"The Maze Runner" Reading Response

            The book “The Maze Runner”, by James Dashner, is a mysterious post-apocalyptic story about Thomas, a boy with no memory of his past life as he enters the glade. As he stays there more, he slowly learns that everything is not as it seems and he is the center of it. Thomas has a very important archetype, he is a wide-eyed hero, and without this, the book wouldn’t make sense. Thomas arrives at the glade with no memory of anything except his name and by the end of the book (SPOILER ALERT!) he leads the remaining gladers out of the glade, an innocent “greenie” to a leader.

            At the beginning of the book, when Thomas first arrives at the glade in the box he has no idea where he is, who he is, or how he got there. He is clueless. ‘’It was all too much – where was he? What was this place? Was it some kind of prison? If so, why was he sent here, and for how long?”(Page 11) He is wide-eyed because he is innocent, and with no knowledge or experience how can he be anything else?

            In the middle of the book, Thomas starts to understand the glade, as he stays there longer. This newfound knowledge beckons him to the Maze surrounding him and the Gladers. When he first learns about the maze he wants to explore it and is curious about it. Then when finally his chance comes when Minho, the runner, and Alby, the leader, get stuck in the maze when the doors are closing and he runs in with them. Although, Thomas says he goes because he doesn’t want to let them die in there, but I believe that he also did it to find more about the mysterious Maze. When they make it out alive in the morning, Thomas takes a big step in becoming a leader from his innocent past self.

            At the end of the book, Thomas completes the change from innocent boy to a leader when he and Minho work a way out of the Glade through the Maze. He leads the remaining Gladers to freedom. Thomas leads the gladers through the maze and into the hole in the Cliff, fighting many grievers in the process, half of them dead, but 21 make it through because of Thomas’ leadership.

            Throughout the book, Thomas completes the change from innocent boy to strong leader, going through many different obstacles and challenges to get there. This portrays the wide-eyed hero archetype perfectly. I can’t wait to read the second book in the series and find out what new changes in character he undergoes, because I know that he will change drastically.

"The Fault In Our Stars" Summer Reading Response

            The book “The Fault in Our Stars”, by John Green, is a heartbreaking story about Hazel Grace, a girl with a terminal lung cancer, who meets an amazing boy, Augustus Waters, who has a history of cancer, which caused the loss of his leg. They go on a crazy adventure to Amsterdam to meet the elusive writer of Hazel’s favorite book, which eventually ends in an unexpected tragedy. One of the themes that I felt most important to the book is mortality. We all will die eventually, but for Hazel and Augustus it will happen much sooner. Death is around every corner for them, through too much activity and even the common cold.

            Near the middle of the book hazel is rushed to the ER when she wakes up to unbelievable pain. “I screamed to wake up my parents, and they burst into this room, but there was nothing they could do to dim the supernovae exploding inside my brain, an endless chain of intracranial firecrackers that made me think that I was once and for all going.” (Page 105) We find that this happened because her heart was over-worked; just because she was too active this happened.

            In Amsterdam, Hazel goes up a very steep flight of stairs in Anne Frank’s house. “I finally crested the staircase mostly blind and nauseated, the muscles in my arms and legs screaming for oxygen. I slumped seated against a wall, heaving watered-down coughs.” (Page 200) This quote happens after she knows that she probably can’t make it up the stairs, but feels like she owes Anne Frank something and does it anyway. This is why I love Hazel’s character, when she has set her mind on something, nothing is going to stop her.

            After Hazel and Augustus go to Amsterdam, Augustus is given terrible news that his cancer has returned he is going to die, this is completely unexpected because throughout the book the author gives us clues that Hazel is going to die. This unexpectedness brings up this mortality theme again. Although it was a surprise, death is everywhere for a cancer patient or a post-cancer patient. Their mortality is cut short.

            When I finished reading this book, I was up all night thinking about it and researching cancer on my phone and I was surprised to find that many of cancer deaths in humans happens in a relapse of the disease, which Augustus had. To think about how terrible it is to wake up everyday and think to yourself, “I could die today.”  Mortality is a thing humans respect, no one lives forever, you just live your life and then it’s over. But how can you live well when death could come at any moment? Well if you live each day as you would your last then how could your life be better?