The Scorch Trials Madness

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

1. Does Thomas actually start to go crazy at the end of the book?
2. Do you believe that the Gladers have the Flare?
3. Is Brenda partly crazy and suffering from the Flare?

Chew on This

The Cranks' madness is played up by WICKED so that the Gladers are frightened more.

The Flare isn't real.