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Themes are the fundamental and often universal ideas explored in a literary work.
The Search for Lost Memories and Identity
The novel establishes the theme of the search for lost memories and identity from the earliest pages as Thomas arrives at his new life knowing little more than his first name. Though he has vague impressions of "normal" things such as hamburgers, movies, and haunted houses, he cannot recall any connection to people, including his parents. Thomas’s voice doesn’t sound like his own and he doesn’t know his age, illustrating a complete disconnect from both his life and his sense of self. While this loss of memory initially proves disorienting and isolating, Thomas learns that the struggle to recover these missing pieces of the mind links all of the Gladers, instantly giving him something in common with his new community members. Tied to this search for who they are and where they come from is the Gladers’ search for home. Chuck’s confession to Thomas that he’s homesick for a place he can’t remember suggests an idealized notion of home as a place outside the Glade where real families exist, rather than the cobbled-together found family of lost boys with memory holes. While the Gladers desperately seek knowledge of who they are and where they’re from, any hints provided by the Changing leave them terrified rather than comforted. The search for lost memories and identity becomes chaotic as some Gladers begin to question exactly how much they wish to remember.
The Power of Hope
As the Gladers rise each day to face the seemingly impossible task of working to escape the Glade, hope becomes a powerful driving force. After two years, the Runners are no closer to solving the Maze, though their hope for success gives them the determination to spend each day trying with strong resolve. Though they are children who have been abandoned in a hostile environment, their drive to establish and maintain a society based on order and hierarchy to keep themselves safe illustrates their hope for survival. The Gladers build and maintain this hope through their connections with others as the close friendships and family-like relationships they form help them to persist. When the sun doesn’t rise, the Doors don’t close, and the community falls into chaos, their ability to hold on to hope becomes one of the few things they can control. Though Ben, Gally, and Alby return from the Changing full of despair after glimpsing memories of the outside world, Thomas’s Changing allows him to gather the final pieces of the puzzle and feed the others’ hope that they can achieve their goal. Even false hope helps to encourage the Gladers forward as they prepare to battle the Grievers, though Alby’s final loss of hope leads to his downfall. Hope continually fuels the Gladers’ will to survive as they refuse to give up and ultimately meet their true enemy.
The Importance of Friendship
Though Thomas initially rejects the notion of friendship upon his arrival in the Glade, the realization that Chuck is now his only friend in the world triggers his understanding that friendship is a necessity rather than a luxury in the strange world of the Glade. As the previous Greenie and youngest resident of the Glade, Chuck’s value as a friend is at first questionable. However, in his willingness to share information about the Glade with Thomas when others are reluctant, Chuck demonstrates the importance of his friendship. Though Alby is gruff, as the Glade’s longest resident, he gives Thomas a bit of hope for happiness in his new life and earns a spot as a valuable friend. When Alby and Minho fail to return as the Doors are about to close, Newt’s genuine concern but unwillingness to save them causes Thomas to question the strength of friendships in the Glade. Thomas’s impulsive choice to dash through the Doors to help Alby and Minho, and to boost Alby onto the wall after Minho has left him for dead, show that Thomas instinctively can’t let a friend die, even when the friendship is new and therefore not fully formed. His actions strengthen the concept of friendship as crucial for survival and set the bar for the level of camaraderie that will be necessary for the group’s success.
Belonging through Knowledge
Thomas’s complete lack of knowledge about his new environment clearly marks him as an outsider, and he seeks to gather as much knowledge as he can both to keep himself safe and to gain a sense of belonging. As the Greenie, Thomas isn’t supposed to see Ben’s Changing, as he has not yet earned a spot in the inner circle and isn’t trustworthy or tough enough to know about the mysterious process. Later, when Thomas sets out on the tour with Alby and gets a glimpse of a Griever through the window, his desire for knowledge is overpowering. Because Thomas can’t remember his life outside the Glade, he no longer belongs in the wider world, and he desperately wants to learn and prove he belongs with his fellow Gladers. While Thomas has replaced Chuck as Greenie, Chuck is also still ostracized by much of the group, with his lack of deep knowledge and maturity confirming his own outsider status. Minho’s assertion that Thomas should shut his mouth until he knows more serves as a warning that newcomers without knowledge shouldn’t attempt to have a voice in the Glade. After Thomas survives a night in the Maze, however, Frypan’s suggestion to give Thomas a spot on Council so he can teach them what he’s learned shows that his exclusive knowledge has now made him an essential part of the group. Thomas builds on his proprietary knowledge when he undergoes the Changing and regains memories that the other Gladers don’t have access to. The information he retrieves further solidifies not only his belonging but also his status as essential to the future.
The Need for Hierarchy and Order
Throughout the novel, hierarchy and order prove essential to the Glade’s day-to-day functioning and to the survival of its residents. Upon arrival, each boy undergoes a two-week trial run through all available jobs in the Glade, with each job functioning as an integral part of the whole, to ensure that each boy is placed where he will be most useful. At the head of each job is a Keeper who oversees the daily work of those below. As the highest-ranking members in their areas of expertise, Keepers must also serve on the Council to make and enforce rules and to make important decisions when problems arise. The hierarchical structure and order of the Glade ensure that its residents are housed and fed properly and safely, in clean conditions and with adequate medical care, and with one ultimate goal in mind: surviving and escaping the Maze. Gladers are required to adhere to all rules, but especially to the Number One Rule: Nobody but Runners may enter the Maze. Any small disruption in the established order of the Glade could potentially lead to the failure of society as a whole.
When hierarchy and order are challenged, the potential for chaos must be squashed. Ben’s attempt on Thomas’s life leads to the ultimate consequence a Glader must face: Banishment from the Glade. However, when Thomas breaks the Number One Rule to save Alby and Minho’s lives, the true nature of his crime becomes questionable. Chaos creeps into the ordered structure of society as the Keepers must debate whether Thomas should be punished or rewarded for his actions. Soon after, when the sun doesn’t rise, the Doors don’t close, and supplies don’t arrive, any order imposed by forces outside the Glade disappears. The Gladers then find themselves without a clear leader when Alby resigns, leaving them more vulnerable to the potentially fatal outcomes of chaos. As they face the chaotic Ending, the Gladers must act quickly to decide which actions to take and who to follow in order to survive.
