Rusties Analysis in Uglies

Rusties refers to the era (and that era’s culture and people) that preceded Tally’s; the name comes from the fact that this civilization built most of their buildings out of metal. The Rusties are loosely based on mid-2000s culture and society: they were similarly dependent on oil, abused the environment, and stayed ugly forever, and so experienced racism and appearance-based prejudice. Tally’s society regards the Rusties as selfish and unintelligent, as people in the present believe that the Rusties knew they were headed for destruction but did nothing to save themselves or the planet.

Rusties Quotes in Uglies

The Uglies quotes below are all either spoken by Rusties or refer to Rusties. For each quote, you can also see the other terms and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:

“Yeah, and people killed each other over stuff like having different skin color.” Tally shook her head. No matter how many times they repeated it at school, she’d never really quite believed that one. “So what if people look more alike now? It’s the only way to make people equal.”

Related Characters: Tally Youngblood (speaker), Shay

Page Number and Citation: 43

Explanation and Analysis:

On school trips, the teachers always made the Rusties out to be so stupid. You almost couldn’t believe people lived like this, burning trees to clear land, burning oil for heat and power, setting the atmosphere on fire with their weapons. But in the moonlight she could imagine people scrambling over flaming cars to escape the crumbling city, panicking in their flight from this untenable pile of metal and stone.

Related Characters: Tally Youngblood, Shay

Page Number and Citation: 60

Explanation and Analysis:

Mountains rose up on her right, tall enough that snow capped their tops even in the early autumn chill. Tally had always thought of the city as huge, a whole world in itself, but the scale of everything out here was so much grander. And so beautiful. She could see why people used to live out in nature, even if there weren’t any party towers or mansions. Or even dorms.

Related Characters: Tally Youngblood

Related Symbols: Hoverboards

Page Number and Citation: 147

Explanation and Analysis:

The flying machine had been just like what Tally imagined when her teachers had described Rusty contraptions: a portable tornado crashing along, destroying everything in its path. [...]

But the Rusties had been gone a long time. Who would be stupid enough to rebuild their insane machines?

Related Characters: Tally Youngblood, Tonk, Jenks

Page Number and Citation: 160

Explanation and Analysis:

“They carried electricity from a wind farm to one of the old cities.”

Tally frowned. “I didn’t know the Rusties used wind power.”

“They weren’t all crazy. Just most of them.” He shrugged. “You’ve got to remember, we’re mostly descended from the Rusties, and we’re still using their basic technology. Some of them must have had the right idea.”

Related Characters: Tally Youngblood (speaker), David (speaker)

Related Symbols: Hoverboards

Page Number and Citation: 326

Explanation and Analysis:

It was hard to think of the Rusties as actual people, rather than as just an idiotic, dangerous, and sometimes comic force of history. But there were human beings down there, whatever was left of them after a couple of hundred years, still sitting in their blackened cars, as if still trying to escape their fate.

Related Characters: Tally Youngblood, David

Page Number and Citation: 330

Explanation and Analysis:

David nodded. “It’s kind of creepy how well preserved it is. Of all the ruins I’ve seen, it looks the most recent.”

“They sprayed it with something to keep it up for school trips.” And that was her city in a nutshell, Tally realized. Nothing left to itself. Everything turned into a bribe, a warning, or a lesson.

Related Characters: Tally Youngblood (speaker), David (speaker)

Page Number and Citation: 334

Explanation and Analysis:

Rusties Term Timeline in Uglies

The timeline below shows where the term Rusties appears in Uglies. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.

The Natural World, History, and Growing Up Theme Icon

...replies that there’s nothing out there, but Shay says there are trees, mountains, and the Rusty Ruins, which are the remains of an old city full of too many unintelligent, ugly... (full context)

...that rivers bring minerals up from inside the earth and then points down to the Rusty Ruins. (full context)

Tally and Shay ride high above the ground through the Rusty Ruins, which are the hulking metal frames of buildings. They can see that people tried... (full context)

...roller coaster, Shay explains, is for having fun, which shocks Tally—she’s never considered that the Rusties did anything but work in their factories and try to escape when their civilization met... (full context)

Beauty, Science, and Influence Theme Icon

...the Smoke, and they’ll get there on hoverboards. Tally asks if people live like the Rusties in the Smoke and insists it’s wrong to live in nature, but Shay says they... (full context)

...operations. Tally gazes at New Pretty Town and feels like it’s more vibrant than the Rusty Ruins. She vows to stop thinking about Shay as the driver checks her in and... (full context)

...that Shay was in a gang, and then asks if they’d ever gone to the Rusty Ruins. Tally insists that lots of people sneak out to the ruins. (full context)

...went. Tally wonders if most people don’t want to know. She remembers learning about the Rusties but she realizes now that her teachers never mentioned people living outside cities today. Tally... (full context)

...to think about the possibility that Shay shouldn’t have trusted David. Tally hikes to the Rusty Ruins and finds the roller coaster, where she tries to decipher what “Take the coaster... (full context)

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... (full context)

...off. As Tally travels, she thinks that the flying machine looked a lot like a Rusty flying contraption she learned about in school but she can’t think of why anyone would... (full context)

...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. (full context)

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... (full context)

...cutting down trees. She expresses her dismay to Shay, but Shay assures her that the pre-Rusties lived like this and that Tally will get used to it. Shay happily explains that... (full context)

...She thinks that these people might be having fun camping, but they’ve forgotten that the Rusties were insane, starved themselves, and cut down trees. Tally opens the locket, but she snaps... (full context)

...wearing dead animals. They reach a wall of solid rock and David explains that the Rusties loved straight lines; this used to be a tunnel that has since collapsed. (full context)

...turns to David and asks what he thinks. He asks her to recall that the Rusties were war-hungry and almost destroyed the world, which convinced people to build the cities and... (full context)

...most people are “sheep” and so pretties with lesions really aren’t too different from the Rusties—they’re just more manageable. Tally remembers how Sol and Ellie seem simultaneously sure and clueless, just... (full context)

...things he keeps in case of emergency: ground habanero pepper and a duffel bag of Rusty magazines. He asks Tally which she wants. She chooses the duffel bag, but the Boss... (full context)

...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... (full context)

...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,... (full context)

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... (full context)

...ends overnight, and the world seems transformed into a beautiful place. They finally reach the Rusty Ruins. (full context)

Tally sleeps all day in the Rusty Ruins and then wakes up at dusk. David packs knapsacks and then they each ride... (full context)

They reach the Rusty Ruins after midnight. David stands outside the hiding spot, looking exhausted. He and Tally embrace... (full context)

The group stays at the edge of the Rusty Ruins. They occasionally see hovercars looking for them, but hiding is easy. Tally sees uglies... (full context)

Uglies

Scott Westerfeld

Rusties Term Analysis

Rusties Quotes in Uglies

Rusties Term Timeline in Uglies