Friday, January 13, 2012

The Pretties #2

“But somehow, the memories wouldn’t come. Thinking about those times was like banging her head against a wall. She chewed her lip. ‘How come I can’t remember? What’s wrong with me, Zane?’
‘That’s a good question. But whatever it is, it’s wrong with all of us’ … ‘Not just us. Everyone. At least, everyone here in New Pretty Town. Most people won’t even talk about when they were uglies. They say they don’t want to discuss boring kid stuff.’ … ‘But when you push them,’ Zane continued, ‘it turns out most of them can’t remember.’ “
Pg 140-141



Reaction: It's so weird how they can barely remember anything from before they were pretty. I used to think that the lesions just made them air-headed enough to not be able to think about really doing much else then partying and getting drunk but I never thought that the lesions would have caused them to have a hard time remember things. It's also interesting how people's first instinct is to just say that they don't talk about their úgly days' because they don't like to discuss 'boring kid stuff'. The book mentions a lot about how they consider the operation as a part of 'growing up' so that must be one of the things that pressures people into doing the operation since every kid eventually wants to feel grown up and mature.


Analysis: In this part the author starts to get into how much the lesions really affect people's brains. Zane starts to get Tally wondering what is wrong with her - what is wrong with all of them since nobody can seem to remember anything. Zane is further established as a character who asks questions and try's to think about the little details of the things he notices around them. He actually spends a good of his time thinking about the world around him which can't be said about the rest of the 'pretties'. Zane challenges society's standards and he brings these issues up with Tally. The author makes it clear that much of the things that 'pretties' say about being mature and not discussing 'boring kids stuff' is merely one of the works of the lesions in their brains making sure that they don't remember of their life before the operation and their heads are kept in a shallow manageable state.

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