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
At sunset, Tally and David leave. They each ride two hoverboards sandwiched together, both of which carry bags. They embark on a 10-day route to Tally’s city by hoverboard, which will be much less direct than the path Tally took to the Smoke. Around midnight of the first night, they reach the edge of a desert next to the orchids. David points to towers that used to be connected to steel cables. He says they used to carry electricity from a wind farm to a Rusty city. Tally frowns—she didn’t know the Rusties used wind power. David shrugs and says that they weren’t all crazy, and today the Smokies still use some of the same technologies.
Learning that the Rusties used wind power shows Tally yet again that the Rusties weren’t unintelligent, crazy, or subhuman individuals. They were people trying to make their world a better place—they just weren’t successful. Because David lives more like the Rusties did, it’s easier for him to see that he’s a descendent of the Rusties and that they have a lot in common. Coming from the cities, this is something that Tally has been able to ignore.
Themes
Tally has never seen a desert before. She asks if this is the Mojave, the only desert she knows of. David says this desert is unnatural—it’s where the orchid first took over. It might come back to life in a thousand years, but if people haven’t found a way to stop the orchids, the process will repeat. They reach a Rusty city around daybreak and decide to camp in a factory building. As they make food, Tally looks out the window at the burned-out cars below. She says that the Rusties seemed intent on survival, as the cars in every city seem to be trying to leave. David says that some of them made it, but not in cars.
David’s explanation of this manmade desert shows the consequences of monocultures, whether they exist in the natural world or in human civilization. He essentially suggests that a culture that’s too homogenous will never be able to truly flourish—and will never be able to learn from its mistakes. The Smoke, then, represents a culture that takes these lessons to heart and does everything possible to repeat the errors people like the Rusties made in the past.
Themes
Tally says that in school, the teachers never really said how the Rusties’ world ended, just that their mistakes kept adding up. David shares that the Boss had books about it: a bacterium infected the oil that the Rusties utilized, causing it to explode. The bacteria spread, infecting all the cars, airplanes, and oil wells. He says the cars below were probably infected, and Tally asks why the people didn’t walk. She shivers. It’s hard to think of the Rusties as real people and not just stupid, dangerous creatures. She wonders out loud why her teachers didn’t mention this, since they loved making the Rusties sound pathetic. David suggests that the teachers didn’t want anyone to realize that every society has a weakness and will collapse if that one thing disappears. Tally insists that their society can’t disappear given its renewability and sustainability, but David suggests that the weakness could be an idea rather than a physical resource.
When David mentions that every society has a weakness, it hearkens back to when Tally noted that New Pretty Town would collapse if all the hover technology stopped working. Even if she’s not entirely ready to accept that her society has weaknesses, on some level she knows it does. Though their weaknesses might not make them as vulnerable as oil dependency made the Rusties, it would still be easy to topple Tally’s society by dismantling either at the physical technology or at the ideas that hold her society together. Tally is already starting to do this by accepting that ugly people can be beautiful and deserving of love, contrary to the notions her government promotes.
Themes
