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Chapters 26–30

Summary: Chapter 26: David

Tally spends the day scavenging metal. David invites her to take a break, noticing her hands are raw and blistered from the work. He leads them to an old railroad tunnel that has partially collapsed. David senses that Tally is apprehensive about being in the Smoke. He reveals to her that he grew up in the Smoke, and his parents were middle Uglies, doctors, who left the city and reversed their operations. Sensing Tally’s shock, he reassures her he only told her because she seemed serious and able to handle the truth. Tally begins to touch her locket. She realizes the stakes are much higher now. If she destroys the Smoke, she destroys a whole way of life for people like David. 

Summary: Chapter 27: Heartthrob

At the evening fire, Tally continues telling stories about her adventures. Lapping up the attention, she almost lets slip that she hid in the orchids for one day instead of four. Shay takes Tally to the trading post where she can trade for new supplies. She trades packets of SpagBol for a new sleeping bag and sweater. Tally starts to despair thinking of her situation: Betray her friend and a whole way of life for the Smokies, or resign herself to a life of trading for supplies and eating bland food. Shay senses Tally is hiding something and asks about her locket. She incorrectly guesses that Tally told someone back home about the Smoke. Shay reassures her, saying she did the same as she promised David she wouldn’t tell anyone about the Smoke, but she told Tally. Tally feels even more guilty. 

Summary: Chapter 28: Suspicion

Tally is getting stronger from the hard labor. David gives Tally his spare work gloves to protect her hands. Croy becomes more suspicious of Tally. He confronts her, asking her why she has so many packets of SpagBol if she was out in the wilderness for so long. Tally comes up with a quick lie, saying it’s because she skipped some meals. Shay also confronts Tally. Tally thinks Shay is also suspicious, but Shay tells her she’s upset about the gloves David gave her. Tally realizes Shay is in love with David. Shay, upset, demands that Tally tell David about the pendant and how she has a secret boyfriend back home. She thinks Tally is trying to steal David and has betrayed her. 

Summary: Chapter 29: Bravery

Tally begins to feel like the white orchids among the Smokies—invasive and destroying everything in her path. David takes Tally aside to talk to her alone. He tells her she’s the only runaway who has ever come alone and that he finds her very brave. David trusts Tally because she left everything behind to be with Shay. As he praises her, she notices his look begin to change. He looks attractive despite his scars, crooked teeth, and high forehead. Tally begins touching her locket, which draws David’s attention. Tally is about to confess, but David interrupts her, saying he realizes she probably has a sweetheart back home. He says it’s ok, but that he wants her to meet his parents anyway.

Summary: Chapter 30: The Secret

David takes Tally to his parents’ cabin, a bunker on the side of a mountain. Tally notices how his mother, Maddy, is an old ugly but the lines of her face disappear when she smiles. Tally also notices that David and his father look alike. Az is amused by Tally’s confusion, saying how disorienting it must be to see two people whose familial genetic traits are kept intact. Tally notices David and his parents talk as equals. David wants his parents to tell them their secret, but they are reluctant. They are angry he’s brought her, and say it’s dangerous. David retorts that Tally already made a dangerous trip and deserves to know. They relent and agree to tell.

Analysis: Chapters 26–30

In Chapters 26–30, Tally adjusts to her new life in the Smoke. As she does hard labor scavenging for scrap metal to build hoverpaths in the Smoke, she is so immersed in the physical demands of the job that she barely notices the hours pass by or how scraped and cut her hands are getting. This time, Tally is injuring her hands not intentionally (like she did when she scarred her hands to pledge loyalty to Peris) but to work towards a common goal: to help the Smoke community survive. Tally’s pain is going towards something higher than herself and her desires.

Hands are a significant symbol in the novel, symbolizing the bonds that Tally makes with others. When David gives her his spare gloves, he’s making more than a gesture of connection and friendship with her, one that will anger Shay later because of its significance. David’s offering of his gloves is a symbol that his admiration of her is more than skin-deep. As he says, he is most attracted to her bravery and seriousness. Her risking everything to be with her friend Shay makes him trust her. Furthermore, he tells Tally he’s attracted to her scars because they “tell a story.” He wants to give her the gloves simply to protect her hands, not unnecessarily harm them.

Much to Tally’s surprise, the hard labor and hours spent outdoors are enjoyable. She and Shay bond over using the powerjack to pull up the thick web of vines and roots to free the railroad track. When Shay asks Tally if she’s having fun after she successfully pulls up a tough patch of earth, Tally answers by nodding and grinning. Tally likes life outside the city and is beginning to appreciate the rewards earned by her effort, not by what is just freely given or handed out by the government. She also finds nature beautiful. As she looks over the wide expanses of mountains, valleys, and rows of old-growth trees, the grandness and immensity of the landscape fill her. At first, she’s scared by the immenseness, as she looks back at the city on the first days of her journey and wonders about how she’ll survive. Now, she’s charmed by it. It has a quieting effect on her mind.

The time out in nature is giving Tally peace that she had earlier hoped to achieve with the Pretty surgery, but now is understanding it can come from something else, here in the Smoke. When Tally and David are in the cave, David teaches Tally about the precarious nature of life. He points to the boulders, stacked together in the cave, and compares them to the cities. David explains that while the boulders seem solid and stable, if you mess with even just one, the entire pile of boulders would fall. This metaphor is significant because it underlines many themes converging at this point for Tally—her growing awareness that her city is just as vulnerable to collapse as any other, the idea that her betrayal could lead to the collapse of an entire way of life in the Smoke, and that life itself is a high-wire act of survival, no matter where you go, or whatever safety measures are put into place. Scientists tooling around with nature caused explosive effects with the orchids and her city’s Pretty mandate causes widespread stratification of her society into Uglies vs. Pretties. Tally is learning that peace can likely only be found inside, within one’s own nature.

As Tally’s confidence and self-reliance grows, so does her relationship with David, which lifts her confidence to even greater heights. David’s revelation that he likes her romantically is huge for Tally—for the first time she feels beautiful, scars and all. David’s appearance is beginning to change, too. Even though she is fully aware of all of his flaws, such as his high forehead, big nose, and crooked teeth, she starts to see him as attractive after his revelation. Because her confidence is strengthened, Tally’s perception of beauty is allowed to change and widen. She no longer needs to rely on what society has told her is beautiful—the tyrannical grip of their fixed ideal of beauty is starting to release.

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