90 pages • 3 hours read
Scott WesterfeldUglies
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2005A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Themes
Beauty Isn’t Everything
Content Warning: This section of the guide references and discusses physical appearance body image issues.
One of the main ideas in Uglies is that beauty is not everything. The first section of the novel establishes the importance of beauty in the novel’s utopian culture, but the final two sections poke holes in that culture’s ideology, challenging not only that society’s beliefs about physical attractiveness but also our own.
Westerfeld establishes the value of attractiveness by making beauty a rite of passage. The pretty surgery is a way of equalizing humanity, allowing almost everyone to become physically perfect. This surgery comes with advantages like strong bones and healthy immune systems, but what society emphasizes to children is their potential to have the most “biologically” attractive body possible. Tally, as the last person among her friend group to turn 16, longs for the surgery and the sense of belonging that will come with it to the point that she breaks her promise to Shay. By presenting the story from Tally’s point of view, the novel encourages readers to empathize with her in this desire.
However, Westerfeld challenges this ideology even before Tally arrives at the Smoke by focusing on the importance of identity and individuality. Shay and Tally verbally spar on several occasions about whether beauty or personality is more important, with Shay saying, “You weren’t born expecting that kind of beauty in everyone, all the time. You just got programmed into thinking everything else is ugly” (79). This idea is reinforced later in the book when Tally and Shay look at magazines filled with “ugly” celebrities. As these celebrities were presumably considered highly attractive in their own day, the episode highlights the arbitrary nature of beauty standards. More than that, the magazines give Tally a glimpse of what life could be like without pretty surgery; it is possible for “uglies” to have happy lives.
The main twist of the novel is that the pretty surgery is a front to create brain lesions that make people compliant. In the context of the novel, beauty comes at the expense of independent thought, with the homogenizing cosmetic effects of the pretty surgery representing the pressure to conform in all respects. Tally’s time in the wilderness and away from the negative influences of the city has reinforced the importance of self-sufficiency and granted her individuality and autonomy. With her new sense of identity, Tally realizes what is at stake in agreeing to become beautiful. Her newfound desire for independence fuels her ultimate decision to throw the locket in the fire: She thinks to herself “the almost unthinkable fact that she might really remain an ugly for life. But somehow not ugly at all” (267). In learning to love herself outside of her society’s conventions, she showcases the importance of characteristics beyond beauty.
The Power of Knowledge
Tally and Shay come from a society that strictly monitors and controls the flow of information. The novel provides several examples of the limitations of Tally’s education, and while not all of them are intentionally malicious, what she learns outside of the cities proves that knowledge is powerful.
Because the novel begins in the summertime, the reader does not see Tally in a classroom. However, the fact that the pretty surgery takes place on a teen’s 16th birthday implies that their education is interrupted then—paused until they age slightly and pick a career. Tally is in any case mostly uninterested in her education, instead focusing on her future as a pretty. The first addition to her knowledge comes from Dr. Cable and Special Circumstances. Tally learns that there are outside threats that, according to Dr. Cable, the city requires protection from. Tally initially finds Special Circumstances’ methods excusable; because she has internalized messaging about the importance of community safety, she accepts the role Special Circumstances play in securing it.
Tally’s worldview starts to crumble as she travels to the Smoke. She learns about invasive species for the first time when caught in a controlled burn; the burn also contradicts her school lessons about the negative effects of fire on the environment. This sense of discrepancy deepens when she reaches the Smoke and sees how Smokies interact with the world around them, contradicting many of the lessons Tally previously learned about terrible “Rusty” tendencies. Tally’s view of the social-emotional world also shifts as Shay shows her magazines containing pictures of uglies. Tally realizes that the old world was capable of happiness and joy; it was not all fighting and cruelty. This new education lays the foundation for Tally’s eventual increased confidence and self-worth, empowering her to choose the Smoke over becoming pretty.
Tally’s final education comes from David as they hoverboard back to the city in search of the last Smokies. As they travel, Tally not only learns from but also teaches David. This is the first time the novel places Tally in a position of authority and gives her something—knowledge—of non-physical value. When reaching a Rusty settlement, David teaches her about the petroleum-eating bacteria responsible for the Rusty downfall. In receiving this information, Tally questions her own society. Spurred by the knowledge she now has access to, her opposition to the city deepens.
Near the novel’s conclusion, Westerfeld builds the foundation for continued societal disruption as the Smokies spread news of the brain lesions to uglies. Sharing this information allows the Smokies to rebuild their community and challenge the authority of the cities. Information has a widespread impact, reinforcing the importance of free information for the masses.
Individuality Versus Community
One of the primary rifts between Shay and Tally as they argue over the pretty surgery hinges on identity over community. Shay believes that a person’s sense of self and personality is the most important thing—even more important than being attractive or fitting in. Tally, however, shares the mentality of most of the city: that individuality is not worth social ostracization, and that maintaining a sense of community is worth sacrificing aspects of oneself. Westerfeld thus poses the moral question of what is more important: individuality or community.
The pretty surgery represents community and the sacrifices sometimes necessary to support it. While Shay complains about how boring pretties are, Tally counters that “Breaking the rules is fun! But eventually you’ve got to do something besides being a clever little ugly” (80). She sees becoming pretty as a way of joining productive society, acknowledging that while new pretties often worry about parties more than anything else, they eventually settle down and move forward with their lives. Becoming pretty also means gaining access to a consistent community—a group of people who are accepting without question. Tally longs for a life in which she feels like everyone else because she inhabits a world in which anything that makes a person different isolates and shames them.
When Tally reaches the Smoke, however, she sees the power of individuality and personality. She observes the confidence growing in her fellow ugly teens as they spend more time away from the city, strengthening their skills and finding independence. Tally’s own freedom of choice and thought becomes more valuable than defending her home city against a perceived threat. Tally chooses herself, turning her back on the society she once so vehemently supported.
By the novel’s conclusion, the Smoke begins to rebuild, suggesting the possibility of a middle ground: a community that builds itself up by supporting the individual identities of its members. The Smoke spreads word about the lesions and renews its recruitment process, seeking to gather new members through explicit knowledge sharing. Everyone contributes to this greater good, with individual skills bolstering rebuilding efforts. To serve this new community, Tally sacrifices herself, becoming pretty to test a lesion cure. She risks her individuality for a community even though she now knows what she will truly be missing. In this, the novel suggests that a person’s service to their community must stem from their freedom and agency. Individuality and community do not have to be at odds with each other, and when they coexist, people are more at ease.
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