In a futuristic Chicago, a new world has emerged. To keep the peace, the survivors created five societal divisions, which they called factions. Each faction was given specific roles for an orderly society. The opening scenes of our story reveal a walled city, surrounded by what used to be a lake, where a large ship sits rusting away. There are trucks and some cars, but the main transportation throughout the city is the elevated train. The citizens of this metropolis seem content to follow the rules as they exist, except for the factionless and those who do not feel that they fit in. One of those people is a young 16 year-old girl named Beatrice Prior, a member of the Abnegation faction, who lives with her mother, father and brother. She feels …

A terrible war changed the world...

different

Veronica Roth’s DIVERGENT –An Examination by John Longmuir

Humans are a restless species, with rapid increases in knowledge and technological advancements, yet struggling to find that happy, peaceful medium between utopia and dystopia

What purpose did the five factions in our story serve? How did it impact individual freedoms and thought?

Young Beatrice Prior, her friends, and many others never really knew much about the terrible war. One of the things they believed was that their society operated in a peaceful, orderly fashion because of the five factions: Candor (the honest),

Abnegation (the selfless), Dauntless (the brave), Amity (the peaceful), and Erudite (the intelligent)

Or so they thought…

Will there ever be a time when there is not conflict of some type going on somewhere in the world?

There are many things not quite right in our story’s world, and it seems like it’s difficult for many of its citizens to see that and to act. Or is it?

Is the story’s author, Veronica Roth, holding a mirror to our eyes and imploring us to understand that if we continue the way we are living we

are destined to repeat history – for good or bad - over and over again?

Let’s move on and discuss our story, our hero and its connection and warnings to our society

Our primary hero, Tris (formerly Beatrice), daughter of Andrew and Natalie Prior, and sister of older brother Caleb, always knew she would help others, but how she wasn’t quite sure.

She didn’t fully understand why, but members of the Dauntless faction fascinated her.

After her “aptitude” test, Tris began to understand why she was attracted to other than her own faction – she was Divergent, possessing equal parts of Abnegation, Dauntless and Erudite. This made her different and, unknown to her, a target, because she wouldn’t conform.

After choosing the Dauntless faction – and surprising her family – Beatrice joins other members of her new faction and run to catch the train. They disembark while it is still moving, jumping and rolling onto a roof. They are told the price of admission to the Dauntless faction is jumping from the roof into the unknown. Beatrice volunteers to go first, and takes a leap of faith. At the bottom she falls into a safety net and is helped off. When asked her name she pauses, thinks carefully, and then replies, “Tris.”

Tris displayed qualities of an independent, free-thinking, concerned individual, and she understood that her future included helping others. She was about to embark on a grueling, painful training process that would push her to her limits

Tris meets many new people. A few become friends, others rivals, and some, like Four, an unknown quantity.

Tris and the new group are told that only the top ten initiates will become members.

Tris is determined to be one of those who become a Dauntless member.

Tris dedicates herself to her physical, mental and psychological training

With the help of her friends, Tris is able to endure great suffering and pain, continues to improve, and raises her ranking.

During knife training, Tris volunteers to take Will’s place after he drops his knife and is told to stand at the target while someone throws knives at him.

Even though she was beaten badly and knocked out during training, Tris gets up from her bed, joins the group, and manages to participate in a game similar to capture the flag, formulating the winning strategy

During this time, Tris learns more about Four, as he helps and encourages her.

We learn many things about Tris through her actions: She is strong-willed, determined, a friend, willing to stand up with and for others, and an uncommon leader.

After making it through the first cuts, Tris and other Dauntless members help to unload food from trucks. Trisunexpectantly meets her mother, who warns her to be careful because some people are looking for her type. She wonders how her mother knew about her, and Trissupsects that her mother may also be Divergent.

Tris is put through more testing by Four. She is injected with a serum and experiences fearful situations, which

she is able to escape with ease. Four demands to know how she did it. He wants to know the results of her

“aptitude” test. She tells him she was Abnegation, but he does not believe her. Tris knows that others cannot find

out that she is Divergent, because she could be killed

Problems of this society include: Barriers, segregation, monitoring, fear of non-conformity, the use of drugs (for testing and submission), breaking up and dividing families, and secret

organizations. Amidst all of this, Tris begins to doubt that she belongs in the Dauntless faction

Tris leaves camp and goes to see her brother to tell him about her fears that she does not belong in Dauntless

Although she has learned and grown in many ways, Tris still has doubts if she’s made the right decision

Caleb tells her that the Erudite faction wants to replace Abnegation as the ruling government. As she leaves the building, Tris encounters Jeanine Matthews, the leader of the Erudite faction, and is told that human nature is the enemy, and that Abnegation is under investigation for breaking the law and harboring Divergents.

Tris understands the problem and has met her enemy. When she returns to camp she confides in Four. He promises to protect her. Tris and Four grow closer together and begin to fall in

love. Four helps Tris prepare for the final test, so that she will not reveal that she is Divergent

Tris is able to pass the final test without revealing herself and becomes a new member of Dauntless

Tris has shown great resourcefulness

Following the final test, all Dauntless members are injected with what they are told is a tracking device but it is really a mind control drug. But it

doesn’t work on Divergents like Tris and Four.

The next morning, Tris watches as other Dauntless members under mind control

board a train with their weapons. She falls in line and pretends to be like them. She finds

Four, who acknowledges her presence. When the train stops they find themselves at Abnegation where Dauntless begins to attack

Tris realizes that the problem is much larger than she thought. She is determined to stop Jeanine and those working with her. She no longer doubts herself and her abilities, because she is strong and smart. She

realizes that she must stop the attack on Abnegation which threatens all the people and the government.

When the mind-controlled Dauntless faction began attacking Abnegation, Tris and Four go to her house

to look for her parents, but they were gone.

Tris an Four are caught and about to be killed, but they are able to get away, only to be caught by Jeanine, and then

separated. As Tris is led away, her mother shoots the captors and the two of them escape. While looking for Tris’s father, her mother gets shot and dies in her arms

Even though the rules said “Faction before blood,” Tris understood what family was all about

– and she had no intentions of giving that up

Tris leaves her mother and enters a building where she finds her father, brother and many others. Tris takes

command and leads them back to Dauntless on the train, where they fight their way in and her father is killed

Tris make her way to the control center and tries to free Four, unders some form of mind control, attacks her.

Jeanine tells Tris that “they” can’t afford resistance, and watches as Four and Tris fight

Heroes understand and accept the fact that their cause may require great sacrifice

Tris is able to get through to Four and stop him from fighting her, and they work

together to attack the others in the room

Throwing a knife, Tris is able to pin Jeanine’s hand to the computer console. With a knife to Jeanine’s throat, Tris injects

her with the mind control serum, and tells her to stop the attack on Abnegation and to erase the program from the

computer. She complies and the Dauntless members come to their senses, no longer under mind control and stop the attack.

What if Tris had missed with the knife throw? She displayed confidence, quick-thinking, determination,

decisiveness, and the willingness to take a risk, all characteristics of a leader and growing hero

With the immediate threat averted, Tris, Four and others jump onto the

train where there is time for reflection.

Tris and Four talk. She says that she doesn’t know who she is anymore. Four tells her he

knows exactly who she is. While it has been building for a while, Tris and Four truly find each other as the train speeds off to the

end of the line where they jump off.

The train in the Divergent world plays an important role in the story. Without it, how could the true Dauntless faction – the protectors of the people – travel around as easily and quickly? Would Tris, Four and the others have had the

success they did without the train?

Our Hero’s Journey

Tris’s journey begins in the future world of Abnegation – the selfless faction – which seems very ordinary

Tris’s call to adventure has been building over time and comes to fruition when she chooses her new faction - Dauntless

Without even knowing it, Jeanine Matthews provides assistance when she tells Tris and the others to choose wisely and to choose who they are Tris departs from her ordinary world

when she jumps onto the train and then leaps from a roof into the unfamiliar world of Dauntless

Tris immediately faces trials from new recruits and members of Dauntless. Plus, she must hide the fact that she is divergent – which is both a source of benefits and concerns – while overcoming the difficulties of the training process. She also finds new friends and allies, plus a mentor by the name of Four, with whom she develops a close relationship

After passing all the tests, Tris becomes a member of Dauntless and faces her worst fear when members are subjected to mind control and made to attack the Abnegation faction

Her crisis takes the form of fighting to save her family and friends of Abnegation, only to have to kill her friend, Will, in self-defense, and to watch both her mother and father get shot and die.

Continuing to fight against the Erudite faction led by Jeanine, Tris is able to breach the control center, and, together with Four, stop the mind control and attack

Our story closes – but does not complete the circle – with Tris and Four escaping on the train. Together they find each other, beginning a new life somewhere at the end of the line

What makes Tris a hero in the story Divergent?

Selflessness: By birth and growth, the Abnegation faction instilled in her the desire to help others, and to put others’ needs before her. Tris never lost sight of this great quality even after joining Dauntless.

Physically small: Not being large and powerful, she must overcome some obvious limitations and expectations. She is not someone you would typically look at and say, “Now there’s a hero that I can follow!”

Strong-willed: She is Divergent and refuses to be labelled as “one” thing; she doesn’t allow herself to be controlled or manipulated

Determination: As Tris grows she faces many difficult trials and experiences, and, while she doesn’t always come out on top at first, she learns and grows, and continues to work hard until she achieves her goals

Bravery: Early in he life she knew she was different and she showed that she had great courage to choose the Divergent faction; when she jumped off the high roof into the unknown proved she had what it takes

What is the connection and warning to our society?

I believe that the Divergent world is very similar to the world we live in now – perhaps with a few exceptions: Walled cities with unknown things outside the walls

Although some countries restrict or do not allow their people outside of their borders Dividing everyone into specific groups with designated tasks

Although a variety of divisions (schools, wealth, health, employment) happen from a young age Using drugs to evaluate an individual’s personality and direction in life

Although drugs have been purposely misused on unsuspecting individuals for the sake of “studies” Expecting young people to choose between family and a group, with no turning back

Although young people choose friends over family all the time, but they are always welcome back Administering drugs for the purpose of mind control

Well, maybe this is one that really hasn’t changed - yet People who seek to find and eliminate those that think and act differently and independently

Although you’ll always find narrow-minded people who won’t accept other ways of thinking People who want to start a war with and overthrow the ruling power

Oops! That’s been a problem since day one

I believe that Veronica Roth has taken the world as we know it today, with all its goodness, imperfections and problems, and pushed them outside of what we consider “normal,” creating a futuristic world that sends shivers down your spine. Do we want to experience a devastating war, to re-build a peaceful society, only to see it torn apart again by acts by violence? All because we are afraid to understand one another? I believe that diversity is the warning to our society. Can we find a way to accept everyone and their beliefs? What if we refuse to allow divergence in our world?