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Adolfo Chavez
English 114B
Professor Ahn
May 11, 2014
Civil Liberties vs. National Rights (Novel vs. Our World)
Many disputes arose after 9/11 about the importance of civil liberties and national
security among United States citizens. Some may argue the value of an individuals civil liberties
is far more important over national security. While others favor national security by giving up
some civil liberties to feel safe. I believe both civil liberties and national security should be at
balance, although that is not so in our world. Similar to our world, Uglies by Scott Westerfeld
shows signs of both individualism and social harmony within the communities. Special
Circumstances view the importance of national security and civil liberties and try to balance
them out but result in unfavorable outcomes. Uglies is a good example of how the idea behind a
balance in civil liberties and national security seems like the way to go, but falls short when its
practiced, similar to the way they are in our world in both the government and society.
The concepts of individualism and social harmony can be seen within Uglies in the
society in which they live. For example, the children who live in Uglyville show more
individualism that those who live in New Pretty town. The Uglies still have a sense of freedom in
which they still have free-will (or so to speak). Unlike the new pretties who have lesions in their
brain which are used in a way to be controlled by Special Circumstances, the Uglies still have a
chance to rebel from what the society thinks is the correct way to live life. Once they turn 16
Uglies have to undergo the surgery which transforms them into new pretties and are relocated to
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a new town where they are to live, however their freedoms are very limited. The concept of new
pretty town is to live life as one huge never ending party, as it is told to the Uglies who are
looking forward to being pretty. For example, Paris visits Tally once or twice throughout the
novel, even though they are free to visit Uglyville as much as they like. The Uglies arent
allowed to visit the New Pretties limited the freedom they have as a citizen within the entire
community. Everyone made morphos... It was a great waste of a day, figuring out all the
different ways you could look when you finally became pretty. (Westerfeld 40). The uglies are
allowed to mess around with how they could look after taking the surgery. Special
Circumstances gives enough freedom to the Uglies to keep them interested in getting the surgery
so they wont rebel or act against it as well as hype up the New Pretty life to manipulate their
decision on taking the surgery. This can be seen when Tally visits Paris in New Pretty town for
the first time and he tries to re assure her that being pretty is the best thing in life (Westerfeld
18). Similar to how both Uglies and Pretties have freedoms in their society, we do have freedoms
as well in our world.
Civil liberties can be found in the novel Uglies that can also be found in our world.
Similar to our world, the people in the society of Uglies have certain rules to live by as well as
having rights themselves. The Uglies have what seems like a freedom of speech while they still
live in Uglyville. Theyre part of the operation, just like all the bone sculpting and skin
scrapping. Its a part of the way being pretty changes you. (Westerfeld 252). Once they go to
New Pretty town they lack the creative capability to rebel or to question the ruling power which
governs their lives because of the lesions that are placed in the brain during the surgery. Similar
in a way to our world, we have freedom of speech but that right extends only so much. The
freedom can go as far only if it doesnt violate another citizens freedoms or if because its a
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threat to national security. Civil liberties in both Uglies and our world work to achieve social
harmony within the society. For example, the purpose of New Pretty town was to make everyone
see that community as a utopian community in which nothing goes wrong and everyone is
happy. Civil liberties in our world work to keep everyone safe and happy by giving freedom to
the citizens. Although civil liberties are revered highly in our society, National security also
plays an important part in our world.
National security is an important part in our world and has a significant role in the novel
Uglies. In the novel, Special Circumstances values national security above all which is why they
go above and beyond in trying to capture the Smokies. Other cities sometimes pose a challenge.
And sometimes those few people who live outside the cities can make trouble. (Westerfeld
104). They see the Smoke and its citizens as a threat to the society they created in New Pretty
Town and Uglyville. For example, Tally and Shay run away to the Smoke (both for different
reasons) where they meet people who live in a different way than they are accustomed to back
home. Special Circumstances wanted to get rid of this threat because of the knowledge they held
that could be a threat to all the Pretties and Uglies. On the other hand, the Smoke viewed Special
Circumstances and their surgery a threat to their way of life, which is why chose to run away and
live secluded away from that society. The Smoke although its a much smaller community than
what Special Circumstances build, they put emphasis on equality as major contributor to the
national security of the community. What this means is to avoid inner conflict that can jeopardize
the security of the community itself, they view everyone as an equal whether youre ugly or not.
While Special Circumstances view on national security is more of a tyrannical approach, they
severely limit the rights of the citizens in order to make national security their top priority.
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Contrary to what some may say on which is more important civil liberties or national
security it takes a balance of both for a community to function, but thats not the case in both the
novel and our world. In our world the importance of both these concepts is always a heated topic.
Many citizens would say civil rights are more important than national security, although many
would have said the latter is more important shortly after the events such as what occurred in
9/11. Its important to understand that you cant have 100 percent security and then have 100
percent privacy and zero inconvenience were going to have to make some choices as a
society. (Star Tribune). Although the citizens tend to want something that seems near
impossible to obtain, there are those who see why the imbalance between civil liberties and
national security is a necessity. The NSA is in charge of collecting information from certain
servers such as Google, Facebook, and YouTube. This can, in a sense invade and individuals
rights and privacy, but how does such actions conducted by the NSA and other government
functions get justified? Claims are made saying that the content of email, phone call, etc. arent
investigated, only the possibility that they may compromise national security (Pierre). These
investigations only search for a pattern in phone activity or other such actions that can lead to
threats of national security and rarely leads to content monitoring of emails and/or phone calls,
so not to completely invade peoples right to privacy. In the novel, Special Circumstances limit
the freedoms just enough that the Uglies and New Pretties are kept happy, but to secure national
safety. While the Smoke secure national security by providing equality to all the citizens. Special
Circumstances give the illusion of civil liberties to both the citizens of Uglyville and New Pretty
Town in order to prevent internal conflicts to rise. The Smoke are more lenient towards civil
liberties to the point where they dont try to control or govern the citizens within the community.
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The idea of balancing civil liberties and national security are in both our world and Uglies, but
the actual practice of the two concepts proves to show an imbalance between the two.

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Work Cited
Hines, Pierre. Civil Liberties vs National Security Debate: Where Do You Stand?
Policymic.com. 12 June. 2013. Web. 2 Feb. 2014.
Westerfeld, Scott. Uglies. New York: Simon Pulse, 2005. Print
Editorials. NSA Scandal: National Security vs. Individual Privacy. Star Tribune, 10 June 2013.
Web. 04 Feb. 2014