Divergent – Tris
I live in a society where you are asked to choose one behavior. Where I live there are 5 different factions that you have to choose from. There is the dauntless, amity, erudite, candor, and abnegation. I was raised an abnegation. My parents and older brother Caleb were meant to be abnegation, but not so much for me. Our life was so boring. We did not have entertainment or anything in that nature. We were expected to be selfless. I couldn’t handle it. It just wasn’t me. Thank goodness we didn’t have to stay in the faction we were born into. Our only way out was at the choosing ceremony. We would take an aptitude test to give us a recommendation on which faction would best suit us but ultimately, the choice was ours in the end.
The day before the choosing ceremony, we went to take an aptitude test. This test wasn’t any normal test. In this test, we entered a virtual world that put us in situations where we had to make quick choices that determined our outcome on the test. But the only catch to it was, you had no idea what type of test it would be beforehand. I will never forget the feeling that hit me when they called my name at the ceremony. When I heard, “From Abnegation: Susan Black and Beatrice Prior” my chest felt like it was going to explode. I couldn’t breathe. I walked into the testing room and sat in a chair. The lady administering my test was a girl named Tori, whom was Dauntless. She had a tattoo on her back of a hawk with a red eye. I asked her about it and she told me it resembled her conquered fear of the dark. She was surprised by my question and stated that she had never met a curious abnegation before. She attached electrodes to my head and told me to drink this unknown beverage, so I did. I felt ...
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...ned my allegiances.
Being initiated into Dauntless was tough and wearing to say the least. Immediately after the Choosing Ceremony we had to jump onto a moving train and off that train onto a rooftop. And it didn’t get any easier. From that rooftop we had to jump off into a square cut out at the bottom to get back to headquarters. Some initiates didn’t make it on the way. The training required us to fight one another each day until we were physically unable to fight. Gender didn’t matter in these fights. We also had to learn other challenging skills such as throwing knifes at targets and such. Like I said before, hard was an understatement.
All in all I am glad I made the choice I did. Abnegation was not the faction for me and I didn’t think Dauntless was either when I first was initiated. But I soon learned to love the difficulty of it and the thrill of everything.
As I began to walk to the stage to receive my certificate for making the AB honor roll, my knees begin to wobble. I tone out the cheers and the voice of my mom yelling my name. I wipe my sweaty palms on my jeans as I came closer to stairs. Each step I took, I continue to ask myself why, today of all days, I forget to bring my jacket.
Two weeks earlier in the darkness of an early April morning, I stand surrounded by close to three hundred other soldiers, filled with excitement and uncertainty. The air is heavy with the promise of another scorching day with the humidity reaching hundred percent. This day is called Zero Day. This is the day that determines which of the close to three hundred potential candidates get to make up the next class of two hundred Air Assault Students. The day begins early, 0330 to be exact, and with a lot of yelling. Immediately we are instructed to form one mass formation, the yelling continues. The Air Assault Sergeants, otherwise know as Black-shirts because of their distinctive uniform, take command. This is their yard and they make sure each and every one of us understands that. One by one soldiers are called out of ranks to receive their roster number. From this point on I am no longer be known as SGT Nealand, now I am Roster Number 442 or simply 442.
Everyone knows about the geeks, the freaks, the jocks, the preps, and every other Hollywood idolized clique. Each person in the group donates their own similar attributes, which in turn come together to make the group what it is. In “Divergent”, different classes of people are split into ‘factions’, or, in other words, extreme cliques. These like-minded people have their opinions on how the world was corrupted. The group names and their faction missions are as follows: the Erudite (intelligence), the Dauntless (bravery), the Abnegation (selflessness), Amity (peacekeepers), and the Candor (the honest), all of which uphold their beliefs by exerting the upmost radicality of their manifestos. Each faction then contributes their own ideological products to help all of society. These groupings work “toward a better society and a better world” (pg.44), however, in the end, they are brutally, and massively abraised with the strong will of one lunatic faction member. Others may say that splitting us into groups of peers that we agree with is a good idea, yet it will not take long until the enemy lies and infiltrates our systems, becoming too powerful for our faction to overcome. This is why we all have to mingle, using our talents together for the betterment of society.
A book that provides entertainment as well as life lessons is hard to come by in this day in age. The kind of books that should be on the summer reading list must have a large population appeal and deep character development that makes you feel like you are in the story. Veronica Roth’s book Divergent, which provides you with all the factors that make up good literature, should stay on the summer reading list. This book offers all these and more throughout its twists and turns. Divergent should stay on the summer reading list because of the life lessons taught in the story, the large population appeal and deep character development.
The most remarkable thing about literature is its effect on society and the individual. Every once in a while a book is published that truly relates to those who read it. Divergent just so happens to be one of those books. Divergent is an extreme take on the differences of what virtues humans value to form the perfect society. The book’s contents are almost philosophical, acting as sustenance for the heart and soul, meanwhile highlighting the many problems we face in modern society through quotes in a subliminal fashion that coincide wonderfully with the story. One such quote can be found on pg.441 and it reads ‘’ Human beings as a whole cannot be good for long before the bad creeps back in and poisons us again.’’ It almost breaks the 3rd wall. Human beings were born with both flaws and goodness. We are a double edged sword with extreme potential on both points. Deep down there is something dark in everybody. There are those who can control it and those who are weak and succumb to it.
Beatrice Prior lives in a future version of Chicago where the people live in 5 distinct separated factions. Each faction has a different purpose and way of living. Dauntless, dangerous and protective, guards the city from the unknowns of the outside world. Erudite, smart and cunning, develop the city’s high-tech medicines and technology. Abnegation, selfless and caring, is responsible for taking care of the factionless and running the city’s government. Candor, always honest, provide the judges and lawyers for the city. And last but not least Amity, loving and peaceful, run the farms on the outside of the fences that surround the city. The Prior family belong to the Abnegation faction, and Beatrice has been taught her whole life how to be selfless and caring. When the children of this town turn sixteen they go through a special test that tells them which faction they are most suitable for. Most people only get one result from this test but Beatrice’s test stated that she was aptitude for three factions: Erudite, Abnegation, and Dauntless. This is very rare, but there are some other people like her. They are called Divergents. The day after the test there is a choosing ceremony where the children pick which faction they would like to be in. If they pick a different faction than what their family is in they are “shunned” and hardly ever see them again. Beatrice chooses the Dauntless faction and her family, and most of the town, is in shock. A faction transfer from Dauntless to Abnegation is almost unheard of. But choosing Dauntless is not all the initiates have to do to get into it. All new Dauntless initiates have to train and compete to become a member of Dauntless. One Dauntless tradition is initiates can chan...
Introduction Individuals often yield to conformity when they are forced to discard their individual freedom in order to benefit the larger group. Despite the fact that it is important to obey the authority, obeying the authority can sometimes be hazardous, especially when morals and autonomous thought are suppressed to an extent that the other person is harmed. Obedience usually involves doing what a rule or a person tells you to, but negative consequences can result from displaying obedience to authority; for example, the people who obeyed the orders of Adolph Hitler ended up killing innocent people during the Holocaust. In the same way, Stanley Milgram noted in his article ‘Perils of Obedience’ of how individuals obeyed authority and neglected their conscience, reflecting how this can be destructive in real life experiences. On the contrary, Diana Baumrind pointed out in her article ‘Review of Stanley Milgram’s Experiments on Obedience’ that the experiments were not valid, hence useless.
A week before the test our teacher gave us a heads up on when the test was going to be. In my mind, I thought the test would be a multiple choice test and that the questions would be similar to the ones went in class. So, as the weekend approached, believing I had the test covered, I went on with being reckless on the weekend. However, it turns out that what I thought was the time of my life ended up biting me in the rear end.
October 2, 2001 started like a normal Tuesday morning at Hotchkiss High School. As I lazily wandered past Mr. Schelle into his advisory class, I noticed that he seemed quite upset about something. I dared not ask what had happened, for it was really none of my business. Soon after the bell rang, Mr. Schelle, whose eyes were welling up with tears, struggled to compose himself enough to say, "Guys, I've got some bad news for you." I sensed a bit of hesitation as he proceeded to read a letter as clearly as possible. The letter explained that Derek Grillos, a sophomore at our school and a good friend of mine, had died the night before. At first, my mind failed to register his name. I sat wondering who Derek Grillos was. As everyone questioned Mr. Schelle to find out who Derek was, I sat quiet. Finally, the fact that Derek, my "soccer buddy", had died hit me and hit me hard. I could feel my eyes darting back and forth in confusion and my heart pounding so hard I could feel it in my toes. I stared aimlessly at everything yet nothing. I su...
Societies that esteem social conformity view defiance as a by-product of insolence rather than an act of courage. Isolation of individuals that do not abide by the set restrictions is another common characteristic of systems that encourage mob mentalities. As a result, in order to be accepted by peers, individuals often have to function based on societal expectations. Some consider pursuing their own opinions and ideas against the social norms. This often garners backlash and hostilities from other members of society, ranging from physical and verbal abuse to denial of individual’s competence and sanity to complete alienation from society. Although some people are able to champion their freedom of expression and right to opinions over the need
Why did you decide to choose dauntless over abnegation? This was a very hard decision at first because my dad expected me to pick abnegation. However, in the end I was debating between Erudite, Dauntless, Candor, or Amity. I ended up choosing Dauntless after I had gone through this process, “Not
Obedience and disobedience play a huge role in our lives as humans. We begin with disobedience. With that, though, we develop the ability to choose to obey or disobey. In doing this, we obey the highest calling that we must: human nature. No matter how we modernize as a society, the primal instincts and decisions that rise up in every human being are very much the same as they have always been.
An individual's internal values have the capacity to persuade them into doing what they otherwise wouldn’t be inclined to do. These sacrifices are made in the name of the "Greater Good", when a person's ideals lead them to visualize only what they want to protect, rather than themselves. Often humans are perceived as a selfish species, but as other species do, we also have protective instincts, and when those instincts kick in, we have the capacity to be remarkably self-abnegating. Self-abnegation is a quality that all of us obtain for something, but that something depends entirely on our person's values. Our values are the motivator for sacrificing ourselves. This selfless quality reveals itself when the circumstances
My stomach weakens with a thought that something is wrong, what would be the answer I could have never been ready for. I call my best friend late one night, for some reason she is the only person’s voice I wanted to hear, the only person who I wanted to tell me that everything will be okay. She answer’s the phone and tells me she loves me, as I hear the tears leak through, I ask her what is wrong. The flood gates open with only the horrid words “I can’t do this anymore”. My heart races as I tell her that I am on my way, what I was about to see will never leave my thoughts.
Divergent is a #1 best-selling New York Times book. In 2012, it reached #1 for paperback best sellers. It is one of the best books I have ever read. Here is a quote from the New York Times website: “Divergent holds its own genre, with brisk pacing, lavish flights of imagination, and writing that occasionally startles with fine detail.”