The Pretties #8

“ ‘Your father always suspected that being pretty-minded is simply the natural state for most people. They want to be vapid and lazy and vain’ - Maddy glanced at Tally - ‘and selfish. It only takes a twist to lock in that part of their personalities. He always thought that some people could think their way out of it.”
Pg 708

Reaction: It turns out in the end that when Tally took the pills she took one herself and gave the other to Zane. The pill that Zane took contained nanos that ate the lesions away, while Tally took the pill that was supposed to stop the nanos after they finished off the lesions, which consequently left Zane with brain damage after the nanos weren't stopped by the second pill. But this meant that the pill that Tally took did nothing when taken alone, so Maddy figures that Tally was somehow able to 'think' her way out of the clutches of the lesions. Whats interesting is how Maddy says that it's almost like human nature to actually want to be air headed and happy. It really makes it seem that they're really not changing much in people's minds their only making sure to keep prominent a trait that most people are already born with.


Analysis: The author finishes off the book with the twist that Tally was able to cure herself without any use of the pill. He also criticizes traits of people in the quote that its the 'natural state for people to want to be vapid, lazy, and vain'. The really important part is how he describes it as 'locking in that part of their personality' rather than changing us to make us that way. It really makes us stop and think if that is what we're really like today in our own society. When you look at it, its not hard to see how some people seem to want to be ignorant, and detached from reality simply because its easier that way. Most people just want the easier life possible and what better way to do it than to dumb ourselves down and ignore the world in order to shut everything off. We'll always be 'happy' with the right amount of ignorance.