Uglies by Scott Westerfeld

A City Where Everyone is Pretty

        The book named "Uglies" is about a city where everyone was divided between uglies and pretties, in this story the uglies were normal people that later on have an operation. In this story everyone at the age of sixteen had a surgery were their appearance was completely change and their face and body were symmetrical, perfect and beautiful. After having the surgery they were able to go to New Pretty Town leaving Uglyville behind. In this town their only job was to have fun and spend a really good time with all the pretties. Tally Youngblood is the protagonist of this story. She is a girl who is about to turn sixteen and she was really excited of having her surgery in just three months, specially because she wanted to see her best friend Peris again who was three months older than her. Peris and Tally had always being together since they were kids. They always trick the machines to escape and spy the pretties at the other side of a river, secretly so nobody see them braking the rules. One day Tally met this girl called Shay, she was the same age of Tally and both were born the same day. This means they were going to turn pretty the same day. However, Shay thought that being ugly was okay because that's the way they were born and they were pretty that way. But Tally said being pretty is better than being ugly forever. During their time together Shay showed Tally many new things like riding a hoverboard, escaping far from the city to the Rusty Ruins at night, also Shay showed her a roller coaster (that Tally didn´t know about because at their city there is nothing like that), and finally Shay told her that there was other place outside from the city were nobody had to be pretty, were no rules exist and people can do what they want. Tally was surprised with all these information and sometimes she thought Shay was lying about. For example that there was a guy named David that live in a place were nobody have to be pretty or is rule by someone else. A few days before the surgery after Tally and Shay had a fight because they were in disagreement with one another interests, Shay went to Tally´s room and said to her that she was leaving to another place where she could be who she was without any kind of obligatory surgery and invited Tally to go with her and David who was waiting at The Rusty Ruins. But Tally didn´t join and Shay went alone. After some days Tally was ready for the surgery. But something unexpected happened and the authorities said to Tally that she have to decide on finding her friend Shay and turn her in or staying ugly forever. 

Surprising Quotes 

- "What do you mean get it right, Tally? Maybe I think my face is already right!"

- Yeah, it´s great." Tally rolled her eyes. "for an ugly."

- Shay scowled. "What, can´t you stand me? Do you need to get some picture into your head so you can imagine it instead of my face?"

- "Shay! Come on. It´s just for fun."

- Making ourselves feel ugly is not for fun."

- "We are ugly!"

- "This whole game is just designed to make us hate ourselves" (Westerfeld 44).

When I read this quote I thought that Shay words were right because what the authorities have done is a place without any kind of individuality and diversity in which people don´t love themselves the way they were born. As Shay said "This whole game is just designed to make us hate ourselves" Yeah, maybe they think is better because there is no discrimination but they are taking away their own and original appearance and making people hate the way they look even though they are pretty and not ugly as they have being taught. I think that in this place people don't value themselves and they just think pretties are the ones that are worth of all the attention because is nice to see someone talking if their are perfect and beautiful. However, for me they are not paying to much attention to what they said or to the personalities each one of the community have or to their intelligence they only think that being pretty is everything.  

"Six of her friends disappeared, Tally, all at once. None of them has ever being found. Another two who were meant to join them chose not to throw their lives away, however, and we discovered a little about what had happened to the others. They didn´t run away on their own. They were tempted by someone from outside, someone who wanted to steal our cleverest unglies. We realized that this was a special circumstance" (Westerfeld 108).

I really don't know what to think about this quote and what  Dr.Cable has said to Tally because maybe is true that Shay and the others are in danger but maybe since they are the authorities they are just trying to prevent someone of reveling against them. So maybe the real problem is that  a huge group is being influenced in a good way that might change this type of idea and try to make people see that what they are doing is inhumane or something like that. However, also the people who disappeared maybe are just being influenced by someone evil and maybe then they are going to get killed. And at the end the authorities are correct and want the good for everyone.    

Conclusions and Predictions

So far this book is very interesting and has many things I want to find out. I want to know where David lives and exactly who is him and why he is living outside of the city and how he knows so much about the old cities in which barbie dolls exist and roller coasters. In the other hand, for the next chapter I predict that maybe Tally would go to find out her friend. However, since Shay told her that is a secret maybe Tally will go to find her friend in secret without anyone knowing.