The Institute

Twelve-year-old Luke’s intelligence isn’t just off the charts—it’s impossible to chart. One of Luke’s teachers likens the experience of teaching him to that of church elders being taught by a young Jesus. Apart from his hunger for knowledge, Luke is self-assured, self-aware, and overall, a normal boy. His empathy and social skills help him bring the Front Half children together as a found family.

Luke’s intelligence and talent for strategy enable him to escape the Institute and find help—but it is his kindness that gains him an ally in Maureen. He doesn’t help Maureen out of a desire to manipulate her—it is a purely altruistic act that reminds the housekeeper of her humanity and that of the children.

Especially small for his age, 10-year-old Avery Dixon is the most powerful telepath to fall in the Institute’s clutches in at least a decade. If it weren’t for Luke and Kalisha’s kindness and offers of friendship, the Institute might have broken him.

Because Avery can read minds, he never developed proper social skills. As a result, he is immature for his age, and other children bullied and teased him before he was brought to the Institute. Being accepted by the Institute children gives Avery the courage to sacrifice himself—his final thought being “I loved having friends” (519). Despite its horrors, the Institute gave him something he never had before.

Luke describes the Institute’s Administrator, Julia Sigsby, as merciless. Despite being on the older side, Mrs. Sigsby realizes she will never retire, as the Institute’s mission is her life. For this, she can justify abusing and murdering children—which she equates to (and excuses as) drafting soldiers.

Mrs. Sigsby is a hypocrite, reminding the staff that their charges are heroes while ordering and overseeing their torture and lying to them. And yet, she herself is weak in the face of pain (i.e., when Deputy Wendy shoots her).

Luke describes Maureen as “pretty old” with graying hair. Maureen works at the Institute out of a need to protect herself from her husband’s debt collectors. She is trapped at the Institute in her own way, unable to risk her job because she believes the debt collectors will take everything, including money she saved for a son she gave up for adoption.

Maureen’s moral compass was first broken when she worked as an interrogator in Iraq and Afghanistan. At first, she is hardened to the plight of the Institute children, but as time goes on, she begins to recover her humanity. The children are innocents, and it’s possible that her having to give up a child when she was young makes her more sensitive to them in the end.

After Luke helps Maureen free herself from her husband’s debts, she can no longer avoid seeing his humanity. Even then, she is held back by her conviction that the Institute is the only thing preventing the end of the world. But in the end, her empathy for the weak proves stronger.

“Orphan” Annie Ledoux is an older homeless woman. She lives in a tent behind the train depot but spends a lot of time in the alley behind the police station. Her belief in conspiracies makes her the first to believe Luke’s story. Despite her circumstances, she stands up for those she cares for.

Annie frequently wears a serape and sombrero, which evoke Spaghetti Westerns when she draws on the Institute’s retrieval team, but her true strength comes from love for her neighbors.

Security Chief Trevor Stackhouse is Mrs. Sigsby’s ally. Like her, he believes in the Institute’s mission. He underestimates Luke because he sees the children as animals to be controlled. Had he seen any of the children as actual people, he might have noted Luke’s intelligence and the other children’s ingenuity. Despite Stackhouse and Mrs. Sigsby being allies, when the time comes to ambush Luke, he kills Mrs. Sigsby in the crossfire without remorse.

Kalisha Benson is the “mother” of Luke’s friend group, especially for Avery. She telepathically sings a frightened Avery to sleep on his first night and allows him to stay in her room. When Avery reunites with Kalisha in Back Half, he sees her spoon-feeding Helen like a mother with a child. Kalisha is as much a unifying agent as Luke.

Nicky Wilholm is the fighter of Luke’s friend group, the one who never gives up and inspires courage by example. Many girls are attracted to him, but he and Kalisha are especially close.

George Iles is a mischievous boy who keeps the other children’s spirits up.

Iris and Helen are both kind to Luke and Avery. Iris is the first of the friend group to be lost to Back Half.