The Scorch Trials Book Response

Title: The Scorch Trials
Author: James Dashner
Year of Publication: 2010
Number of Pages: 360
I. Plot Summary:
Thomas and his friends are out of the Glade and into the real world. After escaping the Glade and taken by some strangers to safety they learn that it was all a false lie. Teresa is taken from Thomas and replaced with a boy named Aris who tells them there is another group that came from a Glade but all girls. They are all put to another test and given the Flare a hideous disease that turns people crazy. They have to walk through the Scorch Trials and make it to the other side of it to get the cure. Many complications would arise and this would be more of a challenge for them than they have ever faced before.
II. Literary Elements:
A. Narrator- Third Person- "Thomas shifted in his bed, felt a darkness around him." p.1
B. Protagonist- Thomas- he is the Glader's leader and is projected to be the answer to WICKED's trails and all that they have been through." No one else dies, Thomas said. The senseless killing had to end." p.347
C. Antagonist- The Flare- The disease Thomas and his friends are given that breaks down the mind and body leaving behind a crazy zombie like person when the final stages happen. "If it weren't for the stupid Flare, I think the world would pull through in the long run." p.203
 D. Setting- The Scorch- " In front of him, a flat pan of dry and lifeless earth 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; waving 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." p.95
 E. Conflict- It is both man vs. man and man vs. self. It was Thomas against the Cranks and other monsters of the Scorch and ultimately trying to beat WICKED. It was also man vs. self because everything was already predetermined for them so they were constantly second guessing what they needed to do and the Flare slowly breaking down their brain so they had to fight their own thoughts.
F. Theme- Nothing is certain and your own fate is what you make it. Rise up against tyranny and follow your best instincts. No matter how bad things seem to get your friends will always be there to take on the challenges with you. " No more fear. No more shock. No more questioning. Take what comes. Play along. Pass the tests. Pass the Trials." p.346

 III. Reflection- I liked this book very much. After reading the first one I feel that it is just as good if not better than the first one. I was interested the whole way through it wondering what was going to happen next. There was a lot of surprises through out the whole book and plenty of action and just as much mystery as the previous book. Some questions are answered in this book but more questions arise. I think anybody who likes to read adventure or mystery books would enjoy this book very much would find something interesting about it.