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Over the Edge
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
Tally looks around. She suggests they glue the hovercar door closed, so David does so with nanotech glue. Then, Tally uses a powerjack to open the elevator doors. She can tell that the elevator is a long way down, but she leaps into the shaft and manages to bounce without hitting the sides. As Tally starts to whistle for David, she hears a cruel pretty’s voice and the elevator drops. When it stops, Tally whistles for David. She shushes him and then they use the powerjack to open elevator doors above them, but the tool makes way too much noise. They crawl into the hallway and read the doors labeled as operating theaters and imaging rooms. They enter the operating theater, which is empty.
It doesn’t seem as though any of the Specials in this building know that Tally and David are here yet, which confirms Tally’s early suspicion: even Special Circumstances can make mistakes. It’s clear that they never expected anyone to try to infiltrate this building, and so while they do have some security, it’s not entirely impassable. This shows Tally that if she’s going to continue fighting against Special Circumstances, she must maintain her individuality and do what they don’t expect if she hopes to be successful.
Themes
Tally and David walk past the morgue and then decide to head down. They figure the next floor is the bottom floor, and it has interrogation rooms and a “disorientation room.” David tries to open one room with the powerjack, but they give up and move on. Suddenly, Tally hears Dr. Cable. A door slides open and Dr. Cable walks out. Tally catches Dr. Cable’s attention, surprising her, and David hits Dr. Cable on the head with the powerjack. Tally hears another voice and turns: it belongs to a tall, elegant woman. The woman is Shay, and Shay is pretty.
Seeing that Shay is pretty tells Tally that she failed in what she set out to do—that is, to support Shay in her decision to escape the pretty operation. In this sense, Tally has failed miserably as a friend. The way that Tally describes Shay shows how wildly different Shay is now—though Tally thought that Shay’s face was lovely before, now Shay is “elegant.” She isn’t the Shay that Tally knew, and given what Tally knows about pretties’ brain lesions, Shay is likely no longer an independent individual.
Themes
