The Maze Runner: Morals Tested Harshly

       To start off, The Maze Runner was an amazing book and a perfect example of morals. I would say that there are three main characters in the book, one who appears much later than the others. The main character, Thomas, would have a moral compass consisting of truth, family, friendship, and loyalty. This is because the book starts off with him arriving at a strange place of people he's never seen before, but shortly becomes friends with. He is being tested by scientists and forced to help the boys find a way out of the place, the only clue at all is a giant maze filled with monsters. Honesty and friendship is the only thing that will keep them all alive and together they learn to work together and eventually escape. Thomas faces many challenges including false accusations, greivers (monsters from the maze), his memory loss, finding friends, and getting the truth but he overcomes these by standing up for himself. He explains he just wants to go home and solve the mystery and he does this to give out the message to never give up.
       Chuck was the new kid before Thomas got to the maze and becomes friends with him instantly, telling him all the rules and ways of the place they were called The Glade. His moral compass is a lot different than that of Thomas' in the sense that Chuck was more focused on family, surviving, friends, and fitting in. He wasn't outgoing like Thomas and liked to be the quiet one but still have his share of friends. All he really cared about was family and he always talked about how he wanted to see them or if they were thinking about him. That and surviving were all that was really on his mind, unlike Tom who wanted to escape and be virtuous. He faces a lot of dilemmas in the book, one particuarly near the end when he, Tom, and Teresa go into the Griever hole to shut down the maze and a griever jumps down behind them. Chuck thinks fast, desiphering the code, and he ends up being the reason everyone survived, only to sacrifice himself in the end to save Tom's life. The point of Chuck in the story and his actions is to show love and care, Chuck dies in place of Tom at the end and it shows the reader that he was extremely courageous.
       The last character, the one that appears later in the book, is a girl named Teresa. She is the only girl in the story and when she arrives, things begin to get weirder and weirder. She tells Tom she triggered the ending but doesn't remember much but she is beautiful and has strong feelings. Her moral compass would contain love, loyalty, teamwork, and honesty. Loyalty and teamwork go together in her situation because throughout the whole book she is trying to help solve the mystery of the maze even though she knows it is all her fault to begin with. Without teamwork and loyalty, no one would have made it out of the maze. That also connects to honesty because with lies, there would be holes in the plan, thus making it fall apart miserably. Love struck me as important to her also because she was extremely friendly and seemed to love everyone there even when they said mean things to her. Her biggest dilemma was probably when the kids were all asking her where she came from and without thinking, she blurted out the truth. She told them she sent them there and she was instantly looked upon as a bad guy and locked up for a day. This changed once it was a life or death matter and she was the only one to help them. This message is to keep your head up and stick together no matter what.
       All the characters I read about in The Maze Runner had similar moral compasses or could somehow connect in one way or another. They were all tested too many times to write about in this book and all overcame these tests by following their hearts and morals. When it all came down to it, most of the kids in The Glade decided to risk their lives to live rather than just die and that was the whole point of the test. The book is trying to tell the reader to keep faith and to never give up. That was the point of the book and the moral that everyone should just follow because it's right. The three main characters; Thomas, Chuck, and Teresa, overcame all the obstacles and stuck together, being willing to die for eachother one hundred percent of the way. This is true friendship and it is guided by our moral compasses that lead us to do everything we do in life.