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Lies
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
In the Smoke, there are open fires, garden plots, and squat wooden buildings. Lots of things are made of wood, and Tally realizes with horror that the Smokies have been cutting down trees. She expresses her dismay to Shay, but Shay assures her that the pre-Rusties lived like this and that Tally will get used to it. Shay happily explains that there’s a hoverboard path in places—she’s been working on that project. They follow a painted orange path down to the library to meet the Boss, who Shay explains isn’t really in charge of anything but the library. Tally notices that the library contains only books on paper. Shay leads Tally to the center of the room, where the Boss, a horrifically old ugly, shouts at someone on the phone. He’s wrinkled, veined, and shuffles. When he waves them away, Shay giggles that he’s 40.
Tally’s initial horror stems from experiencing culture shock, or the sense of disorientation people experience when they find themselves in a place that’s very different from their home. The wood dwellings tell Tally that here, people are barbarians and don’t care about honoring nature, as she believes people in the cities do. Additionally, her reaction to the Boss is a different kind of culture shock: the way that Tally describes him sounds like a description of a much older person. But, given that Tally has also never seen a 40-year-old without surgery, it makes sense that an average middle-aged person would look incredibly old to her.
Themes
Tally is horrified by the Boss and that anyone would want to look so saggy. Shay, however, pulls out a handful of what she calls magazines. She points and giggles at the many different faces and bodies, all of which have wrong and ugly proportions. None of them seem ashamed of their “deformities,” so Tally asks who the “freaks” are. Shay says they’re famous people—celebrities, artists, and politicians. They look strange at first, Shay admits, but she gets used to it if she keeps looking at the photos. One page has a picture of a skeletally thin woman wearing lacy underwear. Shay says she’s a model, and Tally realizes the woman has a disease her teachers told her about, in which girls starved themselves to get skinny and sometimes died. Now, uglies eat to excess before their operation, knowing they’ll be beautiful soon.
Again, Tally’s confusion as to why the people in magazines aren’t ashamed of their “deformities” speaks to the way that her city has trained her to view physical differences as wrong. Though the novel generally pushes readers to see that diversity is a good thing, the mention of the “disease” (presumably, anorexia) shows that there were still issues with the Rusty society. It’s clear, then, that neither version of human civilization is perfect: Tally’s society may have solved eating disorders, but it’s still missing several positive aspects of the Rusty society.
Themes
Shay walks away to talk to the Boss and Tally notices that Shay is still too skinny. Tally realizes that now is her chance to call Dr. Cable. She thinks that these people might be having fun camping, but they’ve forgotten that the Rusties were insane, starved themselves, and cut down trees. Tally opens the locket, but she snaps it shut when Shay returns. Shay coyly asks what the locket is about. When Tally says that someone gave it 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 Tally and Shay for looking at the magazines without gloves, and announces that Tally must be here for a work assignment.
Tally’s fixation on Shay’s weight is a product of growing up in a society where she’s encouraged to constantly—and openly—point out her peers’ supposed flaws. This is arguably a major flaw with Tally’s society, as it encourages people to speak poorly about themselves and each other. When Tally reminds herself of how insane the Rusties were, it shows that she may be open to considering that they weren’t entirely deranged—but in this instance, to justify betraying her friend, she must make herself believe that the Rusties never did anything right.
Themes
