The Metal Box

Author's Note: This is a point of view essay about the book The Maze Runner by. James Dashner. I will be explaining about  who's point of view this book is told from and how it sucks in the reader.

Imagine waking up in a scorching metal box having burning eyes watching your every move. Well that’s how the main character Thomas, from The Maze Runner by James Dashner felt, and I felt it just as he did because he was the narrator and the story was told from his point of view.  In the book The Maze Runner the main character Thomas, wakes up in a metal box in the year 2024 with the memory of his past life wiped. He is welcomed into a large, concrete area called the Glade, populated by a group of sixty or so teenage boys called "Gladers". The Glade is surrounded by massive concrete walls, beyond which lie an enormous maze. All Gladers have arrived the same way as Thomas: one every month with memories wiped. In the Maze Runner Thomas is the one telling the story and it is all told from his point of view.

One way that Thomas’s point of view influences how the reader feels and reacts to the story is pulling them into the story. By making them feel like they’re actually Thomas, going through fear, death ,and sorrow living inside a somewhat pit of despair. His point of view really influences me, because the fact that he is living his life in a “Jail cell” he still lives life to the fullest enjoying every bit of happiness that he has left. It influences me by making me feel what he does, like how he feels cocky and superior to everyone around him, it almost makes me feel as though I am as superior, and cocky as him.

However the reader would feel a lot differently about Thomas If this story was told in the point of view of his best friend Chuck. For instance , Chuck is a young ditzy boy around 13 years old and  doesn’t know much about growing up. I think the reader wouldn’t react too well to Thomas’s attitude toward him, because though Thomas is older and wiser ,Chuck somehow seems not as interesting to Thomas or the reader. Within the story they get into a lot of fights all because of Thomas taking advantage of Chuck, getting him into trouble, and calling him names. Although Thomas seems to be a cocky, stuck up kid he tries very hard to be a good friend to Chuck.

In The Maze Runner The narrator Thomas gives the reader a clear perspective on how it’s like to live life everyday in the Glade. From having his best, and only friend Chuck  taken away from him to falling in love with the only girl in Glade Teresa. He learns to deal with the loss of what was before, from all the way back to that opening of the metal box.