Maze Runner And Lord Of The Flies Comparison Essay

There are many aspects of each story The Maze Runner and Lord of the Flies that deal with the same themes. Each story shows how humans react in situations where a group of people have to band together to try to help each other survive. The Maze Runner is more about keeping each other civilized while Lord of the Flies is more about becoming savage and wild. The Maze Runner is more effective than Lord of the Flies in its exploration of civilization vs. savagery due to being put in a bad situation and instead of going wild, Thomas works with the gladers to overcome his problems and haveing a set of laws laid out so there is order in the community.
In The Maze Runner the gladers work together to overcome their obstacles together. “This ain’t got nothin’ to do with no hate or like or love or friends or anything. All we care about is surviving. Drop your sissy side and start using that shuck brain if you got one.” (Chapter 13). This shows that the gladers are putting

personal issues to the side to survive. They aren’t worried about their own drama when there is more at stake. “Order,” Newt continued. “Order. You say that bloody word over and over in your shuck head. Reason we’re all sane around here is ’cause we work our butts off and maintain order. Order’s the reason we put Ben out—can’t very well have loonies runnin’ around tryin’ to kill people, now can we? Order. Last thing we need is you screwin’ that up.” (Chapter 15). Even though Ben was sick and not in his right state of mind they still banished him because it's part of their rules and their rules are the only things that have kept them alive for so long. If they bend the rules for one person they have to bend the rules for everyone. Even if the punishments seem harsh they have to be done so that way the gladers can keep order and keep eachother safe, while dealing with all their issues at the same time.
In The Lord of the Flies the group of kids need to come together to help each other survive the island, but instead some of them turn savage and try to do more harm for the group than good.

"'Kill the pig! Cut his throat! Kill the pig! Bash him in!'" (CH7) This is only one sign that the group of kids are losing their humanity. No civilized school kid screams about killing a pig unless he's losing his mind. "'Kill the pig! Cut his throat! Kill the pig! Bash him in!'" (CH9). The kids are losing touch with reality. They believe there is a beast on the island with them, and they feel like that if they don’t kill it that it will kill them. Unlike the Gladers in The Maze Runner when put in a bad situation the kids in The Lord of the Flies don’t come together and become stronger. They seperate themselves and grow weaker as a whole.
The main character Thomas in The Maze Runner is similar to the character Ralph from The Lord of the Flies. They both try to keep their groups together and overcome their

situations.
Thomas rocked back on his heels, then ran his arm across his forehead, wiping away the sweat. And at that moment, in the space of only a few seconds, he learned a lot about himself. About the Thomas that was before. He couldn’t leave a friend to die. (Chapter 18) This shows that Thomas will do anything for his group of friends. He won’t let down the group. "'We've got to have rules and obey them. After all, we're not savages. We're English, and the English are
best at everything.'" Here you can see Ralph tell the kids that they do have a set of rules to follow. Throughout the entire story he keeps reminding all the other kids that they are civilized and not savage.
The Maze Runner is better example of civilization vs. savagery because Thomas is actually able to keep his group in control and humain. Thomas is willing to die for his group if it means saving someone else's life. Ralph in Lord of the Flies wasn’t able to keep his group in control. They are far more savage then the Gladers, because they started turning on eachother and killing each other instead of helping each other survive. No matter how similar these two characters are you can see that Thomas is more superior in the fact of being a leader. No matter how humain you think you are you always have a savage side.