Who Is Tally In Scott Westerfeld's Ugly

Scott Westerfeld’s book, Uglies takes place in a dystopian version of earth with advanced technology. Tally, the main character, is an average ‘Ugly’, a name for children/teenagers under the age of 16. Once a teenager turns 16, they go through a procedure that makes them impossibly pretty, which is the new ‘average’ look. Tally wants to be a pretty, but her friend Shay does not, due to many reasons. Shay unknowingly ruins Tally’s chance to turn pretty after escaping the city, managing to avoid the procedure. Tally’s procedure gets delayed and she is blackmailed into hunting Shay down to the place she escaped to and eventually betray her. One lesson taught through that is that when you underestimate yourself or judge yourself due to other people, your judgement can be affected by that and you can do something you could regret.
From the very beginning of the story, being ‘Pretty’ is so amazing. Everyone older than 16 gets turned ‘Pretty’, and that is the average. If you are younger and ‘Ugly’, you are not important until you get the procedure. Westerfeld explains this through Tally’s thoughts, “Of course, Tally was nothing here. Worse, she was ugly. But she hoped Peris wouldn’t see it that way. Wouldn’t see her that way.” This line shows how it feels to be ‘Ugly’ around the ‘Pretties’, Tally feeling that as she breaks into a ‘Pretty’ party. She feels
“Either Tally infiltrated the Smoke and betrayed Shay, or she’d be ugly for life.” Since Tally always wanted to be ‘Pretty’, she accepts. She would rather betray her friend and destroy a civilization to be ‘Pretty’. She can only underestimate herself, longing the procedure to fix that. She goes on to get to the Smoke rendezvous point, formulating a story of lies to protect herself once she is picked up. She prepares herself to betray everyone that helped her in this