Conformity

In this novel, the leaders of the current civilization have analyzed the people of the past and decided that discrimination had a great deal to do with the downfall of those people. For that reason, this new civilization has created a surgery that turns everyone's appearance into a pleasing sort of look that appeals to the basic biology of individuals. The idea is that if everyone is pretty, there will be no discrimination and no one will be overlooked by a potential mate, for a potential job, or discarded because of age.

Tally looks forward to the day when she will become a pretty. Tally has often played with pictures of herself on the computer, using programs to get an idea of what she will look like when the doctors have altered her appearance. Tally has been taught that her natural appearance is ugly and that only conformity...