Today, I finished "The Maze Runner" by James Dashner.
Since it's been made into a movie, you probably all now what it is about. Either way, here is a short description of the plot:
Thomas arrives at a place called the Glade. He remembers nothing about his life, only his name. The Glade is surrounded by a maze that the boys living in the Glade try to figure out. It isn't easy, as the walls of the maze move at night. Additionally, so-called Grievers live in the maze. As scraps of memory return to some of the boys, more questions about the purpose of the Glade and the maze are raised. There also seems to be a mysterious relationship between Thomas and the only girl, Teresa, the last person to ever be brought to the Glade. I don't really want to spoil everything if anybody decides to read a review before the novel. Everybody else knows what happens anyways.
There was a lot of suspense in "The Maze Runner". I read it almost in one go, and I am normally not a person to think about where things might be going. Either the story was very well made, or my constant reading without a pause prevented me from realising where the plot was going. Anyways, I enjoyed it. My favourite character is possibly Newt (isn't he everybody's favourite?), I also liked Thomas and Minho though. I didn't really identify with anyone - possibly because I'm a girl and because it is really hard to picture oneself in such a dystopian setting. Maybe because I would probably behave like one of those Gladers whose names are not even mentioned.
I really liked the whole plot, there were some unexpected turns and it all seemed credible. Dashner's writing style is probably not my favourite, but the plot made up for that. I didn't like the ending so much because you know from it that the world in which Thomas and his friends are living is not going to be well. Nothing seems to be really completed as the narrator already hints that the Maze was only the beginning.
I believe that having read the "Hunger Games" trilogy makes you think already that someone, somewhere has plotted all this. Still I didn't think that someone like President Snow was meant when there was talk about the creators.
In the end, I didn't quite know how to feel. On the one hand, it was nice to know that some Gladers made it outside the maze. On the other hand, it is impossible to be happy for them since so many died and that there are worse things coming. I really want to know how the story will go on in "The Scorch Trials" and "The Death Cure", but the dystopian setting made me quite depressed. So I will probably read other books first before going on with that series.
I would recommend "The Maze Runner" to people who like dystopies and/or Sci-Fi and who don't expect a happy end.
"The figure of Robert Nesta Marley is iconic" [Bogues 187] according to Anthony Bogues, who inscribes a whole chapter of his book on radical political intellectuals to Bob Marley. It is undoubtedly true that he was a man who influenced a lot of people. His "prophetic social criticism still resonates in the contemporary world" [Bogues 193], and that is because he had knowledge of how it feels to be oppressed and he found safety in religion and he was able to put his feelings in not only words, but also in music. Marleys songs have been sung "to emancipate oneself from mental slavery" [Bogues 199] and "to describe events while signalling hope for the oppressed" [Bogues 188]. Jamaican music is to communicate and to fight oppression, in other words, it's a "cultural weapon" [Bogues 195] that not only Bob Marley used. Songs are also used as a weapon against oppression in Abani's GraceLand, including Marley's Natural Mystic and Get up, Stand up.
Natural Mystic
Bob Marley's Natural Mystic assuredly is one of the most important songs that appear in GraceLand. It is the first song on Marley's Album Exodus which was released in 1977. Jan DeCosmo clarifies the significance of this song as he describes how "Marley suggested that Jah's voice was already within people - a 'natural mystic' - and that they could hear it if they just 'listened carefully'" [DeCosmo 11]. Bob Marley had believed that there was a voice in everyone that told the wrong way and the right way of doing anything. In his belief, it is down to everyone themselves whether they do or don't listen to that voice; so this "natural mystic" is an omnipresent guide.
Natural Mystic is the first song that appears in GraceLand, right at the beginning of the story. The reader doesn't know anything about the protagonist and other figures, the protagonist doesn't know yet what he would have to face in his future. It's Elvis Oke's sixteenth birthday, he remembers not being able to celebrate it while watching and hearing the pouring rain. As Elvis loves music, he listens to the radio. It is Natural Mystic that is played, and Elvis sings along with the first lines, then hums with the melody of the song as he doesn't recall further lyrics.
There's a natural mystic blowing through the air;
If you listen carefully now you will hear.
These are the two lines that Elvis recalls. Thinking of Marley's opinion that the voice telling everyone what's wrong and right is a "natural mystic", it might be a call to do the right thing for Elvis or predict his struggles to do what is right as the story goes on. The protagonist not knowing the rest of the lyrics clarifies that he isn't familiar with existence's natural fluidity, as that is described further in Natural Mystic [Sereda 40]:
This could be the first trumpet, might as well be the last:
Many more will have to suffer,
Many more will have to die - don't ask me why.
Things are not the way they used to be,
I won't tell no lie;
One and all have to face reality now.
Elvis can't sing on, as the lyrics foretell the rest of the novel. The climax contains "mass suffering and the deaths of his father, the King of Beggars (Elvis' friend and resistance fighter), and the villainous Colonel." [Sereda 40] Elvis' situation could change every moment, the second and third line are foretelling the deaths of the people close to Elvis. The fourth line stresses the present moment in the storyline, as the protagonist remembers the time when his mother was still alive and he had had a better life. The last line "insists on the importance of understanding one's situation rather than escaping it." [Sereda 40] However, this is what Elvis is doing mostly - he tries to escape his situation, as he doesn't know how to improve it. That is what the following lines state:
'Though I've tried to find the answer to all the questions they ask.
'Though I know it's impossible to go livin' through the past -
Don't tell no lie.
There are several questions that Elvis can't find an answer to. Another problem is that neither Elvis nor his father can live on after the death of Beatrice. They wish their situation to be like before, but they cannot change what has happened in the past.
Connecting Marley's religious beliefs with the storyline of GraceLand, there is a resemblance that foretells the end of the novel. DeCosmo explains the lyrics of this song with regard to Bob Marley with an attempt of religious interpretation, as he writes that "in apocalyptic religions, before redemption can occur there must be a period of apocalypse - or tribulation - during which there is much suffering and death." [DeCosmo 12] This is exactly what happens at the end of the novel. Not only the deaths of people close to the protagonist, also his suffering at the hands of the military regime, the destruction of his home - that is GraceLand's period of apocalypse, and it happens shortly before Elvis meets Redemption again. Redemption "occurs" after the suffering, and Elvis himself becomes Redemption when he goes to the USA.
Finally, after interpreting Natural Mystic, one is to realise that this first song in the novel is able to foretell - without any details though - the happenings of the storyline and the suffering that Elvis will have to bear.
Get up, Stand up
Get up, Stand up was released in 1973 and is the last song Bob Marley ever sung at a performance. It was covered by several artists. Bogues even states that "it is Marley's prophetic call for the oppressed to 'Get up, Stand up' that has made him such a popular radical icon for many today." [Bogues 189] This song clearly is a call to arms. [Goucher et al. 877] Although there are a lot of religious references in these lyrics as well, I will try to concentrate on the meaning of the words for GraceLand.
In contrast to Natural Mystic, Get up, Stand up appears in one of the last chapters of the novel. When the military forces want to destroy their homes, the inhabitants of Moroko protest, singing along with Marley's Get up, Stand up as they block the streets and put up barriers. It is this song that gives them hope and strength to fight against bulldozers that are ought to destroy the place.
Get up, stand up: stand up for your rights!
Get up, stand up: don't give up the fight!
Those are the lines that are cited in the novel. It is obvious that the song is not only played to encourage, it is also telling about the people who defend their homes. Sunday Oke, who seemed to have given up already, is finally standing up for his rights openly. He doesn't only talk, he takes action to not lose his home. The following lines can also be interpreted with regard to Sunday:
Preacher man, don't tell me,
Heaven is under the earth.
I know you don't know
What life is really worth.
It's not all that glitters is gold;
'Alf the story has never been told:
So now you see the light, eh!
Stand up for your rights. come on!
The first two lines of this part can come across as a prediction for Sunday's death. Heaven is the place where he can meet Beatrice again, and it is under the earth both because that's were corpses are buried and because Sunday dies in his home, being buried by the remains of his house and everything else the bulldozers pull down. The next lines sum up the life of Elvis' father after the death of his wife. He doesn't care about his life enough, not knowing what it is worth. But after realising life's value, he is able to fight for it. Those are also things that Elvis should consider carefully, and it is him who is described throughout the novel as the one who has to deal with the most unexpected turns. He is the one who has to realise that "not all that glitters is gold", that not every job that friends tell him about is actually a good thing.Get up, Stand up tells people "to demand justice from power elites and to challenge the system." [DeCosmo 7] This is what the fight between the King of Beggars, Elvis and Sunday Oke and the Colonel is about: People call for justice that the military doesn't provide.
Works Cited:
Abani, Chris. Graceland. New York: Picador, 2004
Bogues, Anthony. Black Heretics, Black Prophets: Radical Political Intellectuals. New York: Routledge Chapman & Hall, 2003
DeCosmo, Jan. "Religion and Revolution in the Lyrics of Bob Marley," 20 April 2008 es.uflib.ufl.edu/CA/00/40/01/62/00001/PDF.pdf>
Goucher, Candice L., Charles A. Le Guin, and Linda A. Walton, eds. "Resistance, Revolution, and New Global Order/Disorder," In the Balance: Themes in Global History.Boston: McGraw-Hill, 1998
Sereda, Stefan. "Riffing on Resistance: Music in Chris Abani's Graceland"A Review of International English Literature 39 (2008): 31-47.
