Analysis of Social and Inner Conflicts in Scott Westerfeld's 'Uglies'.

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ABSTRACT

Dalam tesis ini, saya akan membahas beberapa konflik yang dialami oleh

tokoh utama dalam sebuah novel yang berjudul Uglies, karya Scott Westerfeld.

Yang dibahas adalah konflik sosial dan konflik batin yang dialami oleh tokoh

utama dalam novel ini.

Tokoh utama dalam Uglies adalah seorang anak perempuan yang bernama

Tally. Dalam kehidupan masyarakat di tempat Tally tinggal, semua orang yang

berulang tahun ke-enam belas akan diubah menjadi lebih cantik atau tampan

melalui operasi yang disediakan oleh pemerintah. Konflik batin pertama yang

dialami Tally adalah apakah dia akan menghianati Shay atau menjadi buruk rupa

selamanya. Konflik batin yang kedua adalah ketika Tally berada dalam suatu

kelompok pemberontak the Smoke, ia merasa bingung: Haruskah ia memberi tahu

identitas aslinya sebagai penyusup kepada teman-teman barunya atau tidak.

Konflik batin yang ketiga adalah tentang perasaan Tally kepada David: akankah

Tally mempertimbangkan perasaan temannya Shay, yang juga menyukai David,

atau memilih tidak peduli dan berusaha memiliki David.

Selain konflik batin, Tally juga mengalami konflik sosial. Konflik sosial

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yang dilakukan pemerintah setelah mengetahui rahasia di balik operasi

tersebut. Konflik sosial yang kedua adalah antara Tally dan Shay; Tally setuju

adanya operasi untuk membuat orang terlihat cantik atau tampan tetapi Shay

tidak setuju.

Dari analisis terhadap konflik-konflik yang dialami Tally, saya berpendapat

bahwa benang merah antara konflik batin dan konflik sosial di atas adalah

ditemukannya arti yang lebih dalam mengenai perbedaan pendapat dan

pengkhianatan, yang dikaitkan dengan penerimaan terhadap diri sendiri,

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APPENDICES

Synopsis of Uglies

This story is about a world where everyone has an operation to make them

beautiful when they turn sixteen. Tally Youngblood is a young girl who is about

to turn sixteen and she looks forward to becoming pretty. While she is waiting for

her birthday, she meets a girl named Shay. They share the same birthday and

become good friends. Shay does not want to become pretty and she has a plan to

run away to a hidden place called the Smoke just before her birthday. When Shay

invites Tally to come to the Smoke with her, Tally refuses. Shay leaves her alone

but gives Tally a note of cryptic clues to the Smoke location, in case Tally

changes her mind. Tally promises that she will never reveal where the Smoke is to

anybody.

Unfortunately, the authorities find out about Shay’s running away and ask Tally to reveal the Smoke. Tally is told to find the Smoke by using Shay's

directions, but she refuses to do so. They say that she cannot become pretty until

she reveals the Smoke’s location so she decides to help the authorities to find

Shay and the Smoke’s location. However, Tally changes her mind shortly after

she has arrived and met David, with whom she starts to fall in love. Tally learns

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change appearances as it also makes people docile and more compliant with the

authorities by creating lesions in the brain. Tally accidentally sends for the

authorities, who then destroys the Smoke and captures all the people but Tally and

David, who manage to escape. Tally and David rescue their friends and hide in the

Rusty Ruins city.

Shay has turned into a pretty person with lesions in her brain. Maddy,

David’s mother, discovers a cure for the lesions but Shay refuses to take it. Maddy

needs a willing subject to test the cure’s efficiency and safeness. Meanwhile,

Tally feels guilty for what happened to Shay and decides to sacrifice herself to be

turned pretty to help find the cure by becoming the test subject.

Biography of Scott Westerfeld

Scott Westerfeld is an American-born author of science fiction. He was

born on May 5, 1963, in the U.S. state of Texas and now he lives in Sydney, New

South Wales, Australia, and New York City. Westerfeld’s father was a computer

programmer. He dealt with planes, submarines and the Apollo missions.

Westerfeld graduated from Vassar College in 1985 and spent his early career

as a composer whose musical compositions have been performed in dance

productions both in the United States and in Europe. Scott Westerfeld moved into

writing as a ghostwriter and creator of educational software programs for children.

Now, as a fiction writer working primarily in the science-fiction genre, he writes

novels and short stories for both adults and younger readers.

Westerfeld is the author of five science fiction novels for adults. In 2000,

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book Evolution's Darling became a New York Times Notable Book. The Risen

Empire and The Killing of Worlds are parts one and two of the same book,

originally titled Succession. In 2005 the book was published in the UK as one

book under the title The Risen Empire.

Westerfeld has written three sets of books for young adults. The first is

called Midnighters (2004), the second is Uglies (2005) and the third set of books

is three stand-alone novels, So Yesterday (2004), Peeps (2005) andThe Last Days

(2006). Westerfeld has also written a few short stories that can be found online for

free. The Uglies series was optioned by Twentieth Century Fox as a possible film

series in 2006. It is going to be released in November 2012.

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CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

Background of the Study

This thesis presents an analysis of social and inner conflicts in Scott

Westerfeld’s Uglies. This novel belongs to science fiction, which is “a genre of

fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible (or at least

non-supernatural) content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology,

space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities” (“Science Fiction”). I am interested

in analyzing the novel because I like to think of how the world will look like in

the future. The analysis will also help people have possible images of the future

and give them ideas about development in technology.

The author of Uglies, Scott Westerfeld, is best known as a science-fiction

writer both for adults and young readers. In his fiction-writing career, Westerfeld

began with his novel Polymorph. His next novel for adults is Evolution’s Darling,

which earned him a Philip K. Dick Award special citation, and “was praised by

Trevor Dodge, who wrote a review for the Review of Contemporary Fiction”

(“Scott Westerfeld”). He has also won many other awards from his works. In

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is a required step for everyone to take at the age of sixteen. Uglies was published

in 2005 and named Best Book for Young Adults 2006 by the American Library

Association and CCBC Choices (Bouret).

Uglies is a futuristic story which is interesting to read and gives the readers

an image of what might happen in the future. “This book is for everyone as it

deals with human’s feelings in general and tells about what young people go

through and it is also connected to the issues of conformity, self-worth, body

image and individuality, as well as the impact of strong peer pressure” (“Uglies”)

so readers can learn from the book that it is fine to be themselves and that they are

supposed to accept differences in people. The book Uglies is sold all around the

world and has become the number-one New York bestselling book; the book has

also been adapted into a movie which will be released in late 2012 (“Scott

Westerfeld”).

The protagonist of the novel, Tally, experiences many conflicts, specifically

social and inner conflicts, which I will analyze in my thesis. Conflicts have

important roles in a story. “Conflict is something that makes a story worth

reading. Without struggles, moral choices, tension, and opposing forces, a story

would be nothing but a boring discussion of facts” (Richards). In Dictionary of

Literary Terms, Harry Shaw states five kinds of conflicts, but only three of them

are commonly found, namely physical, social and inner conflicts. Physical

conflict is a struggle between man and the physical world. “It represents man

versus forces of nature, the difficulties and dangers, for cold, heat, wild beasts in

the jungle; these are constant obstacles to mankind” ( 91). “Social conflict means

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psychological conflict, which means “a struggle between desires within a person”

(Shaw 91-92).

Statement of the Problems

The problems of this study are formulated as follows:

1. What conflicts does the protagonist in Uglies experience?

2. What are the causes of the conflicts?

3. What are the resolutions of the conflicts?

Purpose of the Study

Based on the statement of the problems presented earlier, the study is conducted

1. to identify the conflicts experienced by the protagonist in Uglies;

2. to identify the causes of the conflicts;

3. to identify the resolutions of the conflicts.

Method of Research

I apply the library research for my analysis. First, I read Uglies, a novel by

Scott Westerfeld, as the primary text. In addition, I got some supporting

information from a book and some online sources. Next, I analyzed the conflicts

experienced by the protagonist in the novel, drew some concluding remarks of the

result of my analysis, and finally wrote this thesis.

Organization of the Thesis

In my thesis, there are three chapters that are preceded by the Abstract, the

Acknowledgments and the Table of Contents. Chapter One is the Introduction,

which consists of the Background of the Study, the Statement of the Problems, the

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Chapter Two is the Analysis of Social and Inner Conflicts in Scott Westerfeld’s

Uglies and Chapter Three is the Conclusion. At the end of the thesis, there are the

Bibliography and the Appendices, which consist of the Synopsis of Uglies and the

Biography of Scott Westerfeld.

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CHAPTER THREE

CONCLUSION

In this chapter, I would like to draw a conclusion from my analysis of the

novel. This thesis has presented the analysis of three inner conflicts and two social

conflicts through Tally, the protagonist in Scott Westerfeld's novel, Uglies. Tally’s

first inner conflict is whether she has to betray her friend Shay or not. The second

inner conflict happens when she is to tell the true reason why she comes to the

Smoke. She experiences the third inner conflict when she has a dilemma whether

to ignore Shay’s feeling or to ignore her own feeling for David. Moreover, Tally’s

first social conflict happens between Tally and Shay regarding their different

opin-ions toward the authorities’ plan to force everybody to have a plastic surgery.

Fi-nally, the second social conflict occurs when Tally opposes the authorities

regard-ing their enforced obligatory operation.

I find that all of the inner conflicts are about betrayal. In the first inner

conflict, Tally decides to betray her friend, Shay, by taking the authorities’ offer to

reveal the Smoke’s location in order for her to be turned pretty. In fact, Tally has

promised Shay that she will keep the Smoke’s location as a secret. However, the

authorities offer her the worst choice she can imagine: find Shay or never turn

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the real reason she has come to the Smoke: she has betrayed her friend by

agree-ing to be a spy in the Smoke. When Tally gets to the Smoke, she starts to like the

place but the idea that she is a spy there keeps bothering her. In the third inner

conflict, Tally betrays her friend, Shay, by being together with David, although

she knows that Shay has a feeling for David, too. Shay seems to suspect Tally

when she asks Tally about the special someone who has given Tally the pendant.

Nevertheless, as the feelings between Tally and David grow stronger, Tally

de-cides to go with David.

On the other hand, both social conflicts have to do with having different

ideas. In the first social conflict, while Tally agrees with the operation to make

people pretty, Shay disagrees with it and does not want to get the operation. Tally

always admires pretty people as she thinks they are very attractive while Shay

thinks they are boring and people should keep their natural looks. Similarly, the

second conflict is about disagreement between Tally and the authorities regarding

the operation to make people pretty. At first, Tally is dying to be turned pretty.

Every night Tally look out of her window, watching the pretties partying all night

in New Pretty Town. Being pretty is what all the uglies dream for. But after Tally

gets to the Smoke and is told about the secret behind the operation, she

complete-ly changes her mind about her wish for the operation and her plan for helping the

authorities to reveal the Smoke. The authorities’ real intention of making all the

citizens have the operation is not only to make them pretty but also to make them

docile so that they are easily controlled.

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Difference of ideas and betrayal in the novel are both connected to acceptance,

something which is very important for most youngsters. The first inner conflict is

about acceptance by peer group. When Tally betrays her friend, Shay, it is because

Tally wants to be turned pretty to join her friend Peris and to be accepted in New

Pretty Town. The second inner conflict also concerns acceptance by peer group.

Tally is confused whether to tell her new friends or not about her reasons why she

is in the Smoke. She does not tell the true reasons because she wants to be

accept-ed by her new friends there. The third inner conflict is about acceptance of others

and acceptance of self. Tally and David start to like each other. David thinks that

she is beautiful and what is inside is more important than the outer looks. David

can make Tally feel beautiful without the operation. Then, Tally can see that

Da-vid is somehow beautiful regardless of his imperfect look. The first social

con-flict is about acceptance by peer group and acceptance of self. Tally fights with

Shay over the operation. Tally wants to be pretty so as to join her previous best

friend, Peris, and to be accepted in the New Pretty Town. However, to Shay, they

should accept themselves the way they are. Shay has no problem with the way she

looks. She wants people to have self-respect for themselves. The second inner

conflict is about acceptance of others. The authorities want the citizens to have the

operation to make them look similar to one another and to make them docile. The

authorities cannot accept the people the way they are. The people cannot have

their own individualities.

I like the story because it is a very meaningful story that makes me think

about beauty, self esteem, peer pressure, appearance and individuality which, in

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find the authorities’ idea to make people equal by turning all the citizens pretty

and to look the same is appealing. There is no war, no hunger, and no poverty.

There is no racism or discrimination and no fight over religion simply because

everyone is the same. There is no basis for hatred. However, if you think it

through again, you will find it a bit frightening to imagine how people’s minds are

changed and they will live their lives by doing the same things every day without

any personal desire to do anything different.

I think the story in the book is enjoyable and easy to follow yet it is

un-predictable. The story is set in a believable and well thought futuristic world.

Westerfeld’s writing is wonderful and he describes everything interestingly unique

and detailed. What I like is how Westerfeld comes up with such imaginative ideas

about a futuristic world, when everything can be recycled and anything you need

comes out of the wall in your room. I like the smart names of the places he

creat-ed, like the Rusty Ruins, which is a dead city where the people used too much

metal to build their city, which now has turned rusty. The Smoke is a place all the

runaways go to settle down, where they get back to nature and cut down trees and

burn them. I think it is very creative of him. I also like the futuristic technology

devices, like the hoverboards (transportation system that looks like a flying

skate-board working over a metal gird and magnets to stay up), hovercars (they work

the same way as the hoverboards but in car form), and bungee jackets (devices to

help you to escape burning buildings). My overall thought of the book is that it is

excellent. It is an easy book to get through and toward the end of the story, a lot of

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

Primary text

Westerfeld, Scott. Uglies. New York: Simon Pulse, 2005. Print.

References

Bouret, Jenisse. “Uglies.” Goodreads Inc. 2008. Web. 5 Nov. 2009

Richards, Elisabeth. “How to Write Conflict.” N.p. 2008. Web. 5 Nov. 2009

“Scott Westerfeld.” Answers Corporation. 2009. Web. 29 Oct. 2009

“Scott Westerfeld.” Wikimedia Foundation Inc. 2009. Web. 29 Oct. 2009

Shaw, Harry. Dictionary of Literary Terms. United States of America: Mc

Graw-Hill, 1972. Print.