Glossary

1. Bubbly - A pretty slang term that means cool, or hip.

"That shirt is so bubbly!"

2.Bogus - A pretty slang term that means lame, or boring.

"Dr. Cable is being really bogus"

3.Smokie - A runaway ugly who now lives in the smoke.

"the smokies all laughed"

4.Minder - A software that is used in almost everything that alerts the authorities if someone is breaking the rules.

"It was easy to trick the minder into thinking I was sleeping"

5.Hoverboard - a long board with fins on the bottom, that uses electromagnets to lift itself off the ground.

"I fell off my hoverboard twice today."

Part 4

Journal Entries

1.Tally -      Today was my sixteenth birthday, the day that I was supposed to become pretty, along with Shay, but when I went to the hospital for the operation, they said that something had gone wrong with my operation. I was taken in a hovercar by a cruel looking pretty to a place with putrid coloured walls called Special Circumstances, In this place I met a woman named Dr. Cable. She told me that Shay had run away, and that they needed my help to find her and the rest of the people at the smoke, I told them that I couldn't help them, because I had made a promise. Dr. Cable seems to think that I lied to her when I told her this, because she dismissed me, telling me that if I didn't help her, I would be ugly for the rest of my life.

     When I got back to the dorm, the younger uglies had been taken away on a school trip, probably to prevent them from seeing me, from knowing right away that I didn't have the operation. When I got home, I found that the minders had not found out about the problem early enough, and all of my stuff had been recycled, and the room had been returned to it's default state.

     The younger uglies came back later in the afternoon, and i hoped that they would not see me, but a few saw me through the window, and I quickly hid from their view. The other uglies all fell silent when they walked by my room, some of them giggling. I decided to skip lunch to avoid further embarrassment, and went to get food after everybody had left, I found it sitting on a table with my name on it. I quickly ran to my room with the plate, a good thing to, because the moment I got to my room, I started sobbing.

     I finished eating the food on the plate, and my parents came to the dorm to console me. they hugged me and told me that they would get to the bottom of this problem as soon as possible. I told them about the Special Circumstances, and about what Dr. Cable had told me, and they told me that I should just do what she wanted me to do, and I would be pretty in no time. I don't know what I should do, if I help find shay, I will be breaking a promise, but if I don't I wont be able to become pretty. Maybe if I find shay, it will be good for her, because it will put her back on the right track. 

     I chose to write from the point of view of Tally Youngblood, because she is the main character of the book. The entire book is centred around her, and is written from her point of view, so I have a very good picture of how she thinks and feels about certain things. This journal will no doubt be the least difficult one to write, because a lot of Tally's opinions are already set out, however I still think that it was important to write a journal entry about her. 

     I think that Tally was very important for the development of the story, but not just because she was the main character. Tally was important because many events would not have happened the same way if she had not been part of the story, Shay would have run away to the smoke even if Tally did not exist, but if Tally did not exist, special circumstances would not have found a way to locate the smoke, and the smoke would have gone on being a peaceful village in the forest, rather than being destroyed and forced to relocate to the rusty ruins.

2.Shay -      Today later in the evening, I decided to go across the river to new pretty town, to spy on some of my older friends who already turned pretty. When I got over there, there were a lot more hovercars than usual, and wardens were walking up and down the streets, looking for somebody. While I was hiding, I saw someone crawling through the bushes, and they must have spotted me too, because they stopped where they were, and looked at me, after a while, they said "I'm sorry". The person was a girl, and as I stepped out of the shadows, she revealed herself as well, she was an ugly too.

     I introduced myself to her as Shay, and she told me that her name was Tally, and that she had been at a party wearing a pig mask, I still can't believe that! She said that she had been there to see someone, one of her friends who had turned pretty, but she was about to get caught, so she set off the fire alarm and jumped off the roof in a bungee jacket, bouncing almost all the way to here. We decided to  leave, and I suggested hoverboarding across like I had come, but she said that she would rather cross a bridge.

     A few days later, I decided to teach Tally how to hoverboard, she had a lot of trouble in the beginning, but after a while, she got really good at it. On the same day, we found out that we had the same birthday, and Tally got really excited, saying that we would not have to leave each other at all, not even for a full day, because we would turn pretty together. I really should tell her that I don't want to turn pretty, and that I am going to the smoke, maybe she will want to come with me. 

     I chose to write about Shay in this journal entry because she is also a very important character, but her opinions are largely hidden from the reader, and so I thought it would be interesting and enlightening to write from her point of view. I thought that this time in her life was a good place to write because, it was in the time just before the journal entry that I wrote for Tally, and so I thought that it would make sense to show her point of view, and her motivation for doing certain things. 

     I think that Shay was very important for the story, because she taught Tally how to ride a hoverboard, which proved invaluable later in the book. I also think that Shay was important, because if she wasn't in the book, and didn't run away, Tally would have not had any problem with her operation and would have become pretty. Also, if Shay had not existed and Tally had become pretty, the smoke would have remained were it was. 

3.Dr. Cable -      Today I was informed that one of the uglies, Shay, had run away last night, no doubt to the smoke, where her older friends had run off to months before. I had been watching over her and her new friend, Tally Youngblood for much of the summer months, hoping to find clues about where her friends had run off to. They mostly acted like any other ugly, playing childish tricks, sneaking out, and hoverboarding; and after a few weeks of observing, I began to think that Shay might not have known. I decided to continue to observe them, because she still might figure something out, or try and convince Tally into coming to "the smoke" with her. 

     I was certain that Shay didn't want to turn pretty like Tally, because she seemed completely reluctant to anything that had to do with becoming pretty. She didn't make morphos like most uglies did, and often said things that suggested that she didn't like the idea of becoming pretty. Her description of the operation is incredibly accurate, far more accurate than most uglies, this is troubling, because it means that she knows every detail about it, even the unsavoury details of the operation.

     I know that is is only a matter of time, and that sooner or later Shay will run away to the smoke, with or without Tally. If Tally chooses not to accompany Shay to the smoke, I intend to use her to locate the smoke, because I am sure that Shay will tell her something about it.

     I chose to write about Dr. Cable because she is such an unusual character. Normally when there is a villain in a novel like this, the reader is to focused on the evil of the character, and doesn't give any time to think about their point of view. With this journal entry, I am able to express opinions and views not normally considered by a reader.

     Dr. Cable is a very important character in the book, because she is the other end of the events in the book. Tally's operation was prevented because Dr. Cable wanted to use her to find Shay, Tally went after Shay because of this as well. When Tally threw the locket into the fire, it led Special circumstances to the smoke, a locket given to Tally by Dr. Cable.

4.David -      Today I met Shay's friend, Tally Youngblood. She was taken to the baldtop by the rangers, where we met her, she hugged Shay and told her about how she almost got burned alive by the fire. We found a bug on her hoverboard, and she immediately started to deny that she had put it there, almost as if she were expecting us to find a bug, but then again, she could just be shocked from the fire. we walked back to the smoke, while a couple of us went off to take the tracker far away from the baldtop. 

     On the way to the smoke, we explained to her the basic way things are run in the smoke. We told her that she should save anything she brought with her, even food, because it could be used to trade with. after a while, we scanned the environment, and found that we were not being followed, and so welcomed Tally into the smoke, we rode our hoverboards along the river until we got the the valley where the smoke is, and went down to it. 

     Later in the day, we had lunch with Tally, where she told us about her journey to the smoke and then went out to work. We got there and began working on removing pieces of the track to make hoverpaths. Tally caught on quickly, and seemed to like it a lot, and in a few hours, we had removed a large amount of the track from the ground. 

    

     I decided to write from David's point of view, because up until now, I have only written from a girl's point of view, and I wanted to write something from the point of view of a guy. I think that this time of David's life is important because, it is the first time that he meets Tally, and before then he is not really included as much, and also because this part of the book changes Tally's mindset entirely. 

     I think that David is a very important character in the story, because he changes the way Tally thinks about the government, and special circumstances. He is completely unaffected by the government's influence, because he was born in the smoke, he has never seen a pretty, and so he has a far less biased opinion about certain things, and he has self-confidence that Tally has never seen before. 

Quotations

1."Because two weeks of killer sunburn is worth a lifetime of being gorgeous" 

     I think that this helps highlight the tone of the beginning of the book, when Tally is completely concerned about becoming pretty. It describes perfectly the government's influence on her, and how she has no idea that she doesn't need an operation to be pretty. Tally absorbed everything that the government told her, and so, she is willing to do anything to have herself "fixed" 

     This is a perfect example of how easily the government influences people, and show more reasons why the government wants the smoke to be found and destroyed/ended. The people in the smoke are often smarter, and more independent of what other people think of them, and so the government wants to eliminate a threat that they could cause.   

2."There it is, home"

     I chose this  quote as my second quotation, because it marks the beginning of the time in which Tally changes her mind about being pretty. At first Tally only thinks about activating her tracker and getting back to the city as soon as possible, but over time, She starts to warm to the idea of the smoke, and how everything is run there. As Tally get's used to the smoke, and having to make things and work, the smoke truly does become her home.

     I think that this Quote represents this part of the book very well, because it takes place in the smoke, and it also goes into more depth with Tally's inner conflict between whether or not she wants to become pretty. I think that Tally just thinks that she wants to become pretty, because it takes almost no time for her to turn around completely and want to stay in the smoke, also, if she truly wanted to become a pretty, she would have activated her tracker in the library. 

3."I found that there were complications from the anesthetic used in the operation. Tiny lesions in the brain. Barely visible, even with the best machines"

     I think that this quote is very important in the story, because it enlightens you on so many things. It explains why the pretties seem so silly, why pretties don't visit their ugly friends, and why the smoke exists at all. This knowledge is the greatest factor in why Tally decides to stay in the smoke, no matter how much she wants to become pretty, she doesn't want to spend the rest of her life brain damaged. Tally tried to destroy the locket that Dr. Cable gave her so that she could stay in the smoke forever.

     When Tally found out that Dr. Cable had turned Shay into a pretty, Tally felt nothing but regret, because it had all been her fault. Learning about these lesions, Tally also realised why pretties were so confident that things would turn out okay. She also realised why her parents had always been able to reassure her.

4."yeah, Dr. C can be a major pain. it's kind of a relief though"

     This quote being my last one, I decided to use a quote later in the book than all of the other ones. This quote is said by Shay after Tally finds her, and discovers that she is pretty, as you can see the lesions have seriously altered her opinions. Before Shay became pretty, she hated the city, especially after living in the smoke for months, and she fought back against the specials more than anyone else, which is why it is clear that the operation substantially changes a person. Based on Shay, you can see that the lesions are specifically for making people more docile.

     Tally feels really badly after finding Shay this way, because she knew that Shay would never have wanted to have the operation if she had the choice. Tally also regretted working with doctor Cable because of how it changed Shay's mind, Tally never wanted to make Shay like this, she just wanted to be pretty, and now she has to feel the pain of her blindness, because she thinks that the lesions are permanent.

Part 3

    

PICTURES

     This picture, I think represents the words from the text, because,this reminds me of the smoke. A large part of the book would not have happened if the smoke had not existed. This image also could represent the rangers burning parts of the forest to prevent the wild flowers from spreading and killing all other plants. The hill in this picture also seems to have far fewer trees than the surrounding area, so it could also represent the baldtop, where Tally Youngblood met up with the smokies.

    Although this picture may not directly describe any of the characters, it does relate to many of the main characters. Tally, for instance is related to this picture because of the smoke, Tally's life was forever changed when Shay ran away. Another person who was very much effected by the smoke was of course, Tally's friend Shay, Shay didn't want to have the operation because of what she had heard about the smoke, unlike Tally, she did not automatically absorb everything that she was told, and did not think that the operation would make her look any better.

     The person who this person relates the mos to is pretty well self explanatory, as only one of the characters in the book really wanted to become pretty. Tally was far more gullible when it came to the government trying to impress their views and beliefs on the people than Shay. Tally had always wanted to become pretty, years of being told that her image was a broken, ugly form that needed to be fixed eventually allowed her mind to begin to believe it, this was only reinforced when her best friend became pretty and told her that he wanted to see her become pretty.


     This relates to the operation because obviously, the operation requires tools such as these to cut away things and alter the body of the patient. Although the operation would require basic tools like this, I always imagined the operation involving strange, unconventional looking tools with no apparent purpose. This next picture will be one of these strange tools as I imagine it.

    

     This picture reminds me of new pretty town, based on what was described in the book as a city filled with happy people, who have fun all day long. The image is also of the city during sunset, or sunrise, which also show similarities to the description in the book, which said that people in new pretty town don't stop partying, and that the lights in the city are also always on. The strange shapes of the buildings in this image are very similar to how I pictured the city as looking, filled with illogical, almost impossible structures that people use to live in or,of course have parties and other entertainment events.


     The towers in the very back of the image remind me of how I imagined the party towers: thinner at the bottom than at the top, and being the tallest buildings in the city. the bean shaped building to the left of the O shaped building reminds me of the mansion that Tally met up with her friend in the beginning of the book, however when I read the book I imagined it as being closer to the party towers than it is in this image.
    

News

Today in the smoke, we will be talking to you about one of the many social injustices committed by the government in the society we once lived in. As you all now know, the government has withheld information from all of us, in particular about the operation. The teachers in uglyville always told us that we were ugly, and that unless we had an operation to "fix" us, we would remain ugly for the rest of our lives. Not only did they lie to us about how we looked, they lied to us about the operation itself; they never told us that the operation would alter our minds, turning us into a docile flock of animals, content to do nothing but our master's bidding.

     This deception is unfair, and insults our intelligence, which is of course immediately removed when we have the operation. On top of the fact that we aren't told about the operation, if we don't want to have the operation, we have no choice; when most of us ran away from uglyville before our 16th birthday, the government sent their special forces to hunt us down and capture us so that we would become pretty. Never once did the government think to consider our opinion on the matter, and so we live in hiding, unreachable to everyone from that retched society, and unfortunately this means that we are unreachable to many people who might not want to have the operation.

     I chose to write this newspaper article about the deceit of the government in the book, because it is probably one of the most important issues in the book. The lies that are uncovered later in the book are a very big part of the story, and doubtless will influence the later books. I chose to write this from the point of view of the smoke because they have a less biased view of the government, and have a far more informed view of what the government is doing, they know that the government is lying to them about the operation, and that they call them ugly for their entire lives to ensure that they have the operation.

     What only reinforces the fact that the government in the book is lying to the uglies is that they keep the smoke and things that happen outside of the city as secret as possible. If the government weren't lying about the operation and what it did to people's brains, they would let people make their own decisions, and let them decide for themselves whether or not they wanted to have the operation. The government thought that this was a better way to run the world, because there wouldn't be wars, jealousy, or other things because everyone would be more docile; this also means that the population is easier for the government to lead. The government in the book therefore wants to eliminate the smoke, because they are a variable that could bring down the carefully maintained environment that is the society.

SANTIAGO, Chile –  Walter Ulises Pizarro Molina is registered to vote in Chile's presidential elections next year, although he disappeared after being arrested 35 years ago during the country's dictatorship.

Pizarro Molina and more than 1,000 other Chilean dissidents who disappeared during the 1973-90 regime of Gen. Augusto Pinochet are now registered to vote — an anomaly of Chile's new automatic registration system that took effect this year, eliminating the need for people over 18 to register in person.

The change has been hailed as a victory for democracy in Chile, increasing the pool of potential voters from 8 million to 13 million.

But with the system automatically sweeping up every adult citizen listed in the civil registry, mistakes were bound to happen. And now, electoral officials say the only way they can legally remove someone from the database is with an official death certificate.

Although the disappeared are considered by law to be alive unless proven otherwise in court, some of their relatives say including them among the nation's voters amounts to a cruel joke.

"My dad has the right to vote? What are they talking about? I don't even know where he is," Lorena Pizarro said about Walter Ulises, a mining technician and Communist Party member who disappeared in Santiago in December 1976.

"The forced disappearances didn't respect victims or their families, so the state should put in place measures so we're not forced to face this situation," said Pizarro, who leads an organisation of relatives of the disappeared.

The Chilean government officially estimates that 3,095 people were killed by the Pinochet government. About 1,200 of these are considered disappeared. Carlos Lorca Tobar, a psychiatrist and dissident detained in 1975, is one of them.

The database shows that Lorca Tobar, a close friend of former President Michelle Bachelet, who was also detained during the dictatorship, is registered to cast his vote in this year's municipal elections in the affluent Santiago neighbourhood of Providencia.

"We have to include them because we are obliged by law to do so," Elizabeth Cabrera, deputy director of the voting registry told The Associated Press. "It's a deplorable situation what the families are going through, but the registry simply doesn't have the power to decide who it includes or leaves out."

Relatives of the disappeared say it's just one more example of government failures to meet their demands for truth and justice.

About 700 military officials face court trials for the forced disappearance of dissidents and about 70 have been jailed under crimes against humanity. Only a very few have provided information leading to the whereabouts of people kidnapped and killed by the regime.

Newspaper article from www.foxnews.com

     I chose to put this article on the blog because it describes another social injustice that is very important in the book. The government in Uglies does not allow any people to make anything but the most limited of decisions, and when they decide to try to run their own lives, you get a reaction similar to the smoke. The government has carefully tailored this society so that nobody gets hurt, and nobody is envious of anyone else. When someone decides that they don't like the way the society is run, and runs away to the smoke, were their decisions aren't constantly made for them, the government searches for them, because they are not within the boundaries set out for them by the government.


     The government will do anything to find the smoke, and have an entire special force division for just such a task. The government does not want the smoke to exist because the people who live in it are not under their rule, and being a dictatorship, that is a problem. Without everyone under their control, the government begins to lose it's grip on everyone, this is why the operation also introduces lesions into the brain, this makes people far less ambitious; there is a reason why uglies break the rules and pretties don't: The pretties weren't meant to. The uglies are told that they are ugly ever since they turn twelve, over time of constantly being called ugly, their brains begin to except this foreign idea and turn it into their own; years of being called ugly every day makes them believe it, and only a few people think otherwise, and in order for the government to continue to rule, they have to subdue these people.

Part 2

Outline the Society

The society detailed in this novel is one in which the government makes everyone at the age of 16 pretty by operating on them.The operation not only changes their physical apearance, it also alters their minds, making it easier for the government to impress ideas on them and lead them, like a flock of sheep. This alteration also prevents them from making informed decisions, and so they never think to wonder why they have to become pretty. In a way, the operation is like mandatory plastic surgery, but on ridiculous levels.

What Are the Social Injustices That the Author is Trying to Describe?

      In This book, I think that the author is trying to describe a society in which no person can really make a decision based on their own opinions. The citizens of this society are brought up being told by their teachers that they are ugly, and that the only way to change that is to have the operation. They grow up feeling badly about their image and so think that having this operation is a good thing. When the citizens turn 16, almost all of them want the operation, when in reality if they hadn't been called ugly their entire lives, they wouldn't have sought out the operation at all.

     Another example of this social injustice is the smoke. Most of the uglies sneak out at night and find ways to widen the area of their freedom, but some of the more ambitious uglies go farther out than the other uglies, and do more complicated things to cover their tracks. Some uglies sneak out into the forest to go to the "Rusty Ruins", the ruins of a city from our time in society, and some have realized the truth about the operation and don't want that to happen to them, these people run away to "the smoke", a small settlement made up of a large group of uglies that grows every year from more runaways. 

     The existence of the smoke does not describe the social injustices in this book well, as it is the decision of people who do not wish to have the operation. What really describes the social injustice of the government is their response to discovering the smoke. When Shay runs away early on in the book, Tally is brought to a secret location, where she is questioned by the about where Shay might have gone. Rather than allow people to make their own decisions, the government tries to search them out and end any actions that contradict the wishes of the government, which then comes back to the theme of the government not allowing people to make their own independent decisions.



What Are the Injustices that the Author is Trying to Make the Reader Aware of in the Reader's World

     The author describes social injustices that often have to do with unorthadox ways that the government deals with the populace. The government in Uglies is almost completely unknown to the populace, and runs in more of a dictatorship form of government. The people in this community have no say in what they want, they have no way of electing their own leaders, or even finding out what the government is doing. This is similar to tactics used by some governments in real life as well, there are countries where people do not have any influence at all, not even in who will lead them.

     Another example is the way the government deals with the smoke. The government does anything in their power to make sure that nobody finds out about the smoke, as well as find those who do. This is similar to government silencing or blacking out press in real life, the government doesn't want people to know that they aren't the omnipotent force that they seem to be, so they prevent anyone from finding out, or they create an elaborate cover story.

     The author is trying to make the reader aware of different ways that governments subtly ensure that they remain in power. The government in this book has complete control over the population of the community, and will do anything to keep it that way. The government has established special forces for the sole purpose of maintaining power, the "special circumstances" were created by the government to make sure that everyone did what the government wanted them to do, which is why the smoke is top on the special circumstances' priority list.

Evaluate the Author's Message

     The author sends a message throughout this book, by describing certain aspects of life or what people are and aren't allowed to do, that describe the limits that the government has implemented into the society. The uglies are monitored at night, to make sure that they are not going out after a certain time. Every device they use is monitored to make sure that they are not using it improperly, or going were the government doesn't want them to go. Because of the hints and information that appear through the book, and the existence of special circumstances, I think that this book delivers this message very well.



Part 1

Title:Uglies
Author:Scott Westerfeld

Review

    Uglies is a book that takes place in a dystopian society in the far future. The world as we know it is gone, replaced by a world of extreme beauty, where everyone normal is ugly, until they turn 16. At the age of 16 every citezen undergoes an operation, making them a perfected, extremly beautiful person, or "Pretty"

     This story follows Tally Youngblood, an ugly who is about to turn 16. Her best friend Peris had turned "Pretty" a few months before the beginning of the book, and since then she had been all alone. One night when she sneaks across the river into "New Pretty Town", she meets a girl named Shay, another uglie the same age as her, they become friends and Tally looks forward to becoming pretty with her, until Shay runs away. triggering a chain of events that sweep Tally up on an adventure that will change her life forever.

     I would higly recommend this book to any teen audience interested in science fiction and adventure.



Book Cover



UGLIES 

     If I had photoshop on my computer, I would have been able to make this look better than it does here, but the general idea was that I wanted an image of the smoke, because even though it does not apear the most in the book, it is still an important part of it.Also, the blog orients the image differently than I wanted it to look.

This is my new blog, where I will be posting stuff about the book Uglies