uglies (Scott Westerfeld)

Both prettiness and ugliness are both relative terms. Teachers want students define what exactly beauty is. When Tally was an ugly, she longed to have the surgery. However, when she learned that things are not the way they appear to be, she quickly coiled away. The ugly truth under all that prettiness is that undergoing the surgery would mean having brain lesions and part of her former identity erased; most Pretties are gorgeous but shallow, vain, and unintelligent. Furthermore, in Tally's society, appearances are emphasised. As Uglies, they are even encouraged to nickname each other based on physical imperfections, such as "Squint" or "Skinny". In world with perfect faces, average faces would be considered ugly by comparison. But among Pretties, because there is no comparison, they are constantly unsatisfied and often change their looks on a weekly basis by surgery, such as having multicoloured eyeballs. It it thus implied that in a world where perfection is so easily attainable, people would still soon be unsatisfied and seek for more.