (cont.)
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After running through the desert, the Gladers stop to sleep. They wake to find their sheets
blowing away across the desert.
The Gladers encounter an older Crank lying curled up in a ball in the Scorch outside of the city.
He murmurs, “Storm coming… full of terror… brings out… stay away… bad people” (Dashner
131).
An enormous, unnatural storm begins. It hurls huge lightning bolts that kill several people and
burns Minho. The Gladers barely make it to the city alive.
The Gladers meet Jorge, the leader of a band of Cranks in the city.
Jorge and Minho get into an argument, which ends with a brawl in which Minho wins.
Thomas, in order to prevent further violence, asks Jorge if he may talk with him for ten minutes
about their current arrangement. They decide that Jorge and one of his people, Brenda, will help
the Gladers get out of the city alive if the Gladers promise to give them the cure for the Flare too.
Leaving the rest of Jorge’s company behind, the Gladers enter the tunnels beneath the city to get
food. While down there, some of the “more Gone” members of the Cranks blow the tunnel,
separating Thomas and Brenda from the Gladers and Jorge.
Thomas and Brenda walk through the tunnel for a while, and then encounter a horde of fully
gone Cranks, who attempt to kill them and take their noses. The two hide in a small cubby-hole in
a room in the tunnels.
When they think the Cranks have passed them by, Thomas and Brenda begin to whisper in the
cubby. However, the leader of the horde was still in the room. The three fight, and Thomas ends
up stabbing the Crank.
P – Rising Action (cont.)
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Thomas and Brenda exit the tunnels and go out into the streets of the city. They take shelter in
an abandoned truck, where they sleep for the night. When Thomas wakes up, he sees a sign
screwed to a wall saying “THOMAS YOU’RE THE REAL LEADER”.
Thomas and Brenda hear loud noises coming from inside an alley. They go to investigate, and get
caught by three Cranks who seem to be on the verge of the Gone.
Taken inside a dance club by the Cranks, Thomas and Brenda are drugged and wake up in a
basement beneath the dance club. The Cranks interrogate them, but are stopped from setting
the two free by the intervention of the Gladers and Jorge.
As the group prepares to leave the dance club, one of the three Cranks who captured Thomas and
Brenda shoots Thomas in the shoulder with an illegal gun.
The Gladers take Thomas out of the city and to the edge of the Scorch, where they remove the
bullet from in his shoulder and try to clean the wound.
A Berg, a large flying vehicle employed by WICKED, comes and takes Thomas to one of
WICKED’s bases. He is highly sedated, but he still catches some of the scientists’ conversations.
He learns that the gun wasn’t part of the trials and that it wasn’t even supposed to be in the city.
The scientists clean his wound and stop the infections that is raging through his system.
WICKED returns Thomas t0 the other Gladers; he explains everything that happened at the
base.
Teresa appears with a band of girls from Group B; they capture Thomas and threaten to injure
him if any of the Gladers follow them.
Teresa goes hunting, which gives Thomas the chance to convince the other girls that they are all
on the same side.
P – Climax
Teresa confronts Thomas, and leads him to a cave. She reveals that she and Aris are really in love, and that
her love for Thomas was false. She then tells him that he must go into a small room in the cave, which
is what WICKED told her to make him do. Before Thomas can enter the room however, he attacks
Aris, which leaves the larger boy curled up on the ground. But Teresa was prepared for this, and she
smacks Thomas across the head with the butt of her spear. He is then forced into the room.
In the room ,Thomas is subjected to a gassing, which knocks him unconscious. When he wakes, he finds
Teresa and Aris still in the cave. Teresa tells him that she had been lying, and that she was actually on
Thomas’s side, and that she really loved him. However, Thomas can never truly trust her again, as he is
still hurt, both physically and emotionally, from her attack before the gassing.
P – Falling Action
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Thomas, Teresa, and Aris run through the mountain range, Attempting to catch up with group B.
About half-way down the mountain, the three see Group B and the Gladers converging on each other
in the third section of the Scorch.
Continuing down the mountain, the three teens eventually meet up with the two groups. They are
huddling around something in the ground. This thing is a stick embedded in the ground, with a ribbon
tied to it labeled “THE SAFE HAVEN”.
The Gladers and the girls from Group B are dismayed. They mill about for approximately half-an-hour,
until something interesting happens.
The ground in the Scorch begins to open up in small sections, revealing oblong metal pods. These pods
open, releasing tall, humanoid creatures covered in light-bulb-like protrusions and blades. These
creatures try to kill the teens.
The teens fight back, and manage to destroy most of the abominations. With only five minutes left
until the designated time, they dive into the pods that released the monsters.
When there is only thirty seconds left, Thomas hears a sound from outside the pod. Doubting his
decision to get into the pod, he opens the top and gets out.
P – Falling Action (cont.)
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Outside of the pods, a Berg had landed. The landing doors open, allowing the Gladers and the girls
from Group B to climb inside. However, WICKED wasn’t expecting Jorge and Brenda.
The scientist who greeted the teens to the Berg tells Thomas to choose who to let live, Jorge or Brenda.
Thinking that the scientist was playing a mind game with him, and that he would shoot whoever
Thomas wouldn’t choose, he chooses Brenda. However, the scientist was being honest, and he drags
Brenda to the edge of the flying Berg’s door.
Thomas tackles the scientist to the ground, knocking his gun out of his hand. Thomas grabs the gun
and points it at the man, demanding that all of the lies and killing must stop. The scientist agrees, and
they get set up in the common room.
Thomas falls asleep in the common room. He “hears” someone communicating telepathically with
him, but it doesn’t feel like Teresa. He finds out that it is in fact Brenda, who can also talk mentally.
She tells him, “Things are about to get bad for you” (Dashner 354).
Thomas wakes up screaming. However, he is no longer in the common room of the Berg. He is in a
white, square room made of some sort of spongy material, which Dashner describes as “hard and
smooth but with enough give to be comfortable” (355).
Thomas remains, after examining his surroundings for a moment, hears Teresa mind-speak to him.
She tells him that he has been away for almost a week, and that WICKED told them that he had
become violent and crazy due to the Flare. Before ending the communication, she tells him that
WICKED is good, something she had written on her arm when she arrived in the Glade.
Conflict
Co – Man v. Self
In the novel The Scorch Trials, by James Dashner, a primary conflict is a man-versus-self conflict. The
main character, Thomas, is conflicted about his emotions for Brenda. He likes her and her personality,
and she obviously likes him, but he feels like he would be betraying Teresa by getting into a
relationship with Brenda.
This conflict is partially resolved in the Crank dance club. Before he falls asleep due to the drugs the
Cranks gave him, Thomas tells Brenda that she can never be Teresa. This seriously strains their status
as friends; Brenda refuses to talk to him for most of the rest of the book. Thomas attempts to make
their relationship right, but she ignores him.
This conflict is never truly resolved. Brenda begins to talk to Thomas again after he is shot and taken away
by WICKED, but it is very minimal. Then, when Teresa pretends to betray Thomas by saying she loves
Aris instead of him, Thomas cannot forgive her and they grow apart. So while he remains friends with
both Brenda and Teresa, he lost his chances at a romantic relationship with both.
Co – Man v. Nature
In the novel The Scorch Trials by James Dashner, a primary conflict is a man-versus-nature conflict.
Thomas is struggling to survive in the Scorch, which is very difficult to do due to the harsh conditions
in that place. He faces intense heat, blinding light, a lack of water, and dangerous lightning storms.
This conflict is not resolved until the end of the story, when the Gladers and Group B escape the Scorch in
the Berg. Throughout the whole book, they face environmental dangers, ranging from the lightning
storm they encounter before entering the City of the Cranks to the jagged rock of the mountain range
near the end.
Co – Man v. Society
In the novel The Scorch Trials by James Dashner, the overarching conflict, in my opinion, is a manversus-society conflict. Thomas is going against the organization WICKED, which is the group that
put the Gladers through the Maze and the Scorch Trials. For those reasons, he hates them and vows to
destroy them, even if it costs him his life.
Due to the fact that this is the second book in a trilogy, this conflict is currently left unresolved. Thomas is
currently kept in a room that is under WICKED’s control, which greatly disconcerts him. What events
may transpire in the near future, no one can say. But as the next book will be the last in the series, I am
assuming that this conflict will be resolved by end of it.
Theme and Resolution
STOP!
END OF THE
NOVEL!
T/R - Theme
The theme in the novel The Scorch Trials, by James Dashner, is:
“ Always do what you think is right, even if it endangers you or your status.”
This theme fits the novel because Thomas decided to allow Jorge and Brenda to come with
them to the safe haven, even though they were told to bring no one else. He did this
because the two Cranks needed the cure, and they had helped the Gladers get through the
Scorch, so he felt they deserved another chance at life.
T/R - Resolution
Like the main conflict (see “Co – Man v. Society”), the novel truly has no resolution because
of the fact that it is the second book in a trilogy. However, at the end of the book, Thomas
is locked in a strange room under WICKED’s control, while Teresa, Group B, and the
other Gladers are in a dormitory somewhere else. WICKED took Thomas, telling the
others that he had become feral due to the Flare, and put him in the room. In addition,
Thomas has discovered that Brenda can communicate with him mentally, and that she is
more “in the Know” than he was aware. Finally, Thomas is still unsure of Teresa’s
allegiance, as the last thing she said to him in their mind-speech conversation was the
WICKED is good.
Mood
M - Mood
The mood in the novel The Scorch Trials, by James Dashner, is, in my opinion,
depressing. Throughout the story, the characters deal with horrible tragedies
and setbacks, which are often gory or emotionally tasking. By the end of the
book, the characters have given up hoping for any sort of end to their torture,
and have resigned themselves to a quiet acceptance.
An excerpt from the novel that lead me to this conclusion would be:
“ ‘Their disgusting skin and blubber bodies, all those metal arms and spikes. It
was way too close for comfort, Tom. How’re we gonna get something like that
out of our head?’
“Thomas knew what he thought. Those images would never leave – the Gladers
would be haunted by the horrible things that had happened in the Maze for the
rest of their lives” (Dashner 2)
Bibliography
All of the pictures in this presentation were either acquired through ClipArt or
made by using the Shapes tool, except for the picture on the slide “C –
Thomas”, which was taken from the website “mazerunnerfandom.net”.