Fantasy, Science Fiction, and Supernatural-Uglies by Scott Westerfeld

Fantasy, Science Fiction, and Supernatural-Uglies by Scott Westerfeld.

Westerfeld, Scott. (2011). Uglies. New York, NY: Simon Pulse.

Tally Youngblood can’t wait to be sixteen because at the age of sixteen she will have the surgery that will change her life forever. Every teen is expected to have the surgery that turns them from ugly to supermodel pretty.  Once uglies have the surgery, they get to leave Uglyville and cross over to live in New Pretty town. In Pretty town there are no rules, there are parties, pleasure gardens, and everyone is happy.  Right before her sixteen birthday Tally meets a girl named Sha who is not sure she wants to have the surgery and tries to convince Tally not to have it. Sha goes missing and the authorities know that Tally was the last person to see her. The authorities threated Tally to help them find Sha, if she doesn’t her chance at becoming pretty is in jeopardy.

Uglies is the first book of the series titled, “Uglies”. The other books in the series include pretties, specials, and extras. I recommended that the series be read in order. Book one does a good job of establishing the setting, time, and the characters that appear throughout the series.

The story is told in three parts. Part I is titled Turning Pretty and consists of sixteen chapters. Here we meet our main character Tally who loves to defy the rules and regulations of Uglyville and Sha the girl who forever changes Tally’s future. Part II is titled the Smoke and it also includes sixteen chapters. Here Tally sets out to find Sha who went to live with the other rebels who run away so as not to have the surgery. Part III is titled Into the Fire and it includes eighteen chapters. 

From the beginning of the story, Tally the main character, has been fascinated with getting the surgery to change her looks for as long as she can remember. She says, “I don’t want to be ugly all my life. I want those perfect eyes and lips, and for everyone to look at me and gasp. And everyone who sees me to think who’s that?” (Westerfeld, 2011, p. 83) As the story develops so does Tally’s character, as Tally goes out to find Sha and spends more time with the Smokies she begins to question the decision for her or anyone else to have the surgery. When she is speaking to David she says, “I’d hate it if you got the operation. She couldn’t believe she was saying it” (Westerfeld, 2011, p. 232).

There are many themes in Uglies one of them being how your perception of yourself is shaped by what society makes you believe. In Uglyville everyone is actually normal but what makes them ugly is their differences or as David’s character puts it, “the features that we take away from our parents are the things that make us different. A big nose, thin lips, high forehead--all the things that the operation takes away” (Westerfeld, 2011, p. 214). Even in the Uglyville schools, students were taught that when everyone was ugly, before the pretty surgeries came along, “Everyone judged everyone else based on their appearance, people who were taller got better jobs” (Westerfeld, 2011, p. 43). Then the surgeries came along and everyone is more alike now, “It’s the only way to make people equal,” Tally states (Westerfeld, 2011, p.43). On another occasion when Tally is being complemented by David by her internal and external beauty  she has a difficult time believing him but the theme is clearly stated when the character David says, “the worst damage is done before they even pick up the knife: You’re all brain washed into believing you’re ugly” (Westerfeld, 2011, p. 230).

An explicit theme shown in Uglies is that beauty is more than the physical way you look. After David and Tally go see his parents he continually complements Tally on how beautiful she is and she can’t believe it, “What, with my thin lips and eyes too close together?” (Westerfeld, 2011, p. 229). Then she remembers everyday insulting other uglies without even thinking twice about it.  But as David explains it’s not your looks that make you beautiful, it’s what’s inside you that matters, “What you do, the way you think, makes you beautiful” (Westerfeld, 2011, p.232).   

At the beginning of the story when Tally goes to find Sha she is only doing it for her own selfish reasons to become a pretty, “her only way home was to betray her friend” (Westerfeld, 2011, p. 158). As the story continues Tally begins to have a conflict with herself as whether or not she should turn Sha and the Smokies in to the authorities, “David’s revelation had suddenly made everything much more complicated…If Tally activated the tracker, it wouldn’t just mean the end of Shay’s big adventure. It would mean David’s home taken from him, his whole life stripped away. Tally felt the way of the mountains pressing down on her…” (Westerfeld, 2011, p. 185).

Uglies is a definite must read, as Kirkus reviews puts it, “with a beginning and ending that pack hefty punches, this introduction to a dystopic future promises an exciting series” (Kirkus Reviews, 2005, p.237). The series is intended for youth ages twelve and up. The names and vocabulary are easy to understand and makes this dystopic novel an easy read.

 

References

Uglies. (2005). Kirkus Reviews, 73(4), 237.

Westerfeld, Scott. (2011). Uglies. New York, NY: Simon Pulse.