Uglies: Tally Youngblood

Tally's journal

First person point of view from the character Tally, in Scott Weserfeld's Uglies

About the author:
Scott Westerfeld is the author of the New York Times bestselling Uglies series and the Leviathan trilogy. His other novels include Afterworlds, The Last Days, Peeps, So Yesterday, and the Midnighters trilogy. Scott alternates summers beteen New York City and Syndey, Australia.


First Part: 
Does Peris even care about me anymore?

I haven't been too happy these last few days. My best friend just turned 16, which means he's now in New Pretty town looking pretty. I’m sure ill join him soon, but I shall not do anything dumb before so. The other day, I sneaked my way in New Pretty Town to get a hold of Peris. Once i saw him, he didn't even look happy to see me. I went completely out of my way and put so much on the line. All I did just to end up with an unpleasant welcoming by Peris. Incredible. Has he forgotten about me already? Is his new lifestyle too good to share with someone like me, an ugly? Either way, I guess he doesn't want me to get in trouble, that way I have nothing else than my age separating me from the operation. 

Second Part:
Shay...

When I escaped my incursion in New Pretty Town, I ran into this girl called Shay. She is now one of my closest friends since Peris is no longer in my presence. We spend our days together. She thought me how to ride a hoverboard and now i am really good at it. One day, she brought me out of the city. It was really scary at first, as I never went outside the town. Towards the end of our adventure, she wanted me to meet this guy called David. 

That is when i started to ask myself if hanging out with Shay is a good thing? Was she involved into sketchy stuff that I should not be around?  If I never heard about this David guy until now, I have no idea how much Shay is actually hiding from me.

Third Part 
The Disaster
Everything was supposed to go so well. Instead, this whole thing has only been a disaster after another. I promised to Peris I wouldn’t do anything stupid until I got the operation. Now here I am, all by myself with a few supplies and a hover board, stuck in the wilderness, trying to find someone using stupid irrelevant clues. I didn’t think this Shay girl was going to bring me this many problems. When I turned 16, they told me something wasn’t right and that I wouldn’t get to operation. Apparently, they knew I had something to with Shay, as she didn’t show up to her own operation. Special circumstances was a crazy place. Those people seemed to know everything I was hiding, forcing me to admit the truth about what Shay was doing. Like evil people, they then forced me to go on an adventure by myself out in the wild of the unknown to find what Shay is doing and if she if with more people. It seems like to government are scared of not knowing where everyone is at every given moment, as if they want to control everything so badly.

Fourth Part

Nature

Out here, the environement is so beautiful. I have never anything so pretty inside Uglyville. When I got picked up by the rangers, a group of pretties flying around in a helicopter, they taught me more about the beautiful orchids surrounding everything in the nature. Apparently, the flower used to be one of the rarest plants in the world. Hard to believe now that there's so many of them.

The Rangers are the ones escorting uglies to towards the Smoke. They usually spot the uglies down in the orchid fields but I think they didn't see me at first. When they lit the fire to burn down some of the orchids, I was still in the field. Luckely they saw me before I got burned down. It was the first time in my life that I saw a helicopter, a gigantic flying machine.

"A white tiger orchid. In the rusty days, a single bulb was worth more than a house" (Page 173)

"One of the most beautiful plants in the world." (Page 173)
-In this quote, we can see how much Tally is amazed by the beauty of the orchids. Even if they are overwhelming, Tally still see's them as beautiful flowers that are apart of nature.

Fifth Part
Keeping this secret is eating me alive

"Tally still wished she had activated the pendant the moment she'd arrived in the Smoke. It would have been much easier that way"(Page 217)

I am really debating weather or not i should activate the pendant or not. Smokies have really changed my perception on the operation and the conflict between uglies/pretties. I am really getting used to living in the Smoke. Here, no one is judged by their appearance and everyone is treated equally, that is one of the reasons why I love it so much here. Also, my new lifestyle of hard work and survival is really setting me up to solve my insomnia problems. Being in the Smoke makes me forget about my main goal, to become pretty.

I have definitely got attached to this place, and that's why activating to pendant is stressing me out more and more. If I wanted to activate it as soon as i got here, it would have been much easier to do. But now that i know every Smoky around here, my hesitation is out of control. 

"All her life, Tally had been troubled by insomnia, lying awake most nights thinking about arguments she'd had, or wanted to have, or things she should have done differently. But here in the Smoke her mind shut off the moment her head hit the pillow, ..."(Page 218)

Sixth Part

Guilt and Redemption

It was the right moment had to tell everyone I am responsible for the special circumstances raiding the Smoke. I feel so guilty for ratting out everyone in the Smoke. When I first got welcomed by all the smokies, I knew it would be hard to betray them. After living with them all for a bit, I didn't want to activate the pendant anymore. I didn't know destroying the pendant would contact Dr Cable. All I wanted to do was to get rid of the pendant to avoid being stuck in sticky situation. Now they all got caught and the Smoke is burned down. 

I really need to do something to compensate my disastrous behaviour. To redeem myself, I need to do something that will help as much people as I can. Maybe sacrifice myself for everyone's good... But how?