Character development

In the beginning of this book Tally was an average ugly, pulling tricks and having fun just trying to pass the time before her dream of becoming pretty became reality. It was after her best friend abandoned her to have his operation and never visited her afterwards that she began to wonder how a surgery to change your looks could make you forget about your friends. Then when she was able to see him, his attitude seemed different and didn't act like the Peris she remembered growing up with. After their visit and Tally met Shay, she started to realize that some people wouldn't want the operation and to be their own ugly selves. And although she didn't understand why no one would want it, she accepted this fact and didn't judge her for her opinion. Then when Special Circumstances forced her to find the Smoke, she discovered a whole different world outside the strictly run community she had lived in all her life and began to live for herself. With hard work and learning to live off the land, Tally began to become a new person, one who wanted away from society and live in peace where she could think for herself. Then when David took her to meet his parents and she found out the truth about the operation, she officially chose to live her life with him. That night when she burned the transmitter and it alerted Special Circumstances to their whereabouts, she promised herself that she would make everything right no matter what. This showed that she had learned to value things other than herself and people did have a right to live their lives and not being controlled by others. Tally' s sacrifice for others at the very end proved that she was not the selfish, self-centered person she was at the beginning. All she ever wanted was to be pretty and have fun with her friends, but at the end she decided to do what she hated the most. And it was all in an effort to save her new friends and the innocent people she had accidentally betrayed by her rash actions to atone for her misdeeds and accept responsibility.