The Maze Runner and the Giver

Both The Maze Runner by James dasher and The Giver by Lois lowry were interesting from the start. Similar to each story is a younger male who struggles within a future society and deals with the themes of control, order, forced removal of memory & history, and the struggle of the characters to accept the morals and values, which the new society has set.

The Maze Runner begins with Thomas, the teenage boy whose memory is erased is delivered to a group of boys surviving together in a plot of land surrounded by a maze.

The boys were all delivered to the location similarly without knowledge of their own identity and why they have been placed there but organize themselves to survive. Thomas is introduced into his new group and quickly becomes a favorite due to his unique ability to creatively survive the maze, demonstrating bravery against the boys perceived enemy, the organically robotic “Grievers”.

Jonas the main charactor of The giver is also a teenage boy who lives in a society which is seen only in shades of gray and the members are immune to the feeling and historical memory. Jonas is selected to have a very special place in society, spending time with The Giver to be the sole receiver of the memories of the past – knowledge of freedom, vivid color, and emotion to take the pain and struggle that his society feels its members are free from.

Both stories are fiction and were intriguing depictions of a dystopian society. However, Lois Lowry explains the story of The Giver in a very well paced, believable, and powerful. In compairing, James Dashers The Maze Runner leaves the reader asking many questions as the plots rises and falls are abrupt and vivid, leaving many questions in the readers mind as the plot unfolds unevenly and characters not clearly developed. The Maze Runner also has a more science-fiction flavor with the description and behavior of “the Grievers”, pulling away from what could have been a much more powerful plot if that “character” was developed and delivered in a more clever way.

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