Post 6: Listicle

4 Reasons Why The Maze Runner Is The Best Book Ever

Thomas is the main character of “The Maze Runner.”  The whole book is about him finding out who he is and then helping the other “Gladers” find their way out of the maze.  He is the outsider so he’s challenged with acquiring the help of the others in order to leave.  Here are just some of the reasons why The Maze Runner is the best book ever…

1 – Dashner gives great descriptions

·         The way in which Dashner describes not only the Glade, but the people in it are incredible! He gives great descriptions of even the little details (probably because he’s narrating the story and if he didn’t then the reader would have no idea what to imagine what people and things look like… Well, until the movie came out)

·         For example, when Thomas is first introduced to the Glade, instead of saying it was a large square with tall walls that split and many boys in it, he describes it as “a vast courtyard several times the size of a football field, surrounded by four enormous walls made of gray stone and covered in spots with thick ivy. The walls had to be hundreds of feet high and formed a perfect square around them, each side split in the exact middle by an opening as tall as the walls themselves…”

2 – Develops New Language

·         Dashner develops his own language for the boys in the Glade to use.  Instead of having the boys say cuss words that people use today (in real life), he seems to alter words just enough so that the reader has an idea of what’s being said but the boys aren’t actually swearing.  There are other words that the boys seem to have made up since they’re secluded from any influence.

·         For example, when Thomas first enters the Glade, he’s called “Greenie” or “Greenbean” which can be inferred is slang for someone who is new, similar to our: “newbie.”  As for slang swear words that the boys use, there are only a few in the book.  When Thomas is first introduced to the Glade, he’s in an elevator. “He heard noises above—voices—and fear squeezed his chest. ‘Look at that shank’…’Looks like a klunk in a T-shirt.’ ‘You’re the klunk, shuck-face.’ Hope you enjoyed the one-way trip, Greenie.” These are just some of the words that are adapted by the boys in the Glade. 

 

3 – Interesting Plot Twists

·         I don't know about everyone else, but I was NOT expecting the ending that actually happened! I was expecting the boys to just escape into the real world... I wasn’t expecting their “escape” to be another scheme perfectly orchestrated by Ava Page, Chancellor of WICKED.  And then BOOM! As it turns out, the boys from the Glade are actually only Group A! And we find out that the subjects from Group B also did well in their little social experiment.  We’re left knowing that the boys will have 1 night of peace and quiet until WICKED’s mischiefs begin again.  Dashner really knows how to drop bombs in his books!

4 – Not Too Long

The book isn’t very long.  Its mere 372 pages are like child’s play compared to other books similar to The Maze Runner (according to Amazon).  Other, similar books like Divergent (487 pages), Harry Potter (avg. 600) and Before I Fall (496) have a comparatively high number of pages!  There’s a lot of description and finding out what this new world that Dashner creates is like but once the action starts, the book is hard to put down.  The brevity of the book along with the action and relatability of the characters’ actions is what makes the book awesome!

 

Post 5: Fiction vs. Non-Fiction

Aimee Bender agrees with David Shields when she says that "I think what's always most interesting to me is the work itself and if the work is interesting, I really don't care that much," I disagree with them because I think that you should care. The line between fiction and non-fiction is there for a reason, people who love to read/learn about true, factual events read non-fiction. For those who love the thrill and escape of fantasy and adrenaline-packed novels read fiction. The reason these 2 genres are separate is to accommodate both types of readers.

I agree with James Frey, a book should be 95% true to the event(s) that occurred for the piece to be considered "non-fiction." Obviously, as we've discussed in class, people can't always remember the EXACT conversation they had when they were 16 years old and they're now re-telling it at 55. I understand the use of creative license in those times, but changing 35% of a story to make it a good story should be labeled "based on a true story" because it is. It's BASED on a true event, but it's not as close to exactly as I would like in order for it to be labeled non-fiction. 

For me, half-truths are never okay. That would mean that 50% of the story is real and 50% is made up. If you want to make it a good story, make it fiction and you have all the room in the world to mix up events, times and people, but if your intentions are to make people aware of your story/situation, DON'T CHANGE THINGS. If it was truly meant to be a good story, you don't need to embellish details (throughout the entire book) in order for people to think it's a good book.

"Bending the truth" is a tough line to draw.  Where is too much? Back to what I said earlier, 95% is the minimum a book should be factual in order for memoirists to be able to call their books memoirs. I think that any more and you should just say that your book is based on a true story because while it is the recounting of a part of your life, it not as true as would meet the standards of memoirs.