Character Analysis
The New Crank
There was always something not quite right about Newt. He's always been a fairly main character—and he usually ends up providing some reasonable insights to steer the Gladers in the right direction—but still, it always seemed like there was something Newt was hiding.
Well, there were two things: one thing that he was hiding, and one that WICKED was hiding. Let's start with the thing that WICKED was hiding: it's the fact that Newt isn't immune to the Flare. Worse: he has the Flare.
Most of the Gladers who find out that they have the Flare become sullen and emotional, but not Newt. When he finds out, he just tells Thomas: "I'm not worried about the bloody Flare, man. I never thought I'd still be alive at this buggin' point—and living hasn't exactly been so great anyway" (6.12).
See, that's why Newt was labeled "The Glue" back in the Scorch Trials. He has the Flare, yes, but he stays calm and keeps everyone else calm as a result. Plus, he's part of the control group that WICKED set up. The control group serves as a type of glue as well, as it holds together the whole experiment.
But when Newt starts to succumb to the Flare, we do start to see his dark side. Though most of his actions aren't part of his true personality (he's losing his mind, after all), Newt is a prime example of an innocent kid who starts to go crazy. He helps symbolize what the Flare means. When he's starting to go a bit bonkers from the disease, he snaps at Thomas and Minho:
"I'll tell ya what's bloody wrong. You go all tough-guy without a plan, leading us around like a bunch of chickens lookin' for feed. And Minho can't take a bloody step without askin' which foot he should use." (14.44)
Er, he's not exactly The Glue in this instance. On top of that, he gives up all hope pretty quickly, saying things like "I'm a Crank... Doesn't matter what I bloody think" every so often (22.17). Newt's path to insanity is tragic, as he was once a very key character in keeping everyone else sane—you can see the irony.
But remember—we mentioned that Newt was hiding something, too.
Just think about some of the stuff he's said throughout the book, things like "I never thought I'd still be alive at this buggin' point—and living hasn't exactly been so great anyway," and "Doesn't matter what I bloody think." Well, he doesn't just say these things because he finds out he has the Flare. The truth is that Newt's basically suicidal, and he reveals to Thomas that he has his limp (which we're shown in Book One) because he tried to kill himself way back in the Maze.
For Newt, the whole WICKED experiment has always been too much. He couldn't handle the world he was thrust into—and who can blame him?—so his whole life has been one of pain and suffering. In fact, the only time Newt's truly given peace is when Thomas kills him at the end of the book.
Yeesh, it's definitely not a storybook ending for Newt.