The book Uglies by Scott Westerfeld is about a dystopian society where when you turn 16, you become a Pretty, where they change all your features so you look beautiful. Some people believe this is wrong so they run away. Tally, the main character, has to face being with her best friend Peris that turned pretty and waiting for her also, or her new friend that ran way. She either has to tell where her friend went to and have their entire village destroyed, or never be with her Peers, family, or turn pretty. One lesson the book suggests is that you should not change for anyone else. The author shows this by the way Tally wants to become pretty so her friend Peris veiws her differently, how Tally lies to her new friend Shay to seem more cool to …show more content…
her, and how she acts to special circumstances, which are the “bad” cops. The first reason to prove the theme, is that Tally wants to become pretty so her friend Peris veiws her differently. She has always looked up to Peris as a friend, and more. Now that he is a Pretty and she is not, he doesn't view her as he once did. He said if she turned pretty everything would go back to normal. One piece of evidence to prove this is when she tried to sneak in his town to find Peris. She realizes everyone is a Pretty, except for her and it comes to her. “ Worse she was Ugly. But she hoped Peris wouldn't see it that way. See her that way” (page 7). This shows that Tally is worried that Peris will view her differently because he is now a Pretty. She tries to hide her face when she starts to talk to him because she is so embarrassed. She tries to but a mask on to look different but she doesn't look different at all. Another example is when Special Circumstances brings her in to show her what she looks like as an Ugly. They tell her she will look like this forever with no Peris, and she becomes horrified. “Puffy eyed and disheveled, exhaustion and red scratches marking her face, her hair sticking out in all directions and her expression turning horrified as se beheld her own appearance” (page 131). This tells us that she is not fond of the way she looks. It says she is horrified, which means she wants the surgery very bad, just so she can look more pretty. The last example is when she ran away from her town and snuck into new pretty town. Uglies aren't allowed to go there, so it's a big deal if you get caught. She wanted to see for herself what Peris looked like as a Pretty, because she couldn't have waited three months till her birthday. He was very worried that she would get caught so her said, “Just promise me that you won't do any more stupid tricks. Like coming here. Something that'll get you into trouble. I want to see you pretty” (page 18). This tells us Peris want Tally getting in trouble, so it still means he cares about her. He also says he wants to see her pretty, which means that he is waiting for her to change, but only for her looks. She does in fact follow what he says because she will do anything for her, as if he is using her. These examples all prove that Tally wants to become pretty so her friend Peris veiws her differently. The second reason to prove the theme is how Tally lies to her new friend Shay to seem more cool to her. She was one of last people to turn sixteen, so she was very lonely. She met Shay while sneaking out, so to her she was super cool. So Tally tried to seem cool by lying to Shay of what she does. One example to show this is when she tells the story to Shay. “I was about to get caught, so I kind of...set of a fire alarm” (page 27). This shows that she was telling her story. As the story continues, she begins to say a little more than that. It starts as saying she had to pull the fire alarm, but it then starts to say she did it for fun. She then starts then to say all these made up stories of why she pulled the fire alarm. She wants to say this because Shay was just explaining how she rode her hoverboard and broke in this one place like it was no big deal. The next example is when Shay tells Tally she wants to be apart of the fun.” I just meant if i'm going go have to do the running away part, I might as well get in on the fin” (page 29). This tells that Shay thinks what Tally did was fun. Tally thought it was actually terrifying. But then Tally wants to seem cool, so she says it was fun also, and she meant to jump off using a bungee cord. The final example is when Shay thinks Tally Crashed a part. “You crashed a party? Thats crazy!” (page 27). This shows that Shay thinks Tally crashed a party. She was actually there to see her friend because she missed him, but hearing she crashed a party seemed cooler. She was never the stand out kind of girl, and never the wild one. So hearing that from someone made her happy, and wanted to keep telling her the story. These few examples all prove that one reason to prove the theme is how Tally lies to her new friend Shay to seem more cool to her. The final reason why the theme of the story is that you should not change for anyone else is how she acts to special circumstances.
The first example to prove this is when she is walking into the building with special circumstances and turns completely childish again. “She felt like a littlie again, jerked along by a minder on an invisible string” (page 100). This tells that she was feeling like a little child when she was talking to the special circumstances. She didn't know how to react to the special circumstances because she has never met one before. At first they looked really scary, and mean. As the story goes on Tally becomes more comfortable with them, and will have a normal conversation. Imagine meeting someone, all alone, and they just took you to a place you have never been before, and were not even nice. I would do the same as Tally. My personality would change very quickly from happy and perky, so very scared and shy. The next example is when Tally also says she doesn't want to lie to them. “Tally took a slow breath, remembering her promise to Shay. She didn't want to lie, though” (page 102). This tells us that she didn't want to lie, but she did anyways. The Special circumstances find anything out they want to. So if she were to lie to them, they would find out, and they would not tolerate her in anyway. If she were to have to lie to a teacher, she most definitely would have. But becuase she is talking to Special Curcumstances, she askes very different, and …show more content…
tells them her secret. The last piece of evidence is when Tally thinks special circumstances look scary. “The woman became nothing but a monster, vengeful and inhuman.” (page 106). This tells us that Tally thinks they are inhuman and scary. In the story, when Tally met special circumstances, she would see all of them and be frightened. She would be a little timid and shy when she were to talk to them by the way they acted. All these examples prove that the theme of this book is you should not change for anyone else by the way she acts with special circumstances. In conclusion, the theme for the book Uglies by Scott Westerfeld is that you should not change anyone else.
Tally does do this in the book many times, but realizes it in the end. She does what is right and tries to rescue her friends from Special Circumstances. She finds out that Peris is not everything, and she needs to do more in life than what she was told to do. The book shows the theme by the way Tally wants to become pretty so her friend Peris veiws her differently, how Tally lies to her new friend Shay to seem more cool to her, and how she acts to special circumstances. So the next time you have a friend that wants you to do something and they ask you to do it with them, dont say yes because they are your friend, say yes if you want
to. Westerfeld, Scott. Uglies. Simon Pulse, 2005.
Tish Bonner has to write in a journal for her English class. At first she thought the assignment was a drag, but eventually, it was the only friend she could turn to. Hear but the english teacher. The teacher MRS.Dunphrey she won't read any entry marked she does she risking everything that matters to her by putting the truth on paper?And is she risking more by keeping silent?
In the article “Beating Anorexia and Ganing Feminism,” Marni Grossman shares her experiance of how she overcame her struggle with anorexia through understanding the feminist movement. Marni objectafies the ways in which society’s expectations and ideas of what it means to have “beauty” is having and negitaive impact. I had a very similar experiance to Marni, in fact the first time I hated my apperance was in the seventh grade. I have olive skin and bold brows, features which i was often complamented on, yet hated. Shawn and Lee argue that “there is no fixed idea of beauty”, suggesting how social ideals from society differs depending on the culture (183). I remember A male student was bullying all the females in the class by Inscribing Gender
Many factors contribute to the main storyline of Pretties by Scott Westerfeld. So far, Tally has attended a costume party with her best friends, received a large gash in her forehead after escaping from the party, and swallowed a white pill from a mysterious leather sack. The party and pill will be discussed and elaborated upon throughout this essay. The three most important objects in the story so far are Zane (Tally’s man friend), Champagne, and the key to open the lock on dorm room Valentino 317.
The author created this book for our entertainment, but also to teach us that you shouldn’t change for anyone, that you should express yourself the way that you want to.
This month I read the book Uglies by Scott Westerfeld. This science fiction novel is about a girl named Tally Youngblood who is about to turn sixteen. In Tally’s world, turning sixteen means undergoing an extreme plastic surgery to become what her society thinks is a “pretty”. When Tally’s friend, Shay, runs away to a land where “uglies” are accepted, Tally has a big decision to make, become a pretty or be accepted for who she is.
Uglies by Scott Westerfield is a young adult dystopian novel that deals with geopolitics, social and economic totalitarianism, and the spatial analysis of the dynamic of futuristic cities controlled by such a government. In the book, everyone receives dramatic surgery at the age of sixteen that makes them super-humanly beautiful, turning them into Pretties. This procedure was put into place to create peace amongst men by making everyone look the same and has no biological advantages, therefore they are equals. The cities in which the population live are a self-sustainable and controlled by a totalitarian world government that decides where people live, how they work, and how they will look. The government took the shape of the Pretty Committee,
The Uglies is a book about a futuristic look of America. There are a lot of futuristic things like hover boards. But this society isn’t perfect like people think. The narrator in this book is tally Youngblood who will be on a journey to find her best friend. In this society everyone is obsessed with beauty. And the Uglies are the people between the ages of 12 and 16 they live in a remote community far from the beautiful people. In this community the Uglies anxiously wait for their 16th birthday. At the age of 16 they go through a mandatory plastic surgery in order to live up to society’s standards. After they go through plastic surgery they will be known as pretties, and they will also live with all of the other gorgeous people. After changing communities they will party all the time and spend most of their time drinking champagne. But then Tally find out that the government is hiding a scary secret about becoming a pretty and she will risk her life and her friends to save them from becoming pretties.
I did not have the perfect body. I suddenly became aware of my appearance and made sure I wore makeup every day, especially on days I had Art I with Eric. Before every class I would brush my hair and put on lip gloss in order to try and fit in. To grab Eric’s attention I thought I had to wear clothes that made me appear slimmer and live up to society’s expectations of beauty. Pipher defines this as “lookism, which is the evaluation of a person solely on the basis of appearance” (346). Every time I talked to Eric I assumed he was judging me by the way I looked and not by my personality or values. I constantly felt like I was not good enough and that my body type was not the kind that guys found attractive. Pipher states that girls “sense the pressure to be someone they are not” (346). Every day I walked around acting in a play where I could not be myself. The more I put forth an act the more I felt that I did not fit in. Adolescent girls find themselves “vulnerable to the hurricane” (346) of judgement and predetermined expectations of women. After a while, Eric finally gave me the attention I longed for and we started to date. I had never been in a relationship before and I never knew how much tension it would cause between me and my
An example is her torture during the majority of the book. In 6th grade she went to her friends party, and to her astonishment, a couple began making out in the closet. She called her mom to tell her what was going on and her mom told the mother ...
Sure, some of us have this great confidence within ourselves about looking great, but that does not hold true for everyone. I understand the pain or disgust, or even disappointment one feels when they look in the mirror and say, “I wish I could change this or that about myself”. Although this piece is written about the author’s life, it holds meaning and connects with for many people; one only has to dig deep enough to find one. For me, it was to realize what is important in life can change, adapt and that we must explore our inner selves and find our own path in life.
Both characters change after an event that takes place in their life. In Speak Melinda changes prior to the raping. A change is evident, because during the meeting with her parents the principal says, “Melinda. Last year you were a straight –B student, no behavioral problems, few absences. But the reports I’ve been getting…well, what can we say?” (Anderson, 114). She must have been a straight-B student in the eighth grade, since none of her progress reports for the ninth grade year have all B’s. Not only Melinda’s grades change, but also her social status. She states, “I have entered high school with the wrong hair, the wrong clothes, the wrong attitude. And I don’t have anyone to sit with. I am Outcast” (Anderson, 4). She doesn’t talk to any of her friends from middle school except for Ivy, who she occasionally talks to. Tyler changes physically and mentally after doing the
Everyone dreams of being “perfect”, but what they don’t know is that they are perfect. One just has to see within themselves. Everyone is uniquely and secretly beautiful, but that gets taken away because it is not what society wants. What society wants is for women’s self-esteem to be broken so that they can be morphed into a product of someone else's idea of perfect. In “Barbie Doll” Piercy argues that the pressures put on women by society affect their self-esteem. No one needs to change who they are for anyone. If anyone wants to change, they should change for themselves! Being you is all that really matters. The key to beauty is confidence. Something that everyone should keep in mind is that, don’t let someone change who you are, to become what they need; otherwise you don’t need them in your
The List, By Siobhan Vivian, definitely shows the theme of changing yourself to fit in because the girls changed their appearance, personality, and freinds. Throughout the book these ladies faced all kinds of challenges, At the beginning they thought the only thing that was important was being “pretty.” By the end they realized that how pretty you are doesn't matter. They learned that it truly is what’s on the inside that counts. At the very end of The List, all the girls vowed to stop changing themselves. It sounds crazy that people would go to such extremes to be “pretty.” But think about it, if your school made a list naming the pretty and ugly people, you’d probably do some crazy things. But how far would you
...e ability to achieve anything in life. Hopefully, readers would learn from this novel that beauty is not the most important aspect in life. Society today emphasizes the beauty of one's outer facade. The external appearance of a person is the first thing that is noticed. People should look for a person's inner beauty and love the person for the beauty inside. Beauty, a powerful aspect of life, can draw attention but at the same time it can hide things that one does not want disclosed. Beauty can be used in a variety of ways to affect one's status in culture, politics, and society. Beauty most certainly should not be used to excuse punishment for bad deeds. Beauty is associated with goodness, but that it is not always the case. This story describes how the external attractiveness of a person can influence people's behavior and can corrupt their inner beauty.
In American culture today, society's view of beauty is controlled by Hollywood, where celebrities are constantly in the lime-light. The media watches Hollywood's every move, and is quick to ridicule “A-listers” whenever they dare to gain a few pounds or to let an uncontrollable pimple show. The media has created a grossly distorted mental image of what should be considered beautiful, and with almost every junior high and high school-age girl reading and viewing this message, the idea has been instilled in them as well. This view of beauty is causing many teenage girls to become obsessed with a highly problematic and unattainable goal of perfection.