The Uglies #4

"The boss wasn't really in charge here, Shay explained. He just acted like it, especially to newbies. But he was in command of the library, the largest of the buildings in the settlement's central square."

Pg 306

Reaction: I think it's really interesting that despite everything that the people in this settlement ('The Smoke') have to worry about ( from finding their own food in the wild, to constantly making sure the city can't track their location) they are still able to manage having something like a library. I think the fact that it mentions that the library is the biggest building there shows the importance of the library to these people. Libraries and books are unheard of back in the city so these people in cherish history, knowledge, and literature which is one of the many things that sets them apart from the city and their 'pretties'.

Analysis: With this passage I feel like the author shows that the importance of 'The Smoke' goes way past running away just so that they stay 'ugly'. Not having the operation done is just one of the many reasons that people chose to stay in 'The Smoke' rather that in the city. With the symbol of the library the author shows that books and history is one of the important things that is kept alive by the people in 'The Smoke' that is normally banished in the city. This brings out how vital 'The Smoke' is to the story in the sense that these are the people first choose to run away because feel the operation is wrong, but then they stay and support this place because of everything else that in stands for in the terms of what it really means to be human and it really starts to show what is really wrong with this society.