The Institute

Luke’s impulse to research Maureen’s debt continues the novel’s theme of ordinary people helping each other—the first instance being the Front Half children themselves with newcomers like Luke. Luke is motivated by a genuine desire to help someone whom he sees as kind. Later in the novel, Maureen tells him that his act of kindness reawakened her humanity, reminding her that the Institute children are human too.

During the children’s encounter with newcomer Harry Cross, they embody a community built on kindness and rules of conduct—unlike the adult society surrounding them, which cultivates sadism. By refusing to tolerate a descent into anarchy, Luke and his friends spread their philosophy, and Harry emulates them by forming his own Institute family with Gerda and Greta.

Cooperation and mutual support are conscious choices. One of the forces binding Luke and his friends is the existence of a mutual enemy—the adults—but their first encounter with Harry proves that this is not enough. Harry initially turns his anger and fear against an easy target— Avery, the youngest and smallest. Unable to defy the adults, the children could easily redirect their emotions toward each other in imitation of the adults’ sadism—just like the boys in Lord of the Flies.

Luke’s encounter with the housekeeper Jolene illustrates the Institute’s hypocrisy. She is aware of the children’s torture in Front Half, Back Half, and the elusive Ward A (Maureen eventually tells Luke that the housekeepers rotate between the three areas), but their suffering is nothing compared to the inconvenience of Luke wanting to lie down on his bed while she is cleaning his room. By calling him spoiled, she denies Luke’s right to his pain and accuses him of making her life more difficult—a similar sentiment expressed via the posters in Part 2.

The staff members may humanize the children in their minds, but the sadistic practices of the Institute dehumanize them as well. When Luke looks at Gladys while trying to arouse empathy in her, she resembles a blank-faced doll. While some of the staff may have been sadists and sociopaths before their recruitment, it’s likely that most suppress their discomfort in different ways: Some completely disconnect from empathy while others blame the children rather than face their own feelings.

Constrained by the Institute’s authority and mission, the staff members likely feel compelled to partake in the children’s abuse—victim blaming being a common way to resolve the resulting cognitive dissonance. In both the Stanford Prison Experiment and Milgram Electric Shock Experiment (see Further Reading & Resources), subjects pressured by perceived authority figures to directly or indirectly hurt others often became angry with the victims themselves.

Luke’s references to the biblical Samson foreshadow the eventual destruction of the Institute—the seed to which was planted by the Institute itself (like the Philistines did their own roof, their own temple). Like Samson, Luke will feign cooperation, weakness, until he finds an opportunity to escape and bring the Institute—a temple where cult members practice their religion—to ruin.