Uglies

by

Scott Westerfeld

David Character Analysis

David functions as the Smoke’s ringleader and figurehead, though he’s not the one who started the civilization—his parents, Maddy and Az, did. However, because Maddy and Az are old enough to scare young uglies who have never seen adult uglies, David is the one tasked with traveling to the cities and bringing in new recruits. He’s 18 years old, and though he’s an ugly, he exudes a confidence that Tally has never seen before. This confidence makes him kind of handsome, despite having scars, being too strong for pretty standards, and having an asymmetrical face. At first, Shay is in love with David and it’s possible that David reciprocated Shay’s feelings at some point, but he quickly falls in love with Tally. Tally is attractive to David because David is mature, and in turn he prizes maturity and sensible, clear thinking in others. He understands that the Smoke is more than just an extended camping trip—it’s a way of life for those who commit to living there, and he doesn’t have much time or patience for people who struggle to grasp this. To Tally’s horror, David wears a leather jacket and leather shoes, something she initially finds disturbing. She begins to see that it suits David, however, when she learns that the Smokies only kill invasive species. When David ascertains that Tally isn’t sure she wants to stay in the Smoke, he takes her to meet his parents, and they tell Tally the truth about pretty surgery. David believes it’s imperative that people who can handle the information have it and are able to make decisions for themselves. When, later that night, he insists that he finds Tally beautiful, Tally decides to stay in the Smoke but inadvertently alerts Special Circumstances to where she is. The Specials raid and destroy the Smoke, but David is prepared to handle such a disaster. David is overcome with grief when he discovers that Az died from a medical experiment, and his grief and sense of betrayal deepens when Tally finally admits that she inadvertently betrayed the Smoke. David disappears at the end of the novel and it’s left ambiguous as to whether he forgives Tally or not.

David Quotes in Uglies

The Uglies quotes below are all either spoken by David or refer to David. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Conformity vs. Individuality Theme Icon
).
Lies Quotes

The boy smiled again. He was an ugly, but he had a nice smile. And his face held a kind of confidence that Tally had never seen in an ugly before. Maybe he was a few years older than she was. Tally had never watched anyone mature naturally past age sixteen. She wondered how much of being ugly was just an awkward age.

Related Characters: Tally Youngblood, Shay, David
Page Number: 181
Explanation and Analysis:
Suspicion Quotes

The physical beauty of the Smoke also cleared her mind of worries. Every day seemed to change the mountain, the sky, and the surrounding valleys, making them spectacular in a completely new way. Nature, at least, didn’t need an operation to be beautiful. It just was.

Related Characters: Tally Youngblood, Shay, David
Page Number: 219
Explanation and Analysis:
Bravery Quotes

Then Tally trembled inside, realizing what the feeling was. It was the same warmth she’d felt talking to Peris after his operation, or when teachers looked at her with approval. It was not a feeling she’d ever gotten from an ugly before. Without large, perfectly shaped eyes, their faces couldn’t make you feel that way. But the moonlight and the setting, or maybe just the words he was saying, had somehow turned David into a pretty. Just for a moment.

Related Characters: Tally Youngblood, David, Peris
Page Number: 236-37
Explanation and Analysis:
Pretty Minds Quotes

Tally remembered crossing the river to New Pretty Town, watching them have their endless fun. She and Peris used to boast they’d never wind up so idiotic, so shallow. But when she’d seen him... “Becoming pretty doesn’t just change the way you look,” she said.

“No,” David said. “It changes the way you think.”

Related Characters: Tally Youngblood (speaker), David (speaker), Maddy, Peris, Az
Page Number: 254
Explanation and Analysis:
Burning Bridges Quotes

For that matter, shallow and self-centered was how brand-new pretties were supposed to be. As an ugly, Peris had made fun of them—but he hadn’t waited a moment to join in the fun. No one ever did. So how could you tell how much was the operation and how much was just people going along with the way things had always been?

Only by making a whole new world, which is just what Maddy and Az had begun to do.

Related Characters: Tally Youngblood, David, Maddy, Peris, Az
Page Number: 258
Explanation and Analysis:

“That’s not what’s important to me. What’s inside you matters a lot more.”

“But first you see my face. You react to symmetry, skin tone, the shape of my eyes. And you decide what’s inside me, based on all your reactions. You’re programmed to!”

I’m not programmed. I didn’t grow up in a city.”

“It’s not just culture, it’s evolution!”

Related Characters: Tally Youngblood (speaker), David (speaker)
Page Number: 263
Explanation and Analysis:
The Rabbit Pen Quotes

She scanned the captives, looking for Shay and David. The familiar faces in the crowd were haggard, dirty, crumpled by shock and defeat, but Tally realized that she no longer thought of them as ugly. It was the cold expressions of the Specials, beautiful though they were, that seemed horrific to her now.

Related Characters: Tally Youngblood, Shay, David
Page Number: 286
Explanation and Analysis:
The Oil Plague Quotes

“They carried electricity from a wind farm to one of the old cities.”

Tally frowned. “I didn’t know the Rusties used wind power.”

“They weren’t all crazy. Just most of them.” He shrugged. “You’ve got to remember, we’re mostly descended from the Rusties, and we’re still using their basic technology. Some of them must have had the right idea.”

Related Characters: Tally Youngblood (speaker), David (speaker)
Related Symbols: Hoverboards
Page Number: 326
Explanation and Analysis:

It was hard to think of the Rusties as actual people, rather than as just an idiotic, dangerous, and sometimes comic force of history. But there were human beings down there, whatever was left of them after a couple of hundred years, still sitting in their blackened cars, as if still trying to escape their fate.

Related Characters: Tally Youngblood, David
Page Number: 330
Explanation and Analysis:
Familiar Sights Quotes

David nodded. “It’s kind of creepy how well preserved it is. Of all the ruins I’ve seen, it looks the most recent.”

“They sprayed it with something to keep it up for school trips.” And that was her city in a nutshell, Tally realized. Nothing left to itself. Everything turned into a bribe, a warning, or a lesson.

Related Characters: Tally Youngblood (speaker), David (speaker)
Page Number: 334
Explanation and Analysis:
Getaway Quotes

“Yeah, I know what you mean. But that was all ugly stuff. Crazy love and jealousy and needing to rebel against the city. Every kid’s like that. But you grow up, you know?”

“You grew up because of an operation? Doesn’t that strike you as weird?”

Related Characters: Tally Youngblood (speaker), Shay (speaker), David
Page Number: 376
Explanation and Analysis:
Hippocratic Oath Quotes

“Why did we even have to ask? They didn’t get her permission when they did this to her!”

“That’s the difference between us and them,” Maddy said. “After Az and I found out what the operation really meant, we realized we’d been party to something horrible. People had their minds changed without their knowledge. As doctors, we took an ancient oath never to do anything like that.”

Related Characters: Tally Youngblood (speaker), Maddy (speaker), Shay, David, Dr. Cable, Az
Page Number: 393-94
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire Uglies LitChart as a printable PDF.
Uglies PDF

David Quotes in Uglies

The Uglies quotes below are all either spoken by David or refer to David. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Conformity vs. Individuality Theme Icon
).
Lies Quotes

The boy smiled again. He was an ugly, but he had a nice smile. And his face held a kind of confidence that Tally had never seen in an ugly before. Maybe he was a few years older than she was. Tally had never watched anyone mature naturally past age sixteen. She wondered how much of being ugly was just an awkward age.

Related Characters: Tally Youngblood, Shay, David
Page Number: 181
Explanation and Analysis:
Suspicion Quotes

The physical beauty of the Smoke also cleared her mind of worries. Every day seemed to change the mountain, the sky, and the surrounding valleys, making them spectacular in a completely new way. Nature, at least, didn’t need an operation to be beautiful. It just was.

Related Characters: Tally Youngblood, Shay, David
Page Number: 219
Explanation and Analysis:
Bravery Quotes

Then Tally trembled inside, realizing what the feeling was. It was the same warmth she’d felt talking to Peris after his operation, or when teachers looked at her with approval. It was not a feeling she’d ever gotten from an ugly before. Without large, perfectly shaped eyes, their faces couldn’t make you feel that way. But the moonlight and the setting, or maybe just the words he was saying, had somehow turned David into a pretty. Just for a moment.

Related Characters: Tally Youngblood, David, Peris
Page Number: 236-37
Explanation and Analysis:
Pretty Minds Quotes

Tally remembered crossing the river to New Pretty Town, watching them have their endless fun. She and Peris used to boast they’d never wind up so idiotic, so shallow. But when she’d seen him... “Becoming pretty doesn’t just change the way you look,” she said.

“No,” David said. “It changes the way you think.”

Related Characters: Tally Youngblood (speaker), David (speaker), Maddy, Peris, Az
Page Number: 254
Explanation and Analysis:
Burning Bridges Quotes

For that matter, shallow and self-centered was how brand-new pretties were supposed to be. As an ugly, Peris had made fun of them—but he hadn’t waited a moment to join in the fun. No one ever did. So how could you tell how much was the operation and how much was just people going along with the way things had always been?

Only by making a whole new world, which is just what Maddy and Az had begun to do.

Related Characters: Tally Youngblood, David, Maddy, Peris, Az
Page Number: 258
Explanation and Analysis:

“That’s not what’s important to me. What’s inside you matters a lot more.”

“But first you see my face. You react to symmetry, skin tone, the shape of my eyes. And you decide what’s inside me, based on all your reactions. You’re programmed to!”

I’m not programmed. I didn’t grow up in a city.”

“It’s not just culture, it’s evolution!”

Related Characters: Tally Youngblood (speaker), David (speaker)
Page Number: 263
Explanation and Analysis:
The Rabbit Pen Quotes

She scanned the captives, looking for Shay and David. The familiar faces in the crowd were haggard, dirty, crumpled by shock and defeat, but Tally realized that she no longer thought of them as ugly. It was the cold expressions of the Specials, beautiful though they were, that seemed horrific to her now.

Related Characters: Tally Youngblood, Shay, David
Page Number: 286
Explanation and Analysis:
The Oil Plague Quotes

“They carried electricity from a wind farm to one of the old cities.”

Tally frowned. “I didn’t know the Rusties used wind power.”

“They weren’t all crazy. Just most of them.” He shrugged. “You’ve got to remember, we’re mostly descended from the Rusties, and we’re still using their basic technology. Some of them must have had the right idea.”

Related Characters: Tally Youngblood (speaker), David (speaker)
Related Symbols: Hoverboards
Page Number: 326
Explanation and Analysis:

It was hard to think of the Rusties as actual people, rather than as just an idiotic, dangerous, and sometimes comic force of history. But there were human beings down there, whatever was left of them after a couple of hundred years, still sitting in their blackened cars, as if still trying to escape their fate.

Related Characters: Tally Youngblood, David
Page Number: 330
Explanation and Analysis:
Familiar Sights Quotes

David nodded. “It’s kind of creepy how well preserved it is. Of all the ruins I’ve seen, it looks the most recent.”

“They sprayed it with something to keep it up for school trips.” And that was her city in a nutshell, Tally realized. Nothing left to itself. Everything turned into a bribe, a warning, or a lesson.

Related Characters: Tally Youngblood (speaker), David (speaker)
Page Number: 334
Explanation and Analysis:
Getaway Quotes

“Yeah, I know what you mean. But that was all ugly stuff. Crazy love and jealousy and needing to rebel against the city. Every kid’s like that. But you grow up, you know?”

“You grew up because of an operation? Doesn’t that strike you as weird?”

Related Characters: Tally Youngblood (speaker), Shay (speaker), David
Page Number: 376
Explanation and Analysis:
Hippocratic Oath Quotes

“Why did we even have to ask? They didn’t get her permission when they did this to her!”

“That’s the difference between us and them,” Maddy said. “After Az and I found out what the operation really meant, we realized we’d been party to something horrible. People had their minds changed without their knowledge. As doctors, we took an ancient oath never to do anything like that.”

Related Characters: Tally Youngblood (speaker), Maddy (speaker), Shay, David, Dr. Cable, Az
Page Number: 393-94
Explanation and Analysis: