History Literature / TheInstitute

* LiesDamnedLiesAndStatistics: Brought up by Tim in his discussion with Mr. Sith, as he points out how statistics can be used to prove everything you want.

** Sheriff John has little sympathy for the bystander that got injured due to Tim's warning shot (see StrayShotsStrikeNothing below), since he correctly deduces the guy was staying around to film the altercation instead of doing the sensible thing and run.

* StrayShotsStrikeNothing: Averted; Tim was forced to resign from his previous police job when, during a confrontation with an armed and intoxicated teen, he fired a warning shot, but the bullet ended up knocking down a lamp from the ceiling, which then fell on top of a bystander, seriously injuring the guy.

* LackOfEmpathy: Most of the Institute staff are fairly desensitized to the horrors that they inflict on the children, with some occasional combination of outright sociopathy and/or [[IDidWhatIHadToDo genuine belief that they are saving the world]]. Mrs Sigsby [[spoiler: particularly calls Luke and the other kids during the recapture mission nothing but property, which makes it immensely satisfying when she starts panicking when taken by Tim on the return trip, as she knows that Stackhouse views her as ultimately expendable.]]

* SmartPeoplePlayChess: On his first day in the institue, Luke is challenged to a chess game by Nick Wilholm, who claims none of the other kids were able to give him a challenge. Luke beats him with a scholar's mate (4 moves), even though he isn't fully focused on the game. Later, Stackhouse actually calls Luke a Chessplayer because he is sneaky. And in the climax, Luke himself also compares the situation he and Tim are in as part of a chessgame he is playing against Stackhouse.
* SpeechImpediment: The person Mrs. Sigsby reports to has a lisp.

** Notably averted during the gunfight between the [=DuPray=] and the soldiers of The Institute. First Orphan Annie spots them, and ropes in Drummer Denton, who has several guns, to help fight them off, and soon they are joined by other citizens with their firearms. It is because of this that the protagonists eventually come out on top, even though several police officers are killed in the fight.

* ArtisticLicenceGeography: The various institutes around the world are suposedly all in remote location, just like the one in Main. The Dutch branch however is stated to located on the island of Pampus. Pampus is in reality a popular tourist attraction.

* NiceJobBreakingItHero: The day after Luke's escape, Avery attempts to cover the hole under the fence Luke escape through, but is caught in the act, and as such the Institute's staff is alerted to the escape. Mrs. Sigsby even tells Avery that, had he left the hole alone, it would have taken them much longer to realize there has been an escape.

* TheReveal: In the climax, it is revealed there are Institutes like the one in Main all over the world, including Italy, Germany, Bosnia, The Netherlands, and South-Korea.

* BetterToDieThanBeKilled: [[spoiler:Maureen]] hangs herself so that the Institute can’t torture Luke’s location out of her. Plus, she was already terminally ill and probably didn't have much longer to live, so dying this way was most likely preferable.

* DeadMansSwitch: When Tim and Luke are about to return to the Institute with Mrs. Sigsby and Dr. Evans as their prisoners, they leave Wendy (the only other police officer who knows about the institute and survived the gunfight at the [=DuPray=] police office) in a motel, with a list of the names and home locations of all the children currently kept in the Institute. If Luke and Tim fail to contact her, she has to pass these names on to the state police and FBI so hopefully they will start an investigation that will uncover The Institute.

* TheDreaded: Mr. Smith, the man whom Mrs. Sigsby and Stackhouse answer to. When Luke has escaped, they try to put off calling him as long as possible, even though he could easily provide them with much better resources for tracking Luke down, out of fear of what he might do to them for this slip-up.

* {{Seers}}: According to "Mr. Smith", [[spoiler: there is a group of six precognitive people in a different kind of institute somewhere in the world, who can see into the future to determine which people to eliminate to keep the world from nuclear destruction. Though, their effectiveness is called into question by Luke.]]

* WaterTorture: The immersion tank, which is used on Pinks to enchance their powers. Luke is tortured in here to see if he really didn't develop any TP powers due to Dr. Hendricks experiments. Later, Avery also gets the treatment.

* DreamSequence: After their attempted mutiny ends with the kids from Back Half trapped in the tunnel between back half and front half, all of them share a dream in which they come across a series of ringing telephones, each one bigger than the previous, and when they answer them, all they hear is a boy or girl asking "Hello, do you hear me" in various languages.

* VanInBlack: Discussed, and averted. Orphan Annie, a follower of conspiracy theories and one of the first to believe Luke, warns Tim that the people looking for Luke will come in black vans. However, the team send to retrieve Luke actually uses far more unobtrusive vans in the colors blue, green and gray. The narrative even lampshades that Annie would be disappointed if she saw this.

** As a punishment for his part in Luke's escape, Avery is send to the immersion tank (which is normally only for Pinks) and then straight to Back Half. Dr. Hendricks disapproves since Avery a rare, very strong TP, but Stackhouse and Sigsby insist. However, the experience even further enhances Avery's powers, and this helps him and the other kids in Back Half to start a mutiny.

* SmartPeoplePlayChess: On his first day in the institue, Luke is challenged to a chess game by Nick Wilholm, who claims none of the other kids were able to give him a challenge. Luke beats him with a scholar's mate (4 moves), even though he isn't fully focused on the game. Later, Stackhouse actually calls Luke a Chessplayer because he is sneaky.

* RevengeBeforeReason: Discussed. Luke correctly guesses that Stackhouse has an escape plan for himself in case the Institute is ever discovered, but counts on it that he won't use it yet since he wants revenge on Luke for all the trouble the boy has caused. Tim agrees with this theory:

* BystanderSyndrome: Sheriff John has little sympathy for the bystander that got injured due to Tim's warning shot (see StrayShotsStrikeNothing below), since he correctly deduces the guy was staying around to film the altercation instead of doing the sensible thing and run.

* NiceJobFixingItVillain: The Institute puts tracking chips in the kids' earlobes so they can find them if they run or hide. They don't anticipate one of the kids (Luke) having the guts to cut their earlobe off to get rid of the tracker, however. And when Luke is discovered on the train by one of the workers, he ends up helping him by not revealing his presence, even though he's been told to be on the lookout for a runaway kid, because the bloody ear allows Luke to tell him a story about escaping from an abusive guardian, with the injury making the story look really convincing.

* WaterTorture: The immersion tank, where Luke is tortured to see if he really didn't develop any TP powers due to Dr. Hendricks experiments.

* BetterToDieThanBeKilled: [[spoiler:Maureen]] hangs herself so that the Institute can’t torture Luke’s location out of her.

* TheGuardsMustBeCrazy: The guards and other staff members of the Institute make quite a few slip-ups that Luke happily exploits for planning his escape. Among other things, they don't maintain the security camera's near the kids' rooms and playground, and while the camera's on the lower levels of front half are maintained, it's obvious hardly anyone ever monitors them (luke visits these floors a few times unsupervised, and nobody stops him). Luke finds a misplaced elevator card that allows him to use the elevator for every floor in Front Half except the lowest 2. The ground on both sides of the fence of the playground is unpaved, allowing Luke to tunnel underneath it. And they don't monitor Luke's laptop enough to notice he has found a way to go around their blocks to visit forbidden websites. Justified by that the prisoners in the institute are kids who, any TP or TK powers aside, are still very much children and thus not expected to come up with complex escape plans. Luke however is a ChildProdigy.
* HeelFaceTurn: Maureen, after Luke helps her find a way to get rid of the high debts her ex-husband left her with, and because [[spoiler:she is terminally ill, so she doesn't have much to lose]].

* TheGuardsMustBeCrazy: The guards and other staff members of the Institute make quite a few slip-ups that Luke happily exploits for planning his escape. Among other things, they don't maintain the security camera's near the kids' rooms and playground, and while the camera's on the lower levels of front half are maintained, it's obvious hardly anyone ever monitors them (luke visits these floors a few times unsupervised, and nobody stops him). Luke finds a misplaced elevator card that allows him to use the elevator for every floor in Front Half except the lowest 2. And they don't monitor Luke's laptop enough to notice he has found a way to go around their blocks to visit forbidden websites. Justified by that the prisoners in the institute are kids who, any TP or TK powers aside, are still very much children and thus not expected to come up with complex escape plans. Luke however is a ChildProdigy.

* HeelFaceTurn: Maureen.

* SmartPeoplePlayChess: On his first day in the institue, Luke is challenged to a chess game by Nick Wilholm, who claims none of the other kids were able to give him a challenge. Luke beats him with a scholar's mate (4 moves), even though he isn't fully focused on the game.

* UselessSecurityCamera: Luke notices that the security camera's in front half (especially in the rarely used west wing) are so dirty they can, at best, only provide a blurry image, and none of the staff feels the need to clean them.

* BittersweetEnding: Luke, Kalisha, Nick, and some of the other kids have escaped, and the Institute has been destroyed. However, the people behind it, though not planning to come after those specific kids, are still at large, and planning to rebuild, though Tim notes that getting such an operation up and running in the modern day, instead of coasting along from an earlier time, will be difficult.

* SmartPeoplePlayChess: On his first day in the institue, Luke is challenged to a chess game by Nick Wilholm, who claims none of the other kids were able to give him a challenge. Luke beats him with a scholar's mate (4 moves), even though he isn't fully focussed on the game.

* StrayShotsStrikeNothing: Averted; Tim was forced to resign from his previous police job when, during a confrontation with an armed and intoxinated teen, he fired a warning shot, but the bullet ended up knocking down a lamp from the ceiling, which then fell on top of a bystander, seriously injuring the guy.

* AlwaysIdenticalTwins: Gerda and Greta are identical in every way.

* HeroicBSOD: Luke undergoes one after finding out his parents were murdered. He remains in a daze for several weeks, not making many attempts to further his escape plans.