Tally In Uglies

All an ugly has ever dreamt of is to be pretty. What does is mean to be pretty? Does it mean just a symmetrical face, exquisite bone structure, and flawless skin? Or is there so much more that is all kept a secret? In Scott Westerfeld’s novel, Uglies, Tally Youngblood is just another ugly longing for her sixteenth birthday on which she is to turn pretty. All is well until she finds out that being pretty isn’t really as beautiful as it seems. Throughout the novel the theme of appearance showed great importance to many of the characters. Having beautiful features is not what’s truly important in life. Having a beautiful heart and mind is what actually matters.
Appearance was the underlying theme of the story for many reasons. Tally was one of the characters who delineated appearance as something very important to her. The society that Tally was raised in taught the children to look up to the pretties. The thought …show more content…
David is very different from Tally and Shay. Though they all get along just fine, David is disparate because he grew up in the Smoke. Because David was born in the Smoke, he has a contrasting mindset to one like Tally’s or even Shay’s. The girls were born into a society brainwashed into thinking that being pretty was the only acceptable way of life. When David was born, his parents and fellow Smokies didn’t put any pressure on him to improve his physical appearance, but they acknowledged him for who he was. Scott Westerfeld depicted the divergence of the city kids’ home and family lives to David’s home and family life in the Smoke very adequately. David is very close with his family, and he calls his parents “mom” and “dad”, unlike Tally who calls her parents by their first names. In the city, Tally did not live with her parents because of the separation of Uglies and Pretties. David can go to see his parents whenever he feels compelled to. This displays how appearance can even affect