Character Development and Interactions in the Scorch Trials

In both the real world, and in most good fiction books, characters are shaped by the society they live in. This is a central theme in the Scorch Trials, by James Dashner. Although the book starts off with only 20 known characters who are going through a set of dangerous "trials", the group of children is able to come together and organize themselves to survive the ordeals. From the 50 characters who were placed in the Maze from the last book in the series, only 20 were able to survive. They were then removed from this and after one day of rest were placed in a second test of survival, an enormous flat dessert that gives the book its title.

Readers only get to know three main characters well; Thomas, Newt, and Minho. These three make most of the decisions and are respected by the rest of the boys. In the Maze, despite their young ages, the boys immediately form an organized society when placed in difficult situations. Each person has a job and a set of laws is made. This social structure withers away as soon as they are rescued and given their next task: to cross a 100 mile long scorching hot dessert.

The author, James Dashner, provides readers with several clues as to why this happens. First of all, the characters now know that they are part of a huge experiment, and have started to believe that their fate is pre-determined by the organization that designed the trials. As they are told at the start of the trials, "There are no rules. There are no guidelines... go one hundred miles north and make it to the safe haven" (Dashner, 60). Unlike in the maze, the objective has now been clearly spelled out. By doing this, the determination that the characters used to have has gone away, replaced with the feeling that they are going to perish anyway so they might as well not try to escape.

At the end of the book, I predict that at least some of the characters will manage to get out alive- how else would the author write the third book in the series?