Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Uglies, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Conformity vs. Individuality
Beauty, Science, and Influence
The Natural World, History, and Growing Up
Friendship and Loyalty
Summary
Analysis
The masked people haul Tally to the flying machine, lay her out next to it, and one takes off his mask. Tally is surprised that he’s a new pretty, and he shoves a mask over Tally’s face. Tally breathes gratefully and asks for her hoverboard. The pretty says it’s on the helicopter, asks Tally’s name, and then helps her in. Another pretty woman in the helicopter takes her mask off, and Jenks, the pilot, asks if Tally is okay. The helicopter rises and Tally asks what they’re doing and why. The young male pretty, Tonk, tells Tally that they’re saving the world. These pretties are from a city Tally hasn’t heard of, and they explain that they use the Rusty helicopters because they don’t require a grid.
This is the first time that Tally has ever met someone from another city. It’s telling that she’s so surprised that Tonk is a pretty—even though Tally knows on some level that all cities perform pretty operations, she never expected that any of them might also rely on Rusty technology. As she learns more about these pretties, she’ll also learn more about how people can integrate history into their present.
Themes
Then, Tonk says that they start fires because of the white tiger orchids. In Rusty times, these flowers were rare and expensive, but then a Rusty manipulated their genes and made them grow more easily. Tonk says the orchid soon turned into an ultimate weed, killing everything else—including trees in which the only hummingbirds that feed on orchids nest. Tally notes that there are no trees, and Tonk explains that this is a monoculture: everything’s the same, there’s nothing to help the orchids pollinate, the orchids die, and they leave a wasteland behind. The rangers have been trying to stop them for 300 years, and only fire works. Tally shakes her head, thinking of how dangerous the beautiful flowers are.
The way that Tonk describes the orchids offers one way to look at the society in which Tally lives. Like the orchids, Tally’s city tries to crush or push out anything that doesn’t conform to their ideal of beauty—and eventually, Tonk suggests, this will lead to the city’s downfall, which is importantly something that the city will bring about all on its own. In other words, it’s not the Smoke that threatens the city—it’s the city’s own attempts to stifle diversity, independence, and free thought.
Themes
Tonk asks if Tally is going to the Smoke and he explains that the rangers help the Smokies out. Tonk says they’ll take Tally to the usual spot. A while later, the helicopter touches down and Tonk says that if Tally changes her mind, she can volunteer to become a ranger. Tally grabs her hoverboard, crouches as the helicopter takes off, and looks around at the orchids in every direction. The sight chills her. When the rangers are gone, Tally notices a tall, flowerless hill that must be the “bald head” where Shay’s note said to wait. At the top, Tally thinks that all she has to do now is convince the Smokies that she’s genuine. She half hopes the pendant from Special Circumstances broke on her journey, but she knows that in order to get back home and become pretty, she must betray Shay.
Even after all Tally has learned during the course of her journey, her goal is still to go home and be pretty. At this point, she’s torn in regards to how she should proceed. She wants to honor Shay’s choices, but on some level, Tally still believes that the only way to be an adult is to undergo the pretty operation and become like everyone else. In this sense, Tally likely feels as though she’s saving Shay and the others in the Smoke by betraying them.
Themes
