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Chapter 5
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Maze Runner, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Memory and Identity
Stability and Order vs. Change and Chaos
Sacrifice
Growing Up
Hope
Sexism
Summary
Analysis
The next morning, Newt wakes Thomas up before dawn. Newt says he’s supposed to show Thomas something before everyone else wakes up. They go to one of the stone walls and Newt pushes some ivy away to reveal a window. For a moment nothing happens, but then a magnificent glimmering light shoots through the window. Newt tells Thomas he needs to show him what’s inside the Maze.
Like when the light blinded Thomas as he came out of the elevator, the light here signifies that Thomas will once again experience a feeling of enlightenment or rebirth. Just as he was beginning to feel comfortable with his newfound identity, he might be starting over from scratch.
Themes
When Thomas looks into the window he sees a creature, part-machine and part-animal, with sharp metal appendages sticking out from its body. The creature lurches at the window and Thomas screams but the window doesn’t break. Newt says these things are called Grievers and that they take over the Maze at night. Since the doors shut at sunset, the Grievers can’t get into the Glade. Newt says that Thomas, like all the other boys, needs to help find a way out of the Maze.
A few hours later, Thomas is eating breakfast with the rest of the boys. He thinks about why and how such a maze can even exist, and how they can be expected to find a way out. As he thinks through these problems, Alby taps his shoulder and tells him that he will give him a tour now.
Thomas’ encounter with the Griever makes him pensive, showing that he is struggling to uncover the mysteries of the Maze. Allegorically, this scene represents Thomas’ struggling to understand what it means to be a teenager.
Themes
