58 pages • 1-hour read
Specials
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Symbols & Motifs
Cutters and Crims
A recurring motif throughout the series is Tally’s desire to belong. In the previous book, Pretties, she joins the Crims, a group of Pretties bent on troublemaking. Their exploits not only make them infamous in New Pretty Town, but they also catch the eye of Dr. Cable, who transforms many of the Crims into the Cutters, her most elite band of Specials. The Cutters are designed to survive anywhere, even out in the wild, and they are equipped with “skintenna” that allows them to communicate with each other over vast distances and feel each other’s emotions and responses.
Initially, Tally revels in her inclusion into the exclusive group of Cutters: “It was just like Shay had promised: The Cutters were connected, an unbreakable clique. She would never be alone again, even when it felt like something was missing inside her” (7). Belonging to the clique of Cutters makes up for any individual inadequacies; it makes Tally feel safe and whole. It also provides her with purpose, from her original desire to eradicate the New Smoke and maintain her city’s status quo to her ultimate declaration of protecting the wild. Shay once tells her, “They make us Specials see the world so clearly that its beauty almost hurts, so we won’t let humanity try to destroy it again” (86). Her final role as ecological crusader comes from her time as a Cutter, though it is ultimately defined by her autonomous choices.
In the end, Tally does not have to be a ruthless agent of Dr. Cable’s schemes to belong. While it appears as if Tally must relinquish her connection to the Cutters—both because she rewires her mind and because the others are despecialized—she does not. Her experiences will always be a part of her and a part of her time with the group. As Shay emphasizes, “Tally Youngblood would always be a Cutter” (339).
Scars and Tattoos
Tally and the other Cutters boast scars that come from the practice of cutting. They engage in self-harm to achieve what they believe is a heightened state of thought. When Tally does not have access to a knife, she uses her own surgical enhancements to create pain: “Making a claw with her right hand, Tally dug her fingernails into the flesh of her left arm. […] a torrent of pain pil[ed] through her, overloading her brain. But then the special moment struck, icy clarity replacing panic and confusion” (39). The scars left behind are the marks of self-inflicted pain, a manifestation of their emotional confusion and psychological pain. As Tally’s journey brings her closer to self-awareness, her impulse to inflict self-harm lessens. She becomes stronger, able to withstand such emotional turmoil without resorting to cutting or other abuse.
While her tattoos are not necessarily the result of self-harm, they are emblematic of her inclusion into the Specials, particularly the Cutters. Their nickname is derived from their collective use of self-harm. The tattoos serve as markers of difference, separating the Specials from ordinary citizens: “Tally felt the sudden rush of eyes drawn to her cruel features, sensed the crowd’s dazzlement at the pulsing tattoos that webbed her flesh in scintillating black lace” (17). Tally’s tattoos advertise her difference; at the same time, they brand her as Dr. Cable’s creature. Indeed, Tally later notes that some of the Cutters have taken to actual branding, “marking their arms with the red-hot ends of firebrands. Like cutting, it kept your mind icy” (56). Like branding animals, this represents ownership and a lack of autonomy, indicating their complicity and captivity in Dr. Cable’s plans.
At one point, Tally cuts herself through one of her Special tattoos to commemorate her greater commitment to Zane. This signifies her shifting loyalties, as she turns away from her obedience to Dr. Cable and begins to trust her own instincts. When she meets up with Andrew Simpson Smith, she gains his trust by showing him her scars: “We only have scars if we want to, so they always mean something” (150), he says, referring to how scars can easily be erased in their society. For Tally, the scars originally symbolize her attachment to Zane, but they come to signal more important personal milestones of growth and maturity. When she is awaiting the despecialization surgery, she preemptively mourns the loss of her scars: “Tally realized she didn’t want to lose them. They were a reminder of everything she’d been through, of what she’d managed to overcome” (324). The tattoos and scars thus shift from representing emotional distress and conformity to being representative of individuality.
Rusties and Smokies
While the cities operate as if there are no other ways of organizing a society, it becomes clear that other groups exist outside of those boundaries, symbolizing both remorse and resistance. The Rusties signify the destructive impulses that unmodified citizens too easily exhibit, with their dependence on non-renewable resources and reliance on warfare to settle disputes. When the nano pills that induce the cure begin flooding her city, Tally worries about a return to Rusty mindsets: “What would you do with a bunch of spoiled, superbeautiful people with no limits on their appetites? Let them loose on the fragile world, to destroy it the way the Rusties almost had three centuries before?” (58). The Rusties serve as metaphorical boogeymen that justify the government’s claim to power, but the people who inspired the story were objectively harmful, destroying a fragile society that has taken hundreds of years to rebuild. In this way, they symbolize the past, specifically the mistakes made then.
In contrast, the Smokies represent a rebellion against the current systems of control and the potential for future prosperity. They live in rudimentary towns in the wild, forgoing the surgery that makes people both artificially pretty and innately uncurious. They advocate for independence and freedom of thought and expression, epitomizing the most significant threat to the cities that depend on the docile cooperation of their citizens. Their distribution of the nano pills brings almost instantaneous change to Diego and slower but still marked progress in Tally’s city. Once the lesions that prevent clarity of thought are removed, it becomes clear that the citizens want their independence. Tally is still wary about the Smokies and the cured citizens, which is why she decides to spend her life protecting the wild alongside David. She recognizes what this new society represents, but its potential can also fall victim to the habits of the Rusties, thus depicting progress and hope as delicate.
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