The Maze Runner is the story of a group of teenagers who have been removed from their homes, with their memories wiped essentially clean, in order to serve as subjects in an experiment. Without knowledge of who they are or why they have been sent there, these residents of “the Glade” are consistently vulnerable to the psychological warfare methods their keepers employ to keep them engaged in the experiment. Though the Gladers are ignorant about their participation, they do understand the mission at hand: to escape the Maze beyond the walls of the Glade. With the constant threat of death by the mechanical monsters that dwell in the Maze, the Gladers must band together and form a society based on order for survival as they attempt to carry out their mission. As relatively young humans faced with a monumental task, the Gladers encounter a variety of complex challenges and experience both successes and defeats. Their need for order proves vital, and as the stakes increase and chaos ensues, they are forced to make sacrifices unreasonable for teenagers to endure. Ultimately, their perseverance leads to success, though the chilling discovery of the true nature of the experiment eradicates all possibility of their return to a normal world.     

The story opens as protagonist Thomas is thrust into a hostile new environment with no memory of where he’s from or why he’s arrived. The surrounding darkness and grinding mechanical sounds of his journey make it difficult for Thomas to gather any details about his surroundings. As he meets the fellow residents of the Glade, they employ insults and use strange language, enforcing Thomas’s status as an outsider in this society where not belonging leads to peril. When he meets the leader, Alby, the bully, Gally, and the former Greenie, Chuck, their attitudes and behavior demonstrate that the Glade depends on order and hierarchy for daily operations and survival. Though Thomas asserts his independence, he realizes that he needs Chuck’s friendship, as the information and companionship the young boy provides give Thomas an opportunity to survive the challenges of the Glade. Each of the Gladers has a job to do, but the Runners carry out the primary focus of the community: finding a way through the Maze so they can all return home. 

This quest to solve the puzzle of the Maze sets up the central conflict of the book. All of the Gladers’ activities contribute to keeping them safe, and as they work to accomplish this collective goal, each has a set of specific tasks to undertake. Throughout the performance of their daily life mechanics, however, the Gladers also long for an ideal version of a home they don’t know and parents they can’t remember. Their shared but often private dream of returning home unifies them and keeps them focused on achievement. But as some are stung by the monstrous Grievers and undergo the Changing, their newfound memories of the real world reveal their flawed perception of the safety of home. The conflict grows as this alternate view of home emerges and the desirability of reaching their end goal becomes questionable. Thomas’s potential role in their plight intensifies the conflict and its possible outcomes. Ben emerges from the Changing with the notion that home is a nightmare, and that Thomas has been sent to take them back to a place of pain and suffering. Though most Gladers write off Ben’s fervent insistence as a form of post-Changing madness, this event, in combination with Teresa’s arrival, plants the seed of distrust that Thomas begins to battle within the community but also within himself. His heroic act of saving Alby’s life and surviving a night in the Maze helps to quell some of the distrust around who he is and what his motives are, but Thomas is clearly different from the others, and his possible past connection to Teresa suggests that his presence in the Glade is portentous. 

The conflict continues to build as the order of the Glade begins to break down into chaos. In a world built on order for survival, chaos is a potential death sentence. Teresa’s sudden revelation that change is coming is both formidable and unclear. But when the artificial sun fails to rise, no supplies arrive, and the Doors to the Glade remain open at night, the Gladers begin to understand the sinister nature of the outside forces controlling their environment. Though Alby emerges from the Changing with the idea that their only true hope for safety exists within the Glade, the breakdown of order demonstrates that the Gladers must change their approach for survival. The amplified danger of constant exposure to the Grievers serves as motivation to crack the code of the Maze, though the Gladers are then faced with the task of deciding what to do with the ambiguous information they have finally extracted.   

The climax of the story occurs when Thomas intentionally gets stung by a Griever and emerges from the Changing with more information than any Glader has ever been able to extract from memories. His heroics and new wisdom inspire faith more than distrust, even as he reveals knowledge of his own involvement in the experiment. The Gladers now find themselves empowered to make their most important decision yet: They will face death to fight their way through the Griever Hole and out of the Maze. Once the decision is made, the Gladers display the impact of hope or hopelessness in different ways. While Minho’s hope flags, he vows to go down fighting for freedom for himself and his friends. Newt’s speech about taking the fight to the Creators and Grievers inspires hope in Thomas and the others as shown by the outbursts of cheers. Because Alby has given up all hope of returning to a safe, welcoming home, he sacrifices himself to the Grievers so the others can continue. Whether Alby intends to avoid the horrors he expects at home or contribute to the mission through a heroic act, because of their shock and despair, his sacrifice slows the team down and puts them at greater risk.

While the Gladers played adult roles within the closed confines of the Glade, their trip through the Griever Hole symbolizes the culmination of their transformation from childhood to adulthood. No one displays the change more dramatically than Chuck. Thomas’s vow to protect Chuck prompts him to take the young boy into the Griever Hole with him as he and Teresa enter the codes that will end the Maze. Far from the annoying tagalong he has been in the Glade, Chuck shows himself to be an essential part of the mission by solving the last piece of the puzzle. Chuck also changes roles with Thomas, displaying a brave act of self-sacrifice that saves Thomas’s life. With half of the original group surviving to make it to the WICKED lab, they lack the time to process their new location as the rescuers attack their enemies. Though they find the real world in a desperate situation as the Changings have shown, the provisions of food, clothes, and shelter allow the Gladers to relax, showing how much they need to believe in some sort of safety and comfort. As in the Glade itself, the Gladers don’t see the full truth of this world. The WICKED memo at the story’s conclusion reveals that the Gladers are indeed deceived about their newfound safety and will have more challenges yet to come as they’ve only solved and survived one part of the puzzle.