Peris Character Analysis in Uglies

Tally’s best childhood friend who turned pretty a few months before the novel begins. He and Tally knew they’d be friends from the moment they met and they even made a blood promise to stick together and become pretty together. Their bond is strong enough that Tally primarily yearns to become pretty so she can be with Peris again. When Tally finds Peris at a party, however, Peris seems very different: he’s not happy to see Tally, for one, and he accuses her of being childish and naïve. He’s gorgeous, however, and so he’s able to make Tally feel warm and compliant. This is also how Peris is able to talk Tally into cooperating with Special Circumstances to bring Shay back to Uglyville. After this point, Peris doesn’t appear in the novel again, but Tally still thinks about him often as she gradually comes to understand what, exactly, the pretty surgery entails. It’s easy for her to see that pretty Peris has little in common with the Peris she once knew. Ugly Peris mocked pretties for their conformity and would’ve happily lived in the Smoke, but as a pretty, he wastes no time in joining the endless parties in New Pretty Town and seems derisive of the activities he and Tally once did together.

Peris Quotes in Uglies

The Uglies quotes below are all either spoken by Peris or refer to Peris. 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:

There was a certain kind of beauty, a prettiness that everyone could see. Big eyes and full lips like a kid’s; smooth, clear skin; symmetrical features; and a thousand other little clues. Somewhere in the backs of their minds, people were always looking for these markers. No one could help seeing them, no matter how they were brought up. A million years of evolution had made it part of the human brain.

Related Characters: Tally Youngblood, Peris

Page Number and Citation: 16

Explanation and Analysis:

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 and Citation: 236-37

Explanation and Analysis:

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 and Citation: 254

Explanation and Analysis:

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 and Citation: 258

Explanation and Analysis:

Peris Character Timeline in Uglies

The timeline below shows where the character Peris appears in Uglies. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.

The Natural World, History, and Growing Up Theme Icon

...pink color of cat vomit. Nothing has looked beautiful to her since her best friend, Peris, turned pretty about three months ago. Tally watches the party towers light up across the... (full context)

Beauty, Science, and Influence Theme Icon

Peris has only sent Tally one note since he became pretty, and Tally figured out that... (full context)

Tally moves through Garbo Mansion, looking for Peris and trying to not get too distracted by the pretty faces or the growing sense... (full context)

...look, they can see her too. A pretty boy sneakily steps into the elevator: it’s Peris. Tally hisses that it’s her, and Peris quickly tells the elevator doors to close. When... (full context)

Peris takes in Tally’s muddy clothes and asks what she’s doing here. Tally sputters and holds... (full context)

Peris takes the elevator to the roof and tells Tally to jump off using a bungee... (full context)

...She hopes she doesn’t get caught and starts to feel stupid. Tally should’ve realized that Peris wouldn’t have his scar: the operation gives new pretties entirely new skin. Tally wonders if... (full context)

...into the grass and Tally starts to say that she hasn’t felt this good since Peris left, but she doesn’t say his name. Shay says she feels great too, and they... (full context)

...that New Pretty Town looks farther away than ever. She quietly says that she’ll see Peris soon and then looks back at her dorm building. She thinks the shadows are so... (full context)

Shay asks if Peris made Tally promise so she wouldn’t bother him anymore and assures Tally that it’s fine... (full context)

...won’t have anything to fight about anymore—and even if Shay hates her, Tally will have Peris. Suddenly, Tally hears Shay whisper to her from the roof and Tally invites Shay into... (full context)

Tally waits alone for the hovercar. She’ll see her parents, Peris, and other friends tomorrow. A new young ugly approaches Tally and asks why she looks... (full context)

...herself out so she can sleep all day. When she crawls back into her room, Peris is sitting by her window. Tally quickly sprays medicinal spray on her scratched face and... (full context)

Confused, Tally asks how long Peris has been here. He says that he came the moment he figured out where Tally... (full context)

Tally interjects that she can’t, because they want her to tattle on a friend. Peris insists that if it’s just for a trick, she should tattle, but Tally insists she... (full context)

...to her, Shay rolls her eyes and says that she thought Tally was waiting for Peris. Tally decides to tell Shay the truth—but before she can, the Boss shuffles over, reprimands... (full context)

...how sure they’d looked, and how different they were from the new pretties she and Peris made fun of. (full context)

Tally thinks of meeting Peris at Garbo Mansion and remembers that he seemed distant and disconnected. She thinks that the... (full context)

...thinks that new pretties are supposed to be shallow and self-centered, and she remembers that Peris once mocked the new pretties but he wasted no time joining them. Tally realizes that... (full context)

...feels like she can’t tell the truth or she’ll lose David, in addition to Shay, Peris, and the Smoke. Tally vows to herself to tell David the truth after she’s made... (full context)