Character Archetypes: Tally, from Uglies

Tally is many things in Uglies, by Scott Westerfield.  She tries to be a good friend, but she tends to worry about herself more than others, consumed by the wanting to be Pretty.  Tally struggles with finding who she is, who she should believe, who she should stand for, and what she wants to be.  On her mission to find her friend, she faces many challenges and becomes a hero.

Tally is a reluctant hero because she is caught between being Pretty and being a good friend to Shay.  To become Pretty she must turn in Shay, who ran away because she didn't want to be Pretty, or to be in a society that tells you what you will look like and who you will be.  Tally doesn't believe she will even be able to find her friend, and is unsure whether she will be able to betray her friend once she finds her.  She finds that she is much stronger than she had believed, and finds Shay.  This also makes her a wide-eyed innocent hero, for she starts as a person who thinks she knows what she wants.  As she goes through her journey, she comes closer to understanding what is the right thing to do.

Tally is a warrior, for on her way to find Shay she faces many challenges that push her to her mental and physical limits.  She had to walk and run very far, without much rest and no time to spare.  Tally gets caught in a large fire that nearly kills her, at the end of her journey.  Before this, she almost died many more times.  For example, she was on a bridge that had a hole she didn't see, and nearly fell to the rocky sea below her.  Then again, she had to fall with the trust that she would be caught by magnetism.  Throughout the book, she learns to be a feminist hero that has her own eyes looking at the world.

Tally's first mentor is Shay, who teaches her to ride a hover-board and makes her physically stronger.  The Herald of the story is Special Circumstances, for they are the people that tell Tally that she can turn her friend in, or she will never be Pretty.  They are also the the shadow in the story, for it is as if they are not there, until you do something they don't like, and they threaten you and are quite dangerous.  Perris is a shapeshifter because he was once Tally's good friend, but it is unclear what he is once he's pretty.  He seems to care for Tally, but his reasons are missing. 

Tally is a hero in Uglies.  In fact, Tally is multiple kinds of heroes.  She is a reluctant, wide eyed innocent, warrior, feminist hero.  She learns who she wants to be, and who she wants to trust.  Through an epic journey, and some epic relationships, she becomes truly Pretty on the inside.