Divergent And Uglies: A Comparative Analysis

Divergent and Uglies are two very similar and spectacular dystopian novels. Uglies is a book about people being only accepted into society by how pretty they are. The main character, Tally Youngblood, is undergoing a surgery also known as the pretty surgery. The pretties are the people accepted into society, only because how they look. They live in giant houses and safe neighborhoods. The uglies are normal people who don’t fit into the pretty section either because they can not afford surgery, or they are ugly in the eyes of the judges. As Westfield states on page 124, “Only those who are pretty are the ones that society finds acceptable”. Divergent is a dystopian novel about a young girl known as Beatrice Prior, who is ready to take an aptitude

Let’s start off with the similarities. First of all, Tris and Tally are young adults who have low esteem. Both are trained to see themselves very differently. Society in the books are based on comparing yourself to others around you. In Tris’s situation of being one of the abnegation, vanity is discouraged. Tally has been labeled as an ugly in their community. Many have been encouraging Tally to get the plastic surgery procedure done, so that she will be accepted as a pretty and also see herself as pretty. During a 1-on-1 in Uglies, Tally cries to Shay saying, "Maybe just being ugly is why uglies always fight and pick on one another, because they aren 't happy with who they are. Well, I want to be happy, and looking like a real person is the first step." (Westfield 165) Another similarity in Divergent and Uglies is the government. The government is intricately designed and very organized. In both books, they try to overrun the government. In Divergent, the Erudite are trying to overthrow the government and take the power into their hands. In Uglies, there is no direct showing of the people trying to overtake the government, but if you dig deeper, the Smokies who are similar to the factionless are living out of town and defying all laws they can. For instance, both teens, at the age of 16, they must commit to a life changing choice. Tris has to commit to one faction while Tally must become pretty to

In Uglies, the family relationship between Tally is very different compared to Tris and her family. Tally and her family are very careless. They are very inattentive the the government’s plans and stay in Prettyland worryless, while Tris’ parents are risking and sacrificing their lives to help Tris save Erudites plot of genocide. There are very few but powerful differences in these two dystopian novels. Both Tris and Tally have changed throughout the book. Tris, who has been an Abnegation teenager, has made the choice to become Dauntless. From being selfless and caring, she became a daredevil and brave girl. As for Tally, she has became a pretty. She has become one of the normal people in society. A way to create a problem free society is to have a firm and complicated government. As told on page 240 of Divergent, “If there were people around, I doubt any of them would help Christina. We are with Eric, for one thing, and for another, the Dauntless have different rules—rules that brutality does not violate.” (Roth 240) This shows that the government is strict because you must follow your faction’s government, not others. On page 170 of Uglies, Westfield concludes, "I wasn 't supposed to tell anyone I was coming here. David made me promise I wouldn 't even tell you." (Westfield 170). As Shay tells Tally, she was not supposed to meet Tally there in Smokes because she would be prosecuted and get in trouble with