Slipping away to a fictional reality: a literary analysis on Uglies
Imagine a world free of poverty, where the idea of a patriarchal society is laughed upon, and everyone is breathtakingly beautiful. It's a world where the flaws of humanity are stripped away in the exchange for a world filled with hoverboards and parties . This so-called utopia mirrors the society represented in Scott Westerfeld's Uglies, which criticizes both modern-day society as well as envisions the future of the where society will be heading towards. The novel follows the story of Tally Youngblood, a fifteen-year-old “ugly”, desperately waiting for her sixteenth birthday when she will finally undergo the surgery that will transform her into a “pretty.” Westerfield's critiques …show more content…
The characters in the novel frequently question the habits of the previous civilization before them, the “Rusties”, who are americans in the 2000s. They cut down trees, pollute the air, and overpopulate the entire planet. The rusties main source of fuel was petroleum, which was easily targeted and eventually destroyed the entire civilization. Tally’s school and “teachers always made the Rusties out to be so stupid. You almost couldn’t believe people lived like this, burning trees to clear land, burning oil for heat and power, setting the atmosphere on fire with their weapons” (63). They would laugh and joke at the very idea of such a stupid civilization to ever exist. Though Tally’s society views the Rusties as a dumb peculiar group of people, we however see them as behaving perfectly fine since we are currently living in the the era of the rusties. The destruction of Rusties era, shed light to the very important issue of sustainable living. If our current ways of living continue, eventually society would start to cascade into the nightmare Westerfeld …show more content…
The fictional society presented in the novel obscures the perception of reality which enforces a rigid structure of what is deemed to be perfect. The novel addresses society's need to create beautiful people, the dangerous consequences of unsustainable living, and the sacrifice of one's voice in order to create an organized society ultimately proving that nothing perfect. Though Uglies is set in a distant futuristic society, the novel uncovers the untold truth about society. Westerfield unravels the tangled string of beauty, showing that it isn't our similarities that make us beautiful but our different qualities that make us truly pretty. Our own desire to fit in with the crowd is the culprit of our individuality being stolen from
Imagine a world free of poverty, where the idea of a patriarchal society is laughed upon, and everyone is breathtakingly beautiful. It's a world where the flaws of humanity are stripped away in the exchange for a world filled with hoverboards and parties . This so-called utopia mirrors the society represented in Scott Westerfeld's Uglies, which criticizes both modern-day society as well as envisions the future of the where society will be heading towards. The novel follows the story of Tally Youngblood, a fifteen-year-old “ugly”, desperately waiting for her sixteenth birthday when she will finally undergo the surgery that will transform her into a “pretty.” Westerfield's critiques …show more content…
The characters in the novel frequently question the habits of the previous civilization before them, the “Rusties”, who are americans in the 2000s. They cut down trees, pollute the air, and overpopulate the entire planet. The rusties main source of fuel was petroleum, which was easily targeted and eventually destroyed the entire civilization. Tally’s school and “teachers always made the Rusties out to be so stupid. You almost couldn’t believe people lived like this, burning trees to clear land, burning oil for heat and power, setting the atmosphere on fire with their weapons” (63). They would laugh and joke at the very idea of such a stupid civilization to ever exist. Though Tally’s society views the Rusties as a dumb peculiar group of people, we however see them as behaving perfectly fine since we are currently living in the the era of the rusties. The destruction of Rusties era, shed light to the very important issue of sustainable living. If our current ways of living continue, eventually society would start to cascade into the nightmare Westerfeld …show more content…
The fictional society presented in the novel obscures the perception of reality which enforces a rigid structure of what is deemed to be perfect. The novel addresses society's need to create beautiful people, the dangerous consequences of unsustainable living, and the sacrifice of one's voice in order to create an organized society ultimately proving that nothing perfect. Though Uglies is set in a distant futuristic society, the novel uncovers the untold truth about society. Westerfield unravels the tangled string of beauty, showing that it isn't our similarities that make us beautiful but our different qualities that make us truly pretty. Our own desire to fit in with the crowd is the culprit of our individuality being stolen from