Prejudice can brings surprises

Judging something based on beliefs can create many misinterpretations and eventually wrong opinions. People create judgments based on what others have told them about their experience. The person using those ideas to create their own judgments, should realize that basing a judgment on other people’s experience is not helpful. They realize the same at a later date about the mistake they have made by basing their judgments on other people’s experiences. One should not use merely the thoughts and suggestions from others to make judgments but should use their own experience too in order to realize the importance or true feeling of a place.
Tally uses information from others to create conclusions and judgments about the Smoke, but when she lives in the Smoke she realizes her misinterpretations through experience. To begin with, Tally is instigated by what she hears from others and creates a judgment about New Pretty Town. Tally asks Shay, “Did you ever think that when you’re a pretty you might not need to… mess things up? Maybe you are afraid of growing up!” (Westerfeld, 80). Tally uses what she has heard from other people and thinks that being pretty is the only way a person can grow up and tries to forcefully educate Shay about the same thing which even Tally is not clear of. Later, Tally starts to experiences the reality about the Smoke by actually living there. When David asks, “Being here in the Smoke. You’re not sure about it at all. [Tally replies,] No, I guess I’m not sure,” (Westerfeld, 206). Since Tally is wired to thinking that only New Pretty Town is where she wants to go, she is still blindfolded. Therefore only gaining a small amount of true opinion to say that she is not sure, but not firm about living in the Smoke. As a result of Tally’s long term experience in the Smoke, it changes her true opinion about it. She finally confesses to David, “I never meant to activate the tracker, honestly. I wanted to live in the Smoke,” (Westerfeld, 398). Tally would activate the tracker if she does not want to live in the Smoke and left to turn into a pretty, however she realizes how wrong she was when she uses information from others to judge a place. Using thoughts or information from others can create incorrect judgments whereas the experience of a place may help a person realize the truth about it.
Shay uses false information and has extremely high hopes about the Smoke but as time passes by, she finds it exactly otherwise. First, Shay creates a judgment about the Smoke based on her friends’ observations. When Tally asks Shay, “… how do people live out there Shay? [She replies,] They’ve… got technology…But they don’t put up a wall between themselves and nature,”(Westerfeld, 89). Shay creates this kind of judgment, not because she has been there, but because of what other people have observed and told her. Next, Shay carries her judgments with her to the Smoke but begins to experience the reality of it. David observes her reactions to the life in the Smoke, “Even Shay, who believes the operation is wrong, doesn’t get how deadly serious the Smoke is,” (Westerfeld, 206). Since Shay is still obsessed with her previous thoughts about the Smoke she does not actually feel the true meaning of it and so, does not look like she has a clear say about the place yet. Finally, as time passes by Shay has a clear view of the true meaning of the Smoke and knows how to react to it. After turning pretty she says, “It was good to come home Tally. It made me realize how crazy the whole Smoke thing was,” (Westerfeld, 377). Shay realizes that it is actually better to be part of the organized community than the Smoke because of her long term experience of the Smoke. To actually understand the true meaning of a certain place one must reside there for a reasonable amount of time rather than create prejudicial statements based on the observations of others.
In conclusion, to realize the importance of a place, one must create their own judgments after experiencing it, rather than relying on information that they get from others. Such a judgment could be far from the truth and can create disappointments or surprises. Better judgments are always based on experience not opinion from others.

Works Cited
Westerfeld, Scott. Uglies, New York ; Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing Division; 2011