Escaping the Maze = Happiness?

Written by: Kathy

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Like Nikolay Ivanovitch in Anton Chekhov's "Gooseberries," the Gladers in James Dashner's The Maze Runner have a goal. Nikolay wants to own a farm, whereas the Gladers want to escape the Maze. Like Nikolay, once the Gladers reach their goal, unfortunately, they are disappointed. Their journeys to reach their goals, however, are different by (1) the reason they want to achieve the goals, (2) the way they work to achieve their goals, and (3) what happens after they achieve their goals.

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Nikolay and the Gladers have completely different reasons why they want to achieve their goals. Nikolay is tired of living life in the boring city and wants to live on a farm and grow gooseberries. Contrarily, the Gladers want to escape the Maze, because they believe that is their purpose for being put in there. Nikolay and the Gladers all have a purpose they believe they need to fulfill to be happy.

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Unlike the Gladers, Nikolay takes the greedy way to get to his goal. He spends all his time worrying about money and he even marries an old widow and, basically, kills her, because he is to cheap to buy more food. His way of reaching his goal is completely different from how the Gladers are working to reach their goal. The Gladers use teamwork. They work together to find a way out of the Maze. They give specific jobs for everyone to do so everyone does their part in helping the community, and, unlike Nikolay, they actually feed each other (Thanks to Frypan and the Cooks). The Runners (the Gladers that go out into the Maze and map it) work really hard to find a way out, but they also have some free time to hang out with their friends during the evening. Differently, Nikolay works all day.

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Eventually, Nikolay and the Gladers reach their goals. Their happiness isn't fulfilled, however, because reaching their goal isn't what they thought it would be. Nikolay's farm is definitely not what he dreamed it to be. The stream on the farm is murky and his gooseberries taste horrible. He believes that he is happy, because he finally reaches his goal, but he really isn't. With the same disappointment as Nikolay, the Gladers finally escape the Maze, but they are eventually thrown back into another set of trials and are exposed to a disease called the Flare and the people who have it, called Cranks. They think everything is going to be fine and dandy (except for those who went through the Changing, of course), but everything turns out even worse than their experiences in the Maze. They are even more disappointed than Nikolay.

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Even though "Gooseberries" and The Maze Runner are contrarily different, like why they want the goal, how they work for that goal, and what happens when they reach their goals, they have characters that share similar experiences. Characters in both stories feel disappointment with the outcome of their goals coming true. From both of these stories, one can learn that even when someone's goal is fulfilled, it doesn't mean that person is happy. Nikolay and the Gladers are not happy with their outcomes.

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Doctor Who Does the Best

BY: Izzy Lewis

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The Doctor is a very widely known character and easily connectable to many different types of people. In A Good Man Is Hard To Find we are set with a scene of tension between families and they just don't know what to do. However, the husband/ son forces the family to go to Florida instead of Tennessee. Bailey, the son, seems more interested in what he wants than with experiencing things different from the world. Bailey drags his family to Florida instead of going to Tennessee to experience the reminiscence of his mother. He chooses to let his family be uncultured and unprepared.... This is very much UNLIKE the Doctor.

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No matter what the grandmother in A Good Man is hard to Find believes in, the Doctor will never leave anyone alone. The Doctor always makes sure his companions know he's leaving. Even if the tardis is going to be sitting around, the Doctor makes sure to "enjoy the few minutes you got left the best way you can." The Doctor never let anyone go, he always said goodbye.

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Even though the grandmother was saying to The Misfit that she didn't believe he would shoot an old lady, she still died at his hand. One by one her family was taken into the forest and killed by The Misfit's gang and the whole time she was "praying" and trying to convince The Misfit that she could be saved. However, The Doctor knew otherwise and it seems The Misfit's thoughts weren't far off. People have their time and when their time is up... They will die.

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Kim Jong Il and Joffrey Baratheon

Written by: Kathy

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Kim Jong Il's character in Adam Johnson's The Orphan Master's Son is very similar to Game of Thrones' Joffrey Baratheon. Both are too focused on power and both are greedy. Their stories generally progress in the same way and they have the same general outcomes, they are still in power. These two stories suggest that sometimes people in charge do not have full control of the situation, but they still get the pride of being in power.

Kim Jong Il and Joffrey are very focused on power. Kim Jong Il keeps wanting to show off to the Americans to show that the North Koreans are richer. He takes many over their products and upgrades them. He believes he has total power over everyone, but Jun Do and his friends manage to get Sun Moon and her children to escape North Korea with the American's plane, right under Kim Jong Il's nose, proving to Kim Jong Il that not even he has total power over everyone. King Joffrey, like Kim Jong Il, believes that he can do anything he wants to do, just because he is in charge. At a small council meeting, after getting his uncle, Tyrion, to read out a letter from the Freys telling of Robb and Cat's deaths, Joffrey declares that he wants the Freys to bring back Robb's head so that he could serve it to Sansa at his wedding feast. After Tyrion threatens Joffrey after Joffrey insults him and Sansa's family, Joffrey throws a temper-tantrum. Joffrey says he can do whatever he wants to do, because he is king. Tywin, his grandpa, eventually gets tired of his whining and tells him to go to bed and Cersei, Joffrey's mom, takes him away as Joffrey complains like a seven-year-old. This also proves that sometimes, even when someone is in the highest position of power, they can still be controlled by those around them.

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Not only are Kim Jong Il and Joffrey Baratheon power-hungry, but they are also greedy. Kim Jong Il wants Sun Moon to himself, even though she already belongs to another man. In this situation, he doesn't get what he wants, either; Sun Moon and her children are able to escape North Korea to have a life far from Kim Jong Il in the United States. Joffrey is also in a similar situation. Even though Sansa is married to Tyrion, Joffrey tells Sansa at her wedding reception "Maybe I'll visit you tonight after my uncle passes out." He doesn't, but he is still greedy to believe that he could.

Even though Kim Jong Il and Joffrey Baratheon are from too different worlds, they are very similar people. They are both power-hungry and greedy. They both are not as powerful and they think. These two characters show that even when a person has the highest rank of power, it doesn't mean that person has full power.

Demons Vs. The World's Stupidity

Written by: Izzy Lewis

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Like Judd Mulvaney from We Were the Mulvaneys, Dean, from Supernatural, was lonely as a boy. However, the reasons behind the loneliness of each child were different. While Judd was a dreamer and observer, Dean was watching after his little brother Sam while their dad went out hunting. The boys' thoughts were still similar in many ways though. While most boys of their age are thinking about video games and what girl is cute, these two fine young men were contemplating the world around them. 

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Not only were the two boys both lonely, they both loved their father, looked up to their dads like only a devout son can do. "These two people so remarkable to me, my dad who was like nobody else's dad and my big brother...," I think this is a good quote to take from the excerpt of Oates's novel. While this quote delves into the inner workings of one Judd Mulvaney, a little of Dean is revealed too. Dean is so consumed by his family being safe that risks his very soul to have his little brother alive again. 

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Family seems very important to both of these characters, while one seems to miss his family and is doing everything in his power to keep his family around. The other talks about rebuilding things with their father and says, about his brother, " ...big brother who was-well, Mike Mulvanery...," which says to me that his brother is comparable by no other. 

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"It stayed with me for a long time, maybe forever. Not just that I would lose the people I loved, but they would lose me..." This is a very insightful quote for Judd, as a young man. And yet, it ties Dean in yet again because of how many people he loses in his travels: the friends that are lost, people leaving him, his family is almost all dead. While Dean would "have to pretend not to know what I knew..." as a hunter, he had to keep his life to himself and other hunters, to the world he was that sketchy guy with no ties and no job. To the world, Judd was the kid that didn't act like normal kids, he was the kid that thought too much. These men were the outcasts, but they were the only people to understand the true world. 

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