Uglies Essay - 902 Words

Chelsea Dowding-Hopkins Year 9 – Mrs Graham INS essay Uglies by Scott Westerfield One of the main themes in Scott Westerfield’s text Uglies is the conflict teenagers have with where they stand in society and learning to respect and value themselves. Using examples from the text compare them with today’s world for teenagers. Word count: Date Due: Uglies illustrates many issues that young teenagers will go through in life. The reader has an insight of three main characters and their struggles to fit in to certain societies and others. They are Tally, Shay and David. â€Å"Is it not good to make a society full of beautiful people?† (p.1), the first line of the text Uglies foreshadows exactly what the main theme of the book†¦show more content†¦Westerfield perfectly portrays how we, as a society, see beauty. We see beauty as perfection, not a line out of place, and this judgement came about due to our desire for perfection. When picking up any magazine the front page is bound to be altered to show us how we should look. Gone are the days where voluptuous, well rounded women are considered to be goddesses. People in today’s society see models and movie stars starve themselves until they believe they are beautiful and Westerfield plays on this throughout the entire text. Tally sees herself as ugly beca use she does not notice anything good about her, until she meets David. When anyone compliments Tally she refuses to believe it as the truth, and it is unlikely that she has ever felt attractive in her whole life. Westerfield only describes Tally the way she sees herself and although it is in the third person the reader is given certain knowledge about what goes on through Tally’s mind which the reader does not have for any other character. At the beginning of the text the reader is led to believe that Pretties have the idealistic life; beautiful with not a care in the world but the reader may feel discomfort with how superficial it all seems. Nothing is wrong with the way Tally looks and the reader can presume that she is quite naturally attractive after receiving several compliments from twoShow MoreRelatedEssay on The Ugly Duckling and Standards of Beauty Today1534 Words   |  7 Pagesâ€Å"The Ugly Duckling† and Standards of Beauty Today Jennifer Murrish Kaplan University HU300-01RP682 â€Å"The Ugly Duckling† and Standards of Beauty Today Of all the stories I have heard throughout the years there is one that I can think of which really stands out in my mind. The story I chose is, â€Å"The Ugly Duckling† by Hans Christian Anderson, first published in Denmark, November 11, 1843. 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