2.+Casual+QA

“‘Whatever those brain lesions are all about,the worst damage is down before they even pick up the knife: you’re all brainwashed into believing you’re ugly’’’ (276).

In the book __Uglies__ by Scott Westerfeld, a young girl named Tally Youngblood is about to turn 16. Turning 16 is a big part of your life in her city Uglyville, it’s when your body goes under a very dramatic operation that transforms you from a dull, lifeless, normal human into a breathtaking beauty. Then you enter New Pretty Town where everyday is fun and games.That’s all that Tally longs for to be in New Pretty Town and to become beautiful. Just weeks before her birthday Tally meets a new friend Shay. Shay is just like Tally, sneaky, fun, and daring, but unlike Tally, Shay doesn’t want to become pretty. Tally encourages her to think about being pretty and think about all the excitement, but Shay wants to be normal. Soon, Tally finds a whole new truth from Shay! Now Tally decides to either do the operation and become pretty or escape to a whole new place called the Smoke with Shay, where everyone’s looks don’t matter. Now, Tally is with David and he starts to tell her all about brain lesions and the things that are wrong with pretties after the operation. He tells Tally that she is beautiful, which Tally is surprised to hear. She tells him that she is ugly and the only beauty was after the operation, but David denies it.

David is trying to tell Tally that the people of the city want you to feel bad about yourself so you can encourage yourself to take the operation. He believes that the worst thing that can happen to you is to believe that you’re ugly. He wants to tell and show Tally that you need to forget about looks and need to look deep down into something. You’re not supposed to judge anyone by their looks, even though they are not the best looking person out there. That’s what the author is really trying to tell everyone about, that sometimes looks are not always the most important thing, it’s about who you really are as a person. David means that just before the operation, they all believe that they are ugly which actually is wrong because they are all just normal people hating themselves for who they are.

This book reminds of the book __The Giver__ by Lois Lowry. __The Giver__ book is just like __Uglies__ its a utopia rather than a dystopian, everything in their world is perfect. There are certain rules that they need to follow and many other things. The characters in both of these books are very similar Tally and Jonas are both naive to the world around them they rely on other people’s knowledge, until one day they both start to put 2 and 2 together, that’s when they relies how different and wrong everything is. In the book __The Giver__ Jonas doesn’t know about the past and the outside world, where everyone was fighting and arguing and now in their community there is no fighting or anger it’s all happiness, just like in New Pretty Town. Both of the governments don’t want the people to know about the outside world or the real truth about themselves its a secret in both books. Both of these characters escape from their world into the wild and start to see things in a different angle. That’s what this book reminds me of.