Ashley Hanlon

Ashley Hanlon
May 3, 2013
Block: B
Uglies
Scott Westerfeld
Dystopian
Just Right
400

1. In the book Uglies, by Scott Westerfeld.  David doesn’t like how Tally must get brain damaged, but Tally tries to explain to him that she has to do this because she feels so guilty.  In the book Tally says that on a scale of one to ten of how guilty she feels, she feels like an eleven.  So, Tally decides to tell David the truth about why she decided to come to the smoke.  Maddy already knew the truth because Dr. Cable had told her.  But David did not already know, so when he finds out he runs off.  Tally says that David will be the one to rescue her after she had become pretty.  By now, Tally has written herself a letter explaining why she’s doing this so that when she returns she will have already given her consent to the experimental pills.  Shay is also going to the city.  She is doing this because she too feels guilty.  Shay just feels guilty because she ruined Tally’s chances of becoming pretty.  But, on the brighter side, uglies who become pretties but have a criminal record automatically become very popular and the two of them will go straight to the top of the pretty social ladder.  I’m wondering if when Tally and Shay go into town, will Tally become so brain dead and not remember anything or will the pills work and she can still be herself?

2. So far I really like this book.  I love how technologically advanced it is and its fun to read about because Tally and Shay’s world is so different from ours.  Even though we have social classes they are nothing compared how extreme the social classes in their world are.  I think that in general I like the whole plot of the book, its just so different from any other book I’ve read.  Westerfeld also writes some smaller details that keep you engaged as well.  Like, the hover boards, their special bracelets, and so much more.  In the beginning of the book, I has predicted that Tally would just be conflicted as to becoming pretty or staying ugly with Shay.  I had no idea that Scott Westerfeld would write in a whole new town of its own, The Smoke.  I would definitely recommend this book to someone else and I hope that the ending is just as great as the rest of the book.

3. In the book Uglies a very large and obvious theme would be society and class.  The characters in the story are divided up between who is pretty and who is not.  Westerfeld makes it very obvious who is where on the social ladder.  He even created towns for each of the classes-Uglyville, New Pretty Town, and Crumblyville.  In the story, the separation between classes is to the extreme.  So much, that even when Peris turned pretty he could not interact with Tally at all, simply because she is still an ugly.

4.   I would have to say that my favorite character would be Shay.  Shay is one of Tally’s on and off best friends.  I love how unpredictable she is and she is also a rebel child.  Which makes the story more interesting.  Her and Tally first meet when they run into each other when Tally is running back form New Pretty Town.  Shay informs Tally about the Smoke, David, and all the other people there.  She’s the one who got Tally interested in it.  Shay only wants to go to the Smoke because of David and also because she likes to do things differently from everyone else, and going to the Smoke makes her different.

5.  My least favorite character is David.  He was born into being a Smokie because of his parents, Maddy and Az.  The only reason he is my least favorite character is because when he runs off when he finds out the original reason Tally came to the Smoke, he didn’t even give her a chance to explain to him why.  Growing up for Tally, all she was ever told was how great it is to be pretty, and how much better life is.  Everyone she knows (with the exception of Shay) aspire to become pretty.  So for her to want that too is perfectly ok.  So when David blames her for that its really not her fault, it’s the society she lives in makes all “pretty people” seem to be the best people, and in this story they are.  She didn’t know what it was like to be a ‘Smokie’ so in her mind turning in the smokies to become pretty seems like a fair deal, after all everyone wants to be pretty.  She had made her decision before she made any friendship with anyone there, before she started dating David, and before Maddy and Az told her about the dangers of the brain lesions that come with being pretty.  So David had no right to act the way he did when he found out why Tally had come, it really wasn’t her fault.  And he will never understand that because he doesn’t know what its like to live in either Uglyville or New Pretty Town.  The only life he knows is the Smoke.

6.  My prediction for the ending of this book is that Tally and Shay will go into the city but something might go wrong.  They may not be able to turn pretty, or Dr. Cable will give them another task to complete before the procedure is done.  Because of Dr. Cable’s cold personality she will possibly use Tally and Shay to do other things.  And also use the pretty surgery to make sure they do it.  After all, being pretty is all they ever wanted.