Uglies
Terri Thampan 804
I have very recently just finished reading the book titled "Uglies" by Scott Westerfeld. The main character is a girl named Tally Youngblood. She lives in a post apocalyptic time period, where the technology has improved drastically, and people of our own era are so lovingly, and I say that sarcastically, dubbed as the "Rusties". She basically lives in this cramped up little section, which they call a city (not as great as our own though), where everything follows the technology, and everything is a controlled environment. At age 16, Uglies undergo surgery that turns them from what they believe is ugly (any normal looking person) into pretties (really freaky, super beautiful, perfectly structured looking beings). Some Uglies escape so as not to turn pretty (though that is rare), and Shay, Tally's friend is one of them. Tally is then forced by Special Circumstances to find Shay, and the Ugly Runaway hide out called The Smoke, a place where everyone can be ugly passed 16.
When I switched to the story, I was in a bit of relief as the font was considerably larger than that of "Interview with The Vampire", and it was much less "adult like" in its word choices. I simply treated this as a break from complex sentences and big words, which I do enjoy at times. This book though, is just brimming with lessons.
The most obvious lesson that one can learn from this, is that you should love who you are ad how you look. The whole point of this world is to become "Pretty" and agree with everyone. Tally learns that she herself isn't as ugly as she is cultured to believe. She also learns to treasure who she is and how she looks, that people can still be pretty without having to be a "Pretty".
Something really complex that goes on in here is the way one thinks. I myself am being raised in a culture where there are people telling you the lessons of loving who you are, and accepting your own beauty. Tally was raised in an environment where the idea of looking "Ugly' or normal forever was so disgusting, and people thought themselves ugly as a normal thing. Shay was one of the few uglies that like the way she looked. When she got the operation, her whole attitude changed. The problem with that was, Maddy (a doctor who ran away/started the Smoke) made pills to help reverse the effects the operation had on its patients' brains. But Shay, with the new way of thinking, didn't want to go back to the way she was thinking. This made me think of the story "Flowers For Algernon", which is about a mentally retarded man who takes surgery for the brain to become smarter. You see his thought process through out the whole thing through journal entries he has to make as a patient of the surgery so doctors can record his brain process. You start to feel really bad, because suddenly, he starts to learn these new things, and learns more than he was able to before. He starts to understand others, he starts to understand emotions, how others think of him, and he himself starts to make his own thoughts and ideas. He could finally be independent. Then the surgery backfires, slowly his brain deteriorates and he starts to lose all the thoughts and ideas he had and turns back into the dependent mentally retarded man who once had a time where he was a genius, but all those thoughts and calculations are gone, and he cares nothing for them. You read the book, and you cry, which I most certainly did, and you cry as other characters also realize that this was once a man who loved his knowledge. You feel sad because as a human, you realize how horrible it must be to be as smart as you are now, and even smarter, and know, that you will lose all your individuality, because you will turn back the clock, and your thought process will return to that of a child's and everything that has held interest to you, will never again hold your interest. This is what happened to Shay. They have changed her brain to make her agreeable, more "Bubbly", and they have changed the way she used to think, and it hurts Tally so much because to do something to her now without her consent is still bad, because through all the surgeries, it is Shay making the decisions. Because as humans, we should value our own thought processes and the way we can look at things, and understand and feel, because some people lose that and some people can never experience that. Now excuse me as I go read Flowers For Algernon again and bawl my eyes out.
Terri,
ReplyDeleteI agree that everybody should love the way they are and how they look. This world is just bad. A world where you're told that you're "ugly" and that you need to undergo a surgery to become beautiful. That type of world is just messed up. People should value the way they are. They should like the way they look. Also, who would want to be raised in a world where normal looks are considered "ugly" and everybody is supposed to agree with one another? I certainly wouldn't. I would rather live in a world where we can think freely and treasure they way we look and are. Nobody is allowed to control what we think, the way we look, and the way we are.
- Jo
I agree with you, and thank you for commenting. If you want my whole thinking, please refer to Angel's reply, as my hand hurts and I'm too lazy to keep typing. Thanks again!
Delete-Terri :3
Terri,
ReplyDeleteI think Jo there is right, no one is bad or "ugly", no matter what you or others think, and having surgery isn't the answer for the low self-esteem you have about your looks. I also don't think people should have others tell them what to think, it's a free place, everyone is entitled to what they wanna think or act, no one else has the right mind to try and control you. I certainly don't like others telling me what I can't think or can't act. (It's a pain when they try.) Also, you made me want to read "Flowers of Algernon" and this series, maybe I should, anyway, cya!
~Angel
Angel, *Note- whe I talk about rulers, I mean the bosses of the world for Uglies*
DeleteFunny you should say you want to read "Flowers for Algernon" because you thought it was boring when I showed it to you today, haha. But yes, it would be quite boring to live in a world where everyone agrees with one another. But I must look in the perspective of the people ruling this little world, it would me much easier, less fights, and we would basically have global harmony. Would that make it so that the Ruler of this world is the one criminal? These thoughts make me think back to the manga (which is also an anime) called Death Note. Light Yagami finds a notebook that belonged to a shinigami (in Japanese this means Death God, or Soul Reaper/Grim Reaper) and if he writes down someone's name in the book they will die; well since everyone has to die, they will die more immediately. Light, is the son of a police man, and so he uses the Death Note (the notebook that kills people when their names are written inside of it) to kill of criminals. He obviously goes crazy, but is a very smart boy, and wants to make himself the god of a new age, where all criminals are punished. Law Enforcers try to capture Light, though he goes by a code name: Kira. It's a very complex story line and very interesting, but there are people who agree with Light's stand point, and there are some who don't. Some people might agree that making everyone "Pretty" is a good idea, but think of it, wouldn't it all just be fake? I mean, many people act good so they won't be labeled criminals and don't get "Judged" by Kira, but is that truly how they are in their hearts? How can we distinguish one's mind, and heart? Their ideas and thinking, and label them good or evil, when the world is clearly full of grays, the in between. In the end, according to the thought process, wouldn't Kira be a criminal, he claims to be justice, but does justice have the right to take away the life of another? The same, the Rulers of this world (Uglie's world) claim to be making the perfect world, but wouldn't they just be the only imperfect ones, because they never had the surgery, and can feel those negative emotions, I mean, how else would they be able to run the world if they didn't have those negative emotions to fuel them along as well. This cycle of the perfect world would break if it was truly completed, because then Light would have to kill himself to follow this "justice" he thinks he preaches about, and then criminals would once again be roaming around unafraid; and in Uglies, the bosses would have to take the surgery to also become perfect, and then they wouldn't want to, or have the ability to keep preforming the surgery to make others that way as well. What really connects both of these things (manga/anime and the book) is that they have opposing forces, like L, the greatest detective in the Death Note world, is trying to capture Kira (Light), because he believes that he is doing his own justice, and that Maddy and Az, the doctors who ran away and started the Smoke, ran away to help other Uglies have a shelter so they could still be themselves because they thought that was perfect enough. It's amazing how different our thoughts can be, and it's quite fun, and a little bit aggravating when you think about how opinions and ideas can differ, aggravating being when you have someone disagree with you at times. Well, I sure did think a lot and type a lot, so Jo's response will definitely be shorter. Thanks for the Comment!
-TERRI IS SUPER AWSUM :3
This is really great Terri. I love especially how you involve the reader into what you are saying rather than just writing to your audience straightforward. You make your lessons really come to life as you describe the book "Flowers for Algernon" and how sad it is. I read "Uglies" and I never imagined how sad their situation really is in the book untill you so carfully laid out all of the details and backed it up with evidence here, in this post. You use some fabulous phrases to describe things. One of my favorites is when you say, " This book though, is just brimming with lessons." That shows just how much you thought about that book and you were able to capture what it really meant and what it is saying about our life. You bring up a very interesting point about how being ugly in the book is like being normal in our life. I never thought about it that way when I read it. I just thought that they were genetically ugly. But now I understand the book much better, so thank you for that. The whole post is brimming :) with amazing ideas and examples that make your post fun and interesting to read.
ReplyDeleteThanks xD I don't try to write it so it's interactive, I just simply write what goes through my mind at the time, but thank you so much for your review xD
Delete-Terri