Why is dystopian literature such a popular genre? Dystopian literature takes a current problem in our society and drastically emphasizes it. Dystopias make us rethink our society and see how our problems could potentially worsen in the future. Scott Westerfield’s Uglies should be required reading at Brick Township High School because it makes readers question and rethink our society's unethical beauty standards and is a successful depiction of dystopian literature. Scott Westerfield’s Uglies makes readers question and rethink our society’s unethical beauty standards. In Uglies, the character Shay believes turning pretty is the dumbest thing she's ever heard. She believes everyone is already pretty and we do not need an operation to change that. …show more content…
We're all in the normal. We may not be gorgeous, but at least we're not hyped up Barbie dolls.” (Westerfield 79) Tally, on the other hand, believes turning pretty is the only way to live. While Shay and Tally have different views of society's beauty standards, Shay makes Tally rethink. In the end, they find the truth and see how unethical it is. Scott Westerfield’s Uglies is a successful depiction of dystopian literature. Uglies is set in a future post-scarcity dystopian world in which everyone is considered an "ugly," but then turned "pretty" by extreme cosmetic surgery when they reach the age of 16. The world is controlled by a government that is too strong and has advanced technology which does not exist today. It also mentions the “rusties” which are the people who lived before the world ended. For example, “Maybe they didn't want you to realize that every civilization has its weaknesses. There's always one thing we depend on. And if someone takes it all away, all that's left is some story in history class.” (Westerfield 330) This quote represents the huge catastrophe that caused what almost was the end of the
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.
In the Uglies, being a pretty is the one thing everyone can’t wait to be. If you’re not a pretty, you’re pretty much thought of as useless until you turn 16 and get to have the long awaited surgery that transforms your face into something completely new and better. It is nearly impossible for Uglies to not want to look pretty. Even if one was to hate another, they would still want to look and be like them if they had big eyes or full lips. The text says, “There was a certain kind of beauty, a prettiness that everyone could see. Big eyes and full lips like a kid's; smooth, clear skin; symmetrical features; and a thousand other little clues. Somewhere in the backs of their minds, people were always looking for these markers. No one could help seeing them, no matter how they were brought up. A million years of evolution had made it part of the human brain” (Westerfeld 19). In other words, Tally is saying that it is part of their biology to want to be pretty. There is almost no freedom in Tally’s world and the only way to be accepted is to undergo the surgery and look like everyone else. The author is showing today's generation that this will be the future if teenagers keep idolizing and doing the same things as celebrities. Teenagers see someone they idolize with big lips and go get lip injections or see someone with long eyelashes and get eyelash extensions instead of just embracing how they
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.
Dystopian Literature is a kind of story that castigates society and the rituals/traditions they partake in. Although some may state that our society is a dystopian world, evidence demonstrates that it is most certainly not. The philosophical control in the "Omelas" and the bureaucratic control in "Harrison Bergeron" depict that our general public is not. Dissimilar to the stories that we have perused our general public has more freedoms and less power inside the different types of controls, demonstrating our society is not a dystopia.
Scott Westerfeld’s dystopian book, Uglies, published in 2005, takes place in Uglyville and New Pretty Town. Tally Youngblood, who’s about to turn sixteen isn’t excited about getting her driver’s license like any other teenager usually is, but instead excited about finally being able to turn pretty. In Uglyville 16 year olds go through an operation to get a whole new look; a new face, new skin, basically a chance to become a whole new person. Although not everyone is positive they want to go through with the operation, including Tally’s new friend Shay. Shay would rather be risking her life in the outside world than to go through with the operation of getting a whole new look. Throughout the book as Scott Westerfeld shows how Tally Youngblood and her best friend Shay overcome their obstacles, he also includes many messages about how
Uglies by Scott Westerfeild is about a society of people who have surgery to turn them into society’s idea of beauty. These people are called pretties and the ones who don’t have the surgery are called uglies. Tally Youngblood is an ugly man who agrees that everyone should be pretty, even when they all look the same. She breaks into the Pretty’s mansion and crashes their party. On her way back she met another Ugly named Shay who is against everyone being the same.
The Hunger Games and Fahrenheit 451 are both great examples of dystopian fiction. A dystopia is a fictional world that takes place in the future that is supposed to be perceived as a perfect society, but it’s actually the opposite. Other things that a dystopian society might display are citizens both living in a dehumanized state and feeling like they’re constantly watched by a higher power. Dystopias are places where society is backwards or unfair, and they are usually are controlled by the government, technology, or a particular religion. The Hunger Games and Fahrenheit 451 are both in the dystopian fiction genre because the societies within them show the traits of a dystopia. Both of them also have characters that go against the flow of the normal world.
From the dehumanization, the natural world is eradicated. The concept of dystopia is to disguise the imperfect quality of life in these fictional societies due to human misery, poverty, terror, corruption and oppression. The propaganda in Fahrenheit 451, is to persuade citizens that books are useless and unnecessary, causing people to believe that literature is silly, and the government is rational for placing a ban on books. Because these sources of knowledge are banished, people are unaware of how life truly must be lived.
Now that I have read several chapters of my chosen book for Book Club, I have realized the significance of my book title. My book, Uglies takes place in a dystopian society where groups of people are separated based off of their looks. The Uglies are biased to think that they're not normal, and that they don't fit in. Their government gave them the opportunity to start anew by undergoing a procedure that makes you perfect. But, there are some Uglies that believe Pretties are too perfect. They don't have a creative thought in their heads, and all they care about is being pretty and partying. Uglies aren't unnatural parts of their society. Pretties are. You only think you're ugly when you're told there's someone who's prettier than you. Uglies
Dystopia, a word that inflicts feelings of malcontent, fear, a place where abysmal conditions are the new normal, this genre describes a society where everything has and continues to go wrong. This genre has gripped the hearts of many readers and is compelling for people of all ages. The dystopian book Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury is a thrilling book that introduces the reader to a world where the society tries to force everything to be perfect, and danger lurks around every twist and turn. The meaning of dystopia, the characteristics of the genre, and how it is presented in Fahrenheit 451, contributes to how one could understand the dystopian style of literature.
Dystopian novels are written to reflect the fears a population has about its government and they are successful because they capture that fright and display what can happen if it is ignored. George Orwell wrote 1984 with this fear of government in mind and used it to portray his opinion of the current government discretely. Along with fear, dystopian novels have many other elements that make them characteristic of their genre. The dystopian society in Orwell’s novel became an achievement because he utilized a large devastated city, a shattered family system, life in fear, a theme of oppression, and a lone hero.
According to the article by Dave Barry, "The Ugly Truth about Beauty", the article compares between men and women. Barry illustrate that men think of themselves as average looking unlike women they always think that they are not good enough. Barry think contributes to this difference is that women when they were young they used to play with a Barbie which make them feel that they have to be perfect just like here and that generate low self-self-esteem. On the other hand men used to play by their action figures. Which they are not a good looker. In this article Barry offer advice for both gender. That women must have self-confidence and men should care about their look just a little more. I am a women and I know that we are some times be obsessed
Dystopian Literature is a form of writing that uses existing problems and escalates them to show their negative impacts on society. Minority Report, Fahrenheit 451, and Animal Farm are all great examples of dystopian literature and effectively demonstrate how certain problems have a negative impact on society. In Steven Speilburg’s movie Minority Report, he uses the events that John Anderton experienced to demonstrate the overbearing control of the government in Washington, D.C. In Ray Bradbury’s novel Fahrenheit 451, he writes about Guy Montag and his quest to prove the burning of books and other forms of literature isn’t beneficial at all to society. In George Orwell’s novella Animal Farm, he writes about Napoleon and his powerful government
Throughout history, beauty has been seen as a value to humans. Beauty practices start as far back as foot binding and continues up to today with cosmetic surgeries such as liposuction. On every billboard, magazine, and commercial citizens are reminded that they are not as physically attractive as they could be and there is a solutions to their problem. In his analysis of beauty, Kant states that beauty is morality. Despite the fact physical beauty is highly valued in society, it is not the driving factor when it comes to determining morality and making ethical judgments. To support this, I will be introducing Aristotle’s virtue ethics and David Hume’s A Treatise of Human Nature to demonstrate that beauty is independent of virtue and does not influence morality as it is not considered when discussing morality.
There are over seven billion people on earth and every single one looks different. No matter how much people say that being different is unique, they are wrong. Society has set a beauty standard, with the help of the media and celebrities, that makes people question their looks. This standard is just a definition of what society considers being “beautiful.” This idea is one that mostly everyone knows about and can relate to. No one on this planet is exactly the same, but people still feel the need to meet this standard. Everyone has two sides to them; there is the one that says “you are perfect just the way you are”, while the other side puts you down and you tell yourself “I have to change, I have to fit in.” There is always going to be that side that cares and the one that doesn’t.