Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Uglies, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Conformity vs. Individuality
Beauty, Science, and Influence
The Natural World, History, and Growing Up
Friendship and Loyalty
Summary
Analysis
Tally and Shay watch the dorky new 12-year-old uglies file in. Tally tries to remember what it was like being 12. She remembers that everything seemed big. The new uglies stick together and look simultaneously awed and terrified. Summer ends in two weeks, which means that all of Tally’s age group will be gone and the next group will start school. Shay asks if their plan is really going to work, and Tally assures her that the stolen bungee jacket will work even if there’s no real emergency. Shay sighs and pulls on an oversize basketball jersey over the jacket, and Tally remarks that Shay looks good, like she’s gained weight. When Shay scowls, Tally thinks of how Shay sometimes says she doesn’t care about getting the operation. Tally points out that this scheme they’re planning was Shay’s idea.
Being able to think back to how she felt at age 12 is a useful and admirable exercise, as it allows Tally to develop a sense of empathy for these young uglies. Meanwhile, mentioning in passing that Shay sometimes talks about not wanting the operation shows that Tally isn’t taking Shay seriously. For Tally, becoming pretty is only one way to grow up, so it’s unthinkable that Shay would actually mean something like this. In this way, Tally isn’t being a great friend, as she’s not fully supporting what Shay wants to do with her life.
Themes
Shay and Tally hide on the top floor of the library, waiting for the uglies to quiet down in the work area below. Shay draws big eyebrows on her face as Tally pulls on a brown wig and a big plastic nose. With these disguises on, the girls pretend to loudly fight over a book which attracts the uglies’ attention. Tally hits Shay with the book, sending her flying over the railing, and the uglies scream as Shay bounces. Both Shay and Tally race for the door and meet back at the dorm, thrilled by their own antics. Shay compliments Tally’s fake nose, but Tally pulls it off and says it’s no use being uglier than usual. Sharply, Shay says that Tally isn’t ugly, but Tally says they’re both ugly. She points out that Shay’s eyebrows don’t match at all, and Shay falls silent.
For Tally, it’s not a big deal to point out all of her and her friends’ imperfections. She doesn’t mean to be insulting when she points out that Shay’s eyebrows don’t match—she’s just parroting what she’s heard all her life about what makes someone beautiful. This, of course, doesn’t change the fact that Shay is still obviously hurt by Tally’s comment. Notably, Shay also isn’t using “ugly” to mean what Tally means. Shay has already shifted to believe that she’s beautiful the way she is, so she means “ugly” in an aesthetic and emotional sense, whereas Tally uses the word to describe an entire phase of life. In this way, it’s clear that Tally feels she is entirely defined by ugliness, whereas Shay sees ugliness as just one of many characteristics an individual can possess.
Themes
The girls change to go swimming. They splash into the river and Shay says she’s serious: Tally’s nose and eyes aren’t ugly. Tally says that according to biology, she is ugly. Shay asks if Tally really believes there’s only one way to look, but Tally insists that there’s nothing to believe—pretties look wonderful, and they don’t really all look the same. Tally insists that the pretties don’t look like freaks, even as Shay suggests that the uglies are the normal ones. Shay mentions David again, which annoys Tally. She’s not sure David is real, but Shay seems obsessed with him. Shay points out that Tally has been programmed to thinking non-pretty people are ugly—she wasn’t born thinking that. Tally argues that the pretty operation makes things fair so that nobody loses.
Again, Shay demonstrates that she’s already questioning what their government tells them is scientific and true, something that points to her maturity and her expanded perspective. This shines through especially when Shay suggests that Tally has been programmed. With this, she insists that beauty is about culture more than it is about biology—that is, finding so-called “pretty” people beautiful is something that’s socially conditioned rather than naturally ingrained in a person. Tally’s response, however, begins to explain why her society has pretty people in the first place: it’s supposed to create a utopia where everyone is equal.
Themes
Shay points out that some people do lose, and Tally shudders at the thought of the uglies-for-life, people for whom the operation doesn’t work. Tally assures Shay that the operation will work for her, but Shay says that she’s sick of the city and doesn’t want to party all day. She insists that pretties don’t have any imagination to sneak around and have fun. Tally snaps that doing tricks and breaking rules is fun, but that eventually they have to become more than clever uglies: they have to become adults. Tally suggests that uglies fight because they’re ugly and unhappy, and she declares that she’s going to look like a real person so that she can be happy. Tally accuses Shay of being afraid to grow up, and Shay swims away.
Tally’s retort makes it clear that she believes pretties are happy solely because they look like everyone else—in other words, she believes that unhappiness stems from difference, and that difference is an intrinsic part of being a teenager. Conspicuously, she doesn’t express any possibility that the uglies are unhappy simply because they’re teenagers and are still developing. Importantly, unhappiness not something that would normally be cured with plastic surgery, so this implies that there’s more to the surgery than just changing one’s appearance.
Themes
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