Final Thoughts

So, now you've (hopefully) gone through and read this little blog I've written about the book "Divergent" by Veronica Roth.  But what do I really think about it?  Well, it was a pretty good book, all things considered.  Yeah, it played into the awkward-turned-action girl dystopian-future trope that's oh-so popular right now, but it gave it its own unique spin, had a particular charm to it.  As for the plot...it was awkwardly paced at times, but it was quite good overall.  It had great cynical comedy, particularly toward the end when Tris becomes Little Miss Snarky in the face of death.  But it knew when to be serious, it knew when tears were appropriate.  Oh my, did it ever.  I think Tris learns, we all learn, how strong her family is.  We learn the hard way.  We learn that blood should come before faction, not  the other way around as Eric is so fond of preaching.  And throughout the whole thing, as Tris learns, we also learn that shoving yourself into a neat little box is never the thing to do.  It strips you of yourself.  And none of the virtues can exist without the others, they intertwine, connect, and interact.

So what do I think of this book on a scale of five?  Well, considering the emotional response it elicited from me, I'd give it a four out of five.  Almost perfect, not quite, but very near.

Erudite Fashion

Perfect for the Erudite on the go, this outfit, of course, fits the dresscode of incorporating the color blue.  Various shades comprise this airy, comfortable outfit, making for a perfect ensemble for the Erudite who just wants to hunker down and study, as any good Faction member would.  A watch has been included to keep track of the time for longer sessions, or for timing experiments in the lab, and flats are the shoe of choice: practical, sensible, comfortable, and easy to wear.  No Erudite could resist this outfit!

Questions, Questions, Questions

Tris’s mom says, “Human beings as a whole cannot be good for long
before the bad creeps back in and poisons us again” (p. 441). Do you
agree or disagree? Why?

I, sadly, must agree.  When we look out on human history, there have been many instances where we have proclaimed that "This is it!  This is the time it all sticks!  The time we're peaceful and STAY THAT WAY!"  World War One, for example, was called the War to End All Wars because it was believed that nobody would ever go to war again after seeing those horrors.  But greed and malice slipped back into the hearts of men, and the dictatorships of the era rose, and the Second World War began.  I would love if this type of cycle didn't exist, but it seems persistent.  Even good intentioned things seemed doomed to sour, such as Karl Marx's model for Communism, which is now a negative buzzword, because human greed and selfishness corrupted it.  Is it any wonder a woman from Abnegation is the source of this quote?

What is the difference between being fearless and learning to control 

your fears? Do you believe anyone can be truly fearless? What does Tris 

mean when she says that “half of bravery is perspective” (p. 458)? 

Let me start with saying it is impossible to be truly fearless if you have a lick of sense about you.  Only fools lack fear.  That is the key difference between "fearless" and "controlling fears".  When you are in control of your fears, you are willing to do something in spite of that fear, that's courage/  When Tris says that "half of bravery is perspective" she means that part of being brave in a situation is considering what's going on, considering the consequences to those around you if you don't act, and then taking control of the situation to change the outcome for the better.

Tris says about Candor, “It must require bravery to be honest all the 

time” (p. 62). Do you agree? Which do you think is a braver faction, 

Dauntless or Candor? Would you like to live in a society like Candor, 

where everyone tells the truth no matter how hard it is to hear?

If one is raised to think that way, it no longer requires bravery.  It's all perspective.  Had Tris joined Candor rather than Dauntless, it would have taken all of her bravery to learn to tell the truth.  Oh look, overlap of the virtues; what do you know?  Anyhow, I think they both require their own types of Bravery.  Dauntless requires bravery of the physical kind, as they keep the peace as the police force and armed forces.  Candor are the judges.  That requires a mental and emotional bravery.  They have to be prepared to put anybody they know to a punishment if they know they committed a crime, they have to be willing to administer the proper justice to the proper criminal.  I already try to live in a Candor society, and I acknowledge that I have no filter.  If I think something, I say it.  Tact is something for special occasions.

 What was the reason behind the creation of the factions? Do you think the 

factions are working “toward a better society and a better world” (p. 44) as 

they say they are? What about the structure seems to be working for Tris’s 

society? What doesn’t seem to be working at all? 

The Factions were created to do away with conflict in the world brought about by that pesky notion of free-thinking.  I mean, if you can get away with thinking however you feel, all willynilly, who know's what you're going to do.  The factions most certainly are not working toward that goal, they are working for their own gain, in some fashion or another, except maybe Abnegation and Amity.  Nothing seems to be working for it.  They all seem fragmented in the way they progress, Erudite is EXTREMELY advanced, while Amity seems stuck in typical agrarian ways.

What does it mean to be factionless in Tris’s society? How does a person 

become factionless?

To be factionless is more than to be homeless, or to be without a faction.  It is to be worthless, less than worthless.  It is to be unable to think, to possess no virtue.  It is to lack selflessness, courage, intellect, kindness, and honesty.  A person becomes factionless by failing to join a faction by failing their one specific virtue, in whatever manner that may be.

My Own Musical Opinion

I think this song just fits the tone perfectly for the Dauntless attack on the Abnegation compound.  Not only does the title, which is what initially grabbed my eye, a no-brainer fit, but the tones fit.  The heavy percussion evokes two ideas: rhythmic marching caused by the serum, and shots being fired.  The discordant strings played throughout capture the chaos the scene quickly devolved into.  As the song grows to a crescendo, Tris and Four break away from the crowd, fighting their faction-mates, as the gong chimes in the background.  It grows to a complete fervor, and then...silence as Tris finds sanctuary with her mother.

The Author's Musical Opinions

So, when Veronica Roth says this is a good song for Chapters 38 and 39 (when Tris is trying to get Four snapped out of the simulation he's trapped in by the Erudite) SHE MEANS IT.  The refrain for this song

"Hold on to the world we all remember fighting for
There's still strength left in us yet
Hold on to the world we all remember dying for
There's still hope left in it yet"

Is something that sounds like what Tris would be nigh screaming at Four, what her view of their world is, dystopian it may be.  She wants to fight for what she cares for, and at this point, she cares about Four.  She wants to save him from Jeanine, from himself.  She's desperate, not for her own safety, but for his own.  She sacrifices her own safety in a last-ditch effort to help him "Arise and be\All that [he] dreamed".

Factions?

After taking the book's "Faction Quiz" in the back, I came out with a total of a score of

• 2 Abnegation
• 2 Erudite
• 2 Dauntless
• 1 Amity

Well, first off, I expected more Amity than that.  Heck, I expected a mix of Amity and Abnegation if I mixed anything.  Since this would, by the book's definition, give me a "Divergent" result, I guess I'd end up picking Erudite or Abnegation.  Erudite would be a simple choice for me because I am generally a clever person, and the pursuit of knowledge is a thrill for me.  They do, however, strike me as a bit...sterile.  Not uncreative, but not creative in the places I admire necessarily.  Abnegation, on the other hand, I admire for the humanitarian acts they perform.  I try to make myself less important, but I can be raucously arrogant at times, and would likely struggle in their society.  I guess it would be hard for me to isolate a single, solitary virtue that one of the factions value for me to cultivate in myself because I just don't work that way.  I guess Erudite would be a better pick though.  Not Jeanine's, but the one described in the Manifesto, that sees knowledge as a gift everyone is entitled to, one that should be used for the benefit and betterment of mankind.  Although...Abnegation and Dauntless both look nice as well.  Selflessness, pure and simple, and utter justice and courage.  Both worthy virtues.

I'm at an impasse.

Quotable Quotes

“I have a theory that selflessness and bravery aren't all that different.”
-Tris

This is one of the first character-defining moments for Tris early in the book.  Up until this point, having lived as Abnegation, being selfless, self-forgetting, and "Stiff", she thought she could never live up to the ideals of Dauntless, particularly as she lives as a Divergent.  She thought she was an outsider more than ever, fitting in nowhere, a jack of all trades, master of none.  But here, she finally sees clearly.  She finally understands what nobody else does; that being selfless and being brave, in fact all five of the traits, are not mutually exclusive.  And then she kicks it into overdrive.

“I feel like someone breathed new air into my lungs. I am not Abnegation. I am not Dauntless. 
I am Divergent.” 
-Tris

Another characterization moment for Tris.  She has realized something deeply personal about herself.  She has realized that she is not a single thing.  She does not just possess bravery, nor just selflessness.  She is in command of her actions, and refuses to fit into a neat little box.  She is Divergent.  She is her own person.

"It’s when you’re acting selflessly that you are at your bravest."

-Four

This can speak pretty deeply to anybody reading.  It is deeply significant to the fact that the virtues of the factions are not mutually exclusive.  When any of the characters rebelled, they could have easily been thinking of themselves, and nobody else.  But...they weren't.  Tris is the biggest example of this.  She subconsciously does things without caring for herself.  The Dauntless, contrariwise, need someone else to do things for them, and continually turn to her, in growing amounts, as the plot progresses.   This allows her to grow, and develop as a person, and take on leadership roles she had never imagined for herself.  The support of those behind her only serves to further her courage and bravery.

“Human reason can excuse any evil; that is why it's so important that we don't rely on it.” 

-Tris, quoting her father Andrew Prior

This is a quote central to the underlying conflict present in the structure of the faction system.  Because conflict arose when people thought however they pleased, it was decided to shove everyone into five neat packages.  If anyone diverged from this pattern of organized thought, they were viewed as something to be feared and exterminated.  This was simultaneously an example of human reason excusing the evil of killing others, and an example of them throwing human reason out the window to establish this mode of thought.  Andrew Prior likely knew of this all, for his own, unique reasons, and was subtly hinting at it to his daughter.

The Five

I find this image to be an excellent one to associate with Abnegation.  The simple, muted, earthy tones reflect the factions colors, and the simplistic shapes of the flowers reflect their ideology quite well.  The way they are positioned, a downwards glance, is a humble gesture, and is the perfect symbol of Abnegation.

    I feel this is a perfect representation of the Amity faction.  Not only does is convey a feeling of the utmost peace and contentedness in a lush farmland, it utilizes one of their colors in its composition: yellow.  I feel like the bright, saturated colors depict a feeling of happiness as well, which is a trait the Amity members are noted as displaying.

Candor in an image.  Short, sweet, to the point.  Exactly like their manifesto.  The Lady of Justice, a symbol of Honesty, their cardinal virtue. The image is solely black and white, not only their colors, but the way they view morality as well.

It has been said that the light of knowledge dispels ignorance, and the Erudite embrace this ideal.  They believe the lack of knowledge is not stupidity, but ignorance, and this image conveys the search for knowledge to dispel ignorance.  It makes use of an intense blue, the color they use to calm and focus themselves in their academic pursuits.

    I admire ordinary acts of bravery.  This is what the Dauntless believe, this is what this man, protesting the Soviet occupation of Prague, is performing.  The Dauntless care not for fear, for their own safety.  They care for justice and the greater good, whatever it may be, and this image is that ideal made tangible.