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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
That night, Tally makes good time. She passes through several Rusty cities filled with burned-out cars. In one town, she discovers that the flat roller coaster was for moving items between towns. Near dawn, Tally reaches the sea and thinks of the next clue: “Cold is the sea and watch for breaks.” She rides faster as she remembers camping at the sea with Sol and Ellie. Suddenly, Tally comes to a gap with a bridge, but the bridge doesn’t span the entire gap. She tries to brake, but she and the hoverboard go over the edge anyway. Tally falls slowly at first as the board loses its connection, but then spreads her jacket to make a sail. It makes her light enough that the board rises and settles back on the tracks. Shaking, Tally returns to solid ground, sits, and remembers that in the wild, mistakes bring consequences.
Tally’s tumble over the edge reinforces for her that the artificial environment of the city protects her from all sorts of consequences. Out in nature, on the other hand, she has to be alert and make her own decisions. This continues to suggest that people who live in the cities live in a perpetual childlike state: they’re dependent on the city for everything, and the city protects them from all manner of injuries and bad decisions. As Tally grapples with having to make her own choices for the first time, she gets a taste of what it’s like to be a truly independent adult.
Themes
Hungry, Tally pulls out her water purifier and empties the full muck-trap. She pulls out a food packet labeled “SpagBol,” unwraps it, and dumps it into the purifier. As her meal cooks, she watches the sunrise with awe: she’s never seen one from outside the city, and its colors are spectacular. After eating, Tally consults Shay’s note again, which says to “make the worst mistake” at what she assumes is the second chasm. Tally carefully rides inland to where the first chasm ends and back to the tracks on the other side, entirely in awe of the natural world’s beauty. She understands why people used to live in nature but she also wishes she could take a bath. Tally reaches the second break in an hour. It’s too wide to jump, and she thinks that everything would be a mistake now so she decides to sleep.
Though Tally doesn’t make the connection yet, it’s important to keep in mind that the natural landscape doesn’t need an operation to be beautiful; it just is. Since the natural world symbolically corresponds to youth, it follows that Tally and other young people don’t need extensive plastic surgery to be beautiful either. This natural beauty, however, is more dangerous and is somewhat unpredictable, unlike the contrived, safe beauty of both the city and of the pretties. When Tally starts to understand why people once lived in nature, she also humanizes the Rusties and makes discoveries about her culture’s past.
Themes
Tally unfolds her hoverboard so it can charge in the sun, pulls out her sleeping bag, and realizes she didn’t put on a sunblock patch at dawn. Annoyed, Tally feels even uglier. She can’t sleep and so decides to eat more. She pulls out the packets and realizes that all 41 of them are SpagBol. Exhausted, Tally sarcastically thanks Dr. Cable and falls asleep.
What Tally describes as ugliness is a reflection of what she’s been through in the last 24 hours. If she chooses to think of it this way, it’s possible to see that her sunburn and windswept hair tell a story—one that others might be eager to hear.
Themes
