In The Maze Runner, we see Gladers going crazy after they're stung by Grievers. People like Gally and Alby and Ben—they go seriously cray-cray. But in The Scorch Trials, everyone is cray-cray. Why is that? Well, apparently, everyone in the novel, including the Gladers, is infected by the Flare, a disease that eats away at the brain and slowly turns you into a meaty blob of looniness.
Most of the madness we see in The Scorch Trials is literal, not figurative. People actually go crazy, like the full-blown Cranks. One guy's even preoccupied with stealing Thomas's nose. Madness is slowly taking over the world, which makes the search for the cure even direr.
Questions About Madness
- Does Thomas actually start to go crazy at the end of the book?
- Do you believe that the Gladers have the Flare?
- Is Brenda partly crazy and suffering from the Flare?