Uglies: A Young Adult Novel That Refuses
To Be Tamed
Young Adult
literature has often been criticized for being too “fluffy” and void of real
substance. Any critic with this view has unfortunately never read Scott
Westerfeld’s novel Uglies, which is highly critical of both the current
society we live in as well as Utopian visions of the future. Westerfeld’s novel
is a politically charged analysis of American societal ideals with a
kid-friendly plot that keeps readers hooked from the first page to the last
letter. His critiques are varied, ranging from an analysis of society’s
obsession with beauty, unsustainable environmental practices, the hazard of
oil-dependence, and the danger in sacrificing the voice of the individual in
order to achieve a Utopian society. ALERT: Spoilers follow.
What is Beauty?
A Critique of Idealized Perfection
Tally is a
rebellious fifteen year old Ugly whose only ambition is to make it to her
sixteenth birthday. At that age, all citizens undergo a surgery to become
physically perfect and shed their Ugly skin. Literally. Bones are crushed and
regrown, noses are snipped and reshaped, and only then you are considered a
Pretty. Tally longs to become a Pretty, whose sole purpose in life is to have
fun and go to parties.
Not long before Tally’s operation,
she encounters a character named Shay. Tally is entranced by Shay’s carefree,
anti-authority attitude, but cannot grasp the concept that Shay does not want
to have the operation. Who wouldn’t want to be Pretty? It is with the introduction
of Shay that readers begin to become aware of Westerfeld’s critique of societal
beauty standards. Shay not only does not want the operation, she questions why
it is better to give up the blemishes that mark her as an individual for an
idea of beauty that is scientifically dictated. The formula for beauty was
determined by averaging together the most pleasant types of faces in order to
find a median. The operation ensures that all citizens are as close to this
median as possible, which creates a population of exceptionally beautiful
people who all look relatively the same.
At this point, Westerfeld’s critique
is obvious. In order to achieve a societally regulated idea of beauty, one must
give up their very identity. By questioning why people should shun their flaws,
Shay is questioning the idea of conformity. She does not want to assimilate and
runs away rather than undergo the operation, while Tally decides to stay.
But something is wrong. Tally is not
allowed to go through with her operation and instead is taken to a place called
Special Operations, which citizens joke about but don’t actually think exists.
The agents tell her that she must find her friend Shay, who has joined a band
of rebels in a place called the Smoke. Tally must find them and betray their
hiding place in order to become Pretty. Special Operations makes it clear that
no one is allowed to live outside of the city, away from their authority.
The reasons for
this become clear once Tally finds the rebels and learns that every single one
of them is Ugly, even the adults. They have in their possession a trove of
magazines which depict adult movie stars who are considered the height of
beauty from the past era. Tally notices that many of them are close to the
current idea of Pretty, but fall just short. This detail suggests an evolution
from the cult following of Hollywood beauty into the systematic regulation of
beauty that exists in Tally’s culture, a direct attack on our society’s current
obsession with perfection.
Tally’s main crisis
begins when she meets David and begins to fall in love with him. David is Ugly,
and Tally comes from a place where love is determined purely by physical
attraction. As her loves grows, she even begins to see David as an attractive
boy, rather than the repulsive creature she thought he was upon first meeting
him. She learns to feel emotions deeper than purely superficial lust.
Tally also
learns the true nature of the operation that the citizens are forced to
undergo. David’s parents, who were once doctors in the city, had discovered
curious legions on their patients’ brains that only manifested after the
operation. After researching, they discovered that the legions were located on
the part of the brain that affects decision making as well as critical thinking,
effectively rendering the patient into a docile sheep. They were startled to
discover that these legions were intentional. However, before they can
react, Special Operations destroyed their research and they were forced to flee
the City lest they were made to forget what they learned.Scott Westerfeld structures an entire host of critiques around his central theme of what it means to be pretty.
Environmentalism and Sustainable Energy
Environmentalism and Sustainable Energy
The
text constantly refers to the previous society as the “Rusties” because of
their dependence on petroleum and steel. Now that they are gone, all of their
buildings have gone to rust. They did not have an efficient energy system and
paid for it with their lives.
Technological Dependence
Westerfeld also critiques society's growing dependence on technology by highlighting the dangers of over dependence. This critique is evident alongside his critique of beauty because it was technological advancement that allowed the operations to be performed. Citizens devote their lives to pleasure once they become Pretty, and have their brains genetically altered to become more docile. This is similar to the situation in Feed, where people have transmitters implanted in their brains that allow them to surf the web and buy things instantly. In Feed, Titus has the ability to learn about any information he wants, but he does not because he is so overloaded with information that he only ever actively seeks out things that will make him happy. Titus's culture is obsessed with satisfying their pleasure circuits, which is what is happening in Uglies. Pretty individuals are only interested in parties and having fun, and do not care about much else beyond that.
Technological Dependence
Westerfeld also critiques society's growing dependence on technology by highlighting the dangers of over dependence. This critique is evident alongside his critique of beauty because it was technological advancement that allowed the operations to be performed. Citizens devote their lives to pleasure once they become Pretty, and have their brains genetically altered to become more docile. This is similar to the situation in Feed, where people have transmitters implanted in their brains that allow them to surf the web and buy things instantly. In Feed, Titus has the ability to learn about any information he wants, but he does not because he is so overloaded with information that he only ever actively seeks out things that will make him happy. Titus's culture is obsessed with satisfying their pleasure circuits, which is what is happening in Uglies. Pretty individuals are only interested in parties and having fun, and do not care about much else beyond that.
By
undergoing the pretty operation, the residents are also undergoing an
operation that permanently alters their brain, making them more docile and
thoughtless. While everyone willingly undergoes this operation, the residents
do not know that their brain is being damaged in this way. This theme asks
readers to examine their own society and analyze the ways that our current
obsession with beauty, as well as the entertainment industry in general, dictate
the way that we feel about ourselves. This is similar to the situation in the Chocolate War, where readers are asked to analyze cultural power dynamics. Jerry resists the Vigils by refusing to sell the chocolates, and he is punished by being nearly beaten to death. Similarly, when Shay runs away to the Smoke, Tally is sent to find her or she will be punished by not being allowed to have the operation, or the ability to conform to the rest of the citizens. The citizens in the Smoke who resist arrest are also beaten and murdered, just as Jerry was, because they will not conform to the authoritarian culture.
Biological warfare
Biological warfare
The
Rusties relied on petroleum as their energy source. Because it was their sole
energy source, it was easily targeted in order to destroy the society. A virus
was engineered to attack petroleum, causing it to explode when it contacted
air. This caused the deaths of many Rusties, leaving them powerless and easily
controlled. This brings up not only the issue of biological warfare, but of the
ease of warfare to be used as a tool by a government in order to gain power
over a populace.
