Summer Reading: Themes Of Confidence And Self-Reliance

Summer Reading: Themes of Confidence and Self-Reliance

Is the opinion of society valued stronger than an individual’s? A person’s self-worth should be an indispensable factor not able to be polluted by others. Trusting in oneself to rely on and persevere is a theme conveyed throughout three literary selections. In the novel, The Uglies by Scott Westerfeld, Tally Youngblood faces a struggle to embrace herself as she is. Additionally, Jhumpa Lahiri’s “The Third and Final Continent,” tells the story of a young man discovering himself while searching for a new life. The final text, “If” by Rudyard Kipling, is a poem that encourages self-assurance even through times when others discourage you. An individual who relies on other forces
to be content can thrive more believing in oneself is the overall theme of the texts expressed through tone, conflict, and plot.

Tone is an element integrated throughout all literature.
During an initial conflict in the novel, The Uglies, Tally and her friend Shay engage in an argument. Due to the opinions of society, Tally, an Ugly, feels as though she will never be perfect unless she undergoes an operation to make her into a Pretty. Shay, on the other hand, is not corrupted by these thoughts; she refuses to have her life permanently altered into someone she does not want to be. Instead, she plans to take refuge in a camp called the Smoke, where audacious Uglies rebel against the pretty operation. Tally’s twisted conviction that Shay should stay in Uglyville is because Shay will “look wrong, forever;” (Westerfeld 90). Westerfeld specifically chose words that were forceful, “wrong” and “forever,” to create a frustrated tone since Tally is so infected by this societal ideal of being Pretty. Similarly, in Rudyard Kipling’s poem “If,’ it speaks from a father figure point of view to his son about not taking other’s negativity into thought. The fifth and sixth line of the second stanza states, “If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken; Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools” (Kipling). These lines are about speaking the truth for oneself without allowing immoral people to taint and discourage one’s perspective. Given these points, tone is a device effectuated to prove the theme of the value of
self-worth.

Every story has an interwoven conflict.
The overt conflict in The Uglies is that Tally must choose between betraying her friend by giving the location of the Smoke or sacrificing her dreams of becoming Pretty. After deliberating these unavoidable choices, Tally decides she will betray her new friend, Shay, in order to become pretty. Tally works as a spy in the Smoke, but soon learns that it is an actual, functioning society, extremely different from her life of leisure in the city. Consequently, she learns the value of hard work and feels “stronger than ever before” (Westerfeld 219). At this point, Tally wholeheartedly regrets the choice she made to expose the Smoke because of the values and independence she experienced. In comparable manner, “The Third and Final Continent” by Jhumpa Lahiri has a conflict that parallels to The Uglies. The short story tells of a young man from India thriving for a better life. He travels from place to place, finally settling in the United States. Lahiri is trying his best to adapt to this new lifestyle, much like Tally struggled to adjust to the Smoke. Eventually, Lahiri normalizes with the ever-busy American life and reminisces every mile he strayed farther away from home, the new people he met, and the experiences he went through from traveling ( Lahiri 36). He is absolutely astonished by his achievements that he has gained independently, enforcing the importance of his ability to rely on himself. All in all, the conflict in each
selection further emphasizes the values of self-reliance.