By Marvin M., JP D., and Quinn R.

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When the book started, they were in a type of dorm room. There was a large dorm room where the Glader’s stayed, a hallway to a circular, open main area, and then another hallway that lead to a small dorm room.

Gladers Large Dorm Room

Small Dorm Room

Main OpenAreaHallway Hallway

The Portal

The Scorch is a blazing hot, desert like plain that The Gladers stumble upon from coming up from the large tunnel that they were sent to from the dorm rooms. As described in the book, “…a flat pan of dry and lifeless earth that stretched as far as he could see. Not a single tree. Not a bush. No hills or valleys. Just an orange-yellow sea of dust and rocks; wavering currents of heated air boiled on the horizon like steam, floating upward, as if any life out there were melting toward the cloudless and pale blue sky.” (95) After they cross the blazing hot scorch, they walk into a old and ruined city that they camp out for the night there. It has “An Underneath” section where the “not so gone” Cranks use for transportation through the dangerous city. After the city, they continue north toward the mountains, and they assume that the Safe Haven is just over them. When they reach the peak, they start to get their hopes down because they cannot see anything be or special waiting for them. However, as they head north, they find a sign in the dirt saying: “The Safe Haven”.

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Safe Haven

Thomas is the main character in the book. When Thomas came up in the Box in the Glade, that was when things started getting weird. He helped all the Gladers get out of the Maze, along with Teresa and there telepathic ability to talk. When Thomas found out Teresa was replaced with Aris, he couldn’t stop thinking about her. Now he feels guilty after he meet Brenda and she started getting close to him. Gets more and more courageous as the book goes on. Thomas is a protagonist, and is a major character in the book. He is a dynamic character because he starts to become more courageous as the book goes on.

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Minho is an Asian boy with strong arms, dark skin, and short, black hair. He has started to become the leader at the beginning of the book, and doesn’t have much feelings for the other Gladers. He is short, straight, and is to the point, and doesn’t like small talk or lollygagging. When he finds and ambushes the Cranks that kidnapped and drugged Thomas and Brenda, he walks up to them as nothing has ever happened and continues on with their goal to find the safe haven. Minho is a protagonist and a major character. He is a static character and still doesn’t have any mercy and still likes to be in charge and take control.

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He is a tall, blonde haired boy with a limp. He was sort of the leader, but now Minho has started to take over. As the story goes on, he starts to have a less important role than in the first book. He is just now one of the few Gladers from group A, plus group B and Brenda and Jorge, to make it to the Safe Haven. He is a protagonist, a minor character, and

a static character.

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Aris has olive skin, and short, dark hair, like Minho. He was “replaced” for Teresa in the beginning of the book, when he was in Teresa’s room the next morning. He was from Group B, the same sort of “test” Thomas and the Glader’s were going through, and everything was the same. However, Group B had all girls and Aris, and Group A (the Gladers) had all boys and Teresa. Aris and Teresa “played the same roles” for Group A and B. They both came up two days after the person they could telepathically talk to. They both were the opposite gender, and both were taken away from there distinctive groups. Aris appears towards the end of the book when he and Teresa take Thomas and force him into a door towards the bottom of the mountain in the woods. They say WICKED, the corporation that put them in the Scorch, made them or they would die. Inside the door is a small chamber that is filled with small holes that spray Thomas with knockout gas. Aris is protagonist, a minor character, and a static character.

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Brenda is a short girl with brown eyes and dark hair. She is a smart, tough girl that is like

the leader besides Jorge (kind of like Minho and the Gladers). She was picked to go with Jorge and the other Gladers to find the Cure. She lived in Canada with her family before the Flare came and her mom died. She start to get close to Thomas, but when they we to the party place, she didn’t really talk to him much (I’m guessing because she tried to kiss him when she was drugged and held hostage from the Cranks). Brenda is a protagonist, a minor and dynamic character. She is dynamic because she changes the way she acts to Thomas.

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World In Catastrophe Killzone Experiment Department WICKED is a group of lots of governments combined throughout the world.

Some Gladers say wicked is good, some say it bad. I have mixed feeling about wicked. I think they are liars, but when they said they had a cure for the flare and how they needed Thomas to figure it out. I thought they were telling the truth, and that Thomas should have trusted them. I can see why Thomas wouldn’t trust them because they put him through this torture and they erased his memory. WICKED is a antagonist and is the group that started the maze and put all of the Gladers through this.

“The Rat Man”, from WICKED, gives them instructions to travel north in the Scorch to reach the Safe Havens

Winston and another boy get killed by a metal ball that detached itself from the ceiling on the way to the Scorch.

When the are traveling towards the city in the Scorch, a big lightning storm comes along just to make their travels harder. The rain was pouring down on them, and the thunder made Thomas go deaf. The lighting strikes fried a couple Gladers to their death. And even Minho’s clothes on fire.

The next mourning they are inside one of the old buildings from the city, and Thomas’ hearing came back, and Minho was still very sore from his burs. However, some dude comes flying in from upstairs, saying he is the Crank who runs this place.

Jorge and his friend, Brenda, decide to join the Gladers in their search for the Safe Haven. However, they were promised the cure when the reached the Safe Haven.

Then, Jorge and Brenda take the Galders to their food stash, were they there enjoy their canned food meal. However, when there eating, there was a loud BOOM from upstairs, and the ceiling started falling in on them. They all ran away from the building, but they got split up. It was Brenda and Thomas, and Jorge with the rest of the Gladers.

When Brenda and Thomas are running away, she takes him to a place called the Undergrounds. That’s were they secretly move around the city. She wanted to take home to the other side of the city.

On the way there, they run into a “fully gone” (crazy) Crank. He started to say crazy rhymes like; “Rose took my nose, I suppose.” (184). They tried to run away, but they were surrounded. They managed to run past them, and get to there hiding spot. When they thought they were gone, the started talking, but there leader was still there. He reached his hand in there little hiding spot, and pulled on Thomas and slammed his face into the wall. Then Brenda took out her knife and sliced his hand off. Then she put him in a locked position and Thomas plunged his knife into the Cranks heart.

After getting out of the Undergrounds they get a gun pulled on them and they get taken to this secret hideout. The Cranks made Thomas tell them how they got here, so Thomas to them everything. About the Maze, Rat Man, The Scorch, all the way up to when they saw them, in the ally.

After Minho comes and rescues them and they start running away, the guy with the gun starts chasing after them and shoots Thomas in the shoulder. Then, people from WICKED come pick him up to rescue him, as if that wasn’t the way he should’ve died in WICKED’s “tests”.

Then they continue on with there journey north as they decide to head towards the mountains. However, they run into Teresa and Group B, and they kidnap Thomas by force because they have weapons. They said if anyone follows them, they all die.

They said they were going to kill Thomas, but he convinced them not to and let him go along for the ride. However, Teresa wants to talk to Thomas alone, but it’s a trap. Aris, who came out of nowhere, and her force him into a small door, were Thomas was sure he was to meet his death. However, it was just a small chamber that was filled with gas that made Thomas get knocked out. (I think it was just another test of WICKED’s to see if Teresa would put Thomas through such misery).

Once they all defeated their monsters, a big “berg” (an airplane) came from the sky and picked them up. However, once they all got in the berg, a man with a gun that watched them get in the berg said “One of them has to go”. Referring to Jorge and Brenda, because they weren’t part of Group A or B. After awhile of thinking, Thomas made a decision and it was Brenda. So the man named David pulled Brenda and was leaving down the hall. While David was not looking Thomas attacked him, and David dropped his gun. Thomas took his gun and pointed it at David, and he said Brenda can stay.

When Thomas woke up, he was in a white room. That’s it. A white room with just two pieces of furniture in it, a wooden desk and chair. His clothes, also had no color, all white.

When he fell asleep, Teresa spoke to him in his mind. She said that they took him away after the Berg landed, and that everyone else was in another dorm room. And when Thomas told her to go away out of anger and frustration with WICKED, she said that she had one more thing to tell him. WICKED is good…

Man v Nature: When Thomas and the Gladers are traveling north towards the Safe Haven, a huge lightning storm rolls in. This made it even more difficult to travel towards the Safe Haven. The lightning storm blasted a few Gladers and they died, while other times their clothes caught on fire. “A bolt of pure white zigzagged from the sky and exploded on the ground right in front of him.” (134)

Man v Society: The group that has put the Gladers through this is WICKED. They took them and put them in the Maze, and then into the Scorch. Thomas has been battling WICKED from the very beginning. “Someone from WICKED is here to spy on us.” (24)

Man v Man: When Thomas and the rest of the Gladers, Group B, Brenda, and Jorge all have there own creature to fight. This is what ,at the time, they thought was their last challenge from WICKED. It was about eight feet tall, and had glowing orange bulbs all over it body. To kill the creature, he had to destroy all if the glowing bulbs. “The bulbs. All he needed to destroy the bulbs. Somehow they were linked to the creature’s power or life or strength.” (334)

I think the theme of the book is “Live each day like it’s your last.” I think this is the theme because Thomas knows that he could die in the next hour of the day. Especially because there is so much random killing that is unnecessary for WICKED to do to these kids.

The resolution of the story is when Thomas and the rest of the pack kill there monsters and get picked up in the big Berg. “WICKED’s last abominations were only thirty feet away.”(330)

I think the mood of the story is tragic. I believe that this is a good word to describe the book because there is lots of merciless killing involved in the book. Also, the characters have now idea why they are being put through this torture and they just want to help their friends to safety. “Sometimes I wonder…If being alive matters. If being dead might be a lot easier.” (141)