GENRE STUDY #1
The Scorch Trials fits into the genre of dystopian fiction for many reasons. Firstly because of its use of setting. Throughout the novel the setting is explained in great detail. This is because in all dystopian novels the author uses the ruined and devastated landscape to play off the premises that humans have destroyed everything they worked to create and or they have destroyed everything natural. The ruined city where most of the scorch trials take place is a perfect example of humanities destructive nature. The crumbling burnt down building still leave the shape of most building but others have been destroyed all together. Another way that the scorch trials fit into dystopian fiction is because of its premise where the world as we know it has cycled rapidly downward to a point where everyone needs to fight to survive. Now the scorch trials take that basic idea and elevates to the next level by using a mixture of different dystopian themes to make one much acclaimed novel. The characteristics that define it as dystopian novel are that Thomas, the main character, meets the criteria of a dystopian protagonist where he sees the evil in this world and feels compelled to find a way to stop it. Also the control put on the characters and the use of disease and advanced technology define the dystopian book. This is the excerpt from the back of the back of the novel
“The maze was only the beginning….
Solving the maze was supposed to be the end. No more. No more variables. And no more running. Thomas was sure that escape meant he and the Gladers would get their lives back. But no one really knew what sort of life they were going back to. Burned by sun flares and baked by a new brutal climate the earth has become a waste land. Government has disintegrated-and with it, order- and now cranks, people covered in festering wounds and driven to murderous insanity by the infectious disease known as the flare, roam the crumbling cities hunting for their next victim… and meal. The Gladers are far from done running, instead of freedom, they find themselves faced with another trial. They must cross the scorch, the most burned-out section of the world, and arrive at a safe haven in two weeks. And WICKED has made sure to adjust the variables and stack the odds against them.
Thomas can only wonder- does he hold the secret to freedom somewhere in his mind? Or will forever be at the mercy of WICKED?”
Solving the maze was supposed to be the end. No more. No more variables. And no more running. Thomas was sure that escape meant he and the Gladers would get their lives back. But no one really knew what sort of life they were going back to. Burned by sun flares and baked by a new brutal climate the earth has become a waste land. Government has disintegrated-and with it, order- and now cranks, people covered in festering wounds and driven to murderous insanity by the infectious disease known as the flare, roam the crumbling cities hunting for their next victim… and meal. The Gladers are far from done running, instead of freedom, they find themselves faced with another trial. They must cross the scorch, the most burned-out section of the world, and arrive at a safe haven in two weeks. And WICKED has made sure to adjust the variables and stack the odds against them.
Thomas can only wonder- does he hold the secret to freedom somewhere in his mind? Or will forever be at the mercy of WICKED?”
After reading that three main themes jump out to me. They are disease, destruction of society/ world, and Big Brother. The disease is the flare it was meant to kill a third of the earth’s population but it ended up destroying much more. Released by the governments of the world as a form of population control. It was supposed to be a quick painless death but the disease evolved so it could live longer. As the disease survives in the hosts brain it starts “eating” away at the brain slowly sending the host into a crazed madness until the host eventually dies months later. The second theme destruction of the world or society is seen when the cities of the world have been reduced to nothing but hiding holes for the cranks showing both the destruction of society and destruction of the world. The third theme is Big Brother which is represented by WICKED which is an organization given absolute power and a limitless number of human test subjects. We learn that WICKED watches and controls every aspect of life for the Gladers. WICKED also acts as a totalitarian government in that they own everything and control everything and just like a totaltarian government they release propaganda trying to convince everyone that they are doing the right thing. One major way that this novel breaks away from the characteristic of this genre is with the “removal” of characters. Death is not an odd thing in dystopian fiction in fact death and dystopia coincide they fit together well but one thing that doesn’t happen in dystopian fiction is the death of major characters yet it seem in every few chapters a major character gets killed off. In this way the scorch trials breaks away from the characteristics of dystopian fiction.