Divergent Review

WARNING: This article may/may not contain spoilers.

           Divergent by Veronica Roth is a very famous and well-known Dystopian novel. About two years ago, I read it for the first time. To this day, it remains one of my favorite books in the Dystopian genre. If you have not read Divergent yet, I would definitely recommend it. In this post, I will explain why I enjoyed this book.

          Divergent takes place in a future version of Chicago. The city is divided into five sectors, each one valuing a different virtue: the Abnegation sector values selflessness, the Dauntless sector values courage, the Erudite sector values intelligence, the Amity sector values kindness, and the Candor sector values honesty. Each child is raised in the same sector as their parents for the first sixteen years of their life, but on one day of every year, every sixteen-year-old chooses the factor that they will stay in for the rest of their life -- they can stay with their family or move to another faction. The story follows a girl from Abnegation named Tris, who participates in the Choosing Ceremony at the beginning. Before choosing the faction they will stay in forever, each child takes an "aptitude test" -- a simulation that shows which faction they have an "aptitude" for, or which faction they would fit into the best. The results of Tris's aptitude test show that she has an aptitude for three factions (Abnegation, Dauntless and Erudite) rather than the normal number, one. She is told that this means she is Divergent, an unfamiliar term to her. The only other thing she is told is that Divergence is very dangerous and Tris should not tell anyone, no matter what, about this condition. I think it was very interesting that you do not know very much about the setting, such as how Chicago got to be this way, and that they do not say what Divergence means. I appreciate that the author didn't reveal everything about the setting in the beginning of the story, because it gives the reader a chance to figure it out for themselves.

           At Tris's choosing ceremony, she is faced with the difficult decision of staying with her family in Abnegation or leaving her faction. She loves her family very much, but does not believe she possesses the qualities that make a good member of Abnegation -- she it not selfless enough. In the end, she chooses Dauntless. I thought it was interesting that she chose this faction because it was a brave act to leave her family and the only home she has known, and Dauntless is the faction that values bravery. Unfortunately, Tris discovers that in order to become a member of Dauntless, she will have to pass a series of tests, competing against other Dauntless initiates. The initiates who fail the tests will be deemed not brave enough for Dauntless and are forced to spend the rest of their lives factionless, fending for themselves in the parts of the city not occupied by faction headquarters.

          The Dauntless initiates are split into two groups: the Dauntless-born initiates and the initiates born in other factions. Tris discovers that she is the only transfer from Abnegation, which causes her to earn the nickname "Stiff". Fortunately, she befriends a girl from Candor named Christina. The first round of tests involve combat between the initiates. Tris has no experience with fighting, as self-defense is regarded as "selfish" in Abnegation. She performs poorly in the first round, but well enough to pass. At about this point, Tris discovers that the values of Dauntless are not what they used to be. They once valued standing up for others, as stated in the original Dauntless manifesto, but now it values being better than everyone else. Tris also starts to realize that there is something complicated going on between the factions. She discovers things that were kept hidden from Abnegation members, such as the fact that Erudite may soon rise up against the city's government, which is completely made up of Abnegation members.

          The second round of Dauntless initiation is completely different from the first. Each initiate is injected with a serum that puts them into a simulation in which they have to confront their worst fears. For some reason, Tris performs better than all of the other initiates in this test. She does not understand why at first, but she is informed by one of the trainers, who calls himself Four, that it is because of her Divergence. People who are Divergent have the ability to resist the simulation serum and manipulate the simulation. This is most likely the beginning of a complicated relationship of Tris and Four, which I thought was weird because Four is two years older that Tris and shows an odd interest in her. Throughout the story, Tris learns many things about Four that nobody else could possibly know about. Because I don't want to spoil the book even more than I already have, I won't reveal anything that Four tells Tris in this summary.

           The final round of initiation is more or less the same as the second round, so Tris easily performs better than the other initiates -- even better than the initiates born in Dauntless. Tris's skill becomes known to the other initiates, but they do not treat her as enemies (with a few exceptions) and she ends up making many friends among the group of initiates. At the ceremony in which the remaining initiates are made into members, they are informed that the highest ranking initiates are offered the best jobs in the faction, which relieves Tris. However, this all comes tumbling down when the Erudite attack the Abnegation in a way nobody could have prepared for -- they use simulation serum to control the entire Dauntless sector, and use them as their army. Unaffected by the serum, Tris knows that the Erudite will know she is Divergent and kill her. This forces her to make an impossible decision between her new faction and her old faction. I thought this was a very interesting and well-planned end to the story, because the author reveals the reason that being Divergent is dangerous, as well as many other things (one of them being that Tris finds out that she isn't the only Divergent person she knows).

           Divergent was written in a unique way in which everything just seemed to work out in the end. The author reveals hardly anything in the beginning and increases the amount of suspense by slowly revealing more and more about the setting. By the end of the book, the reader believes they know everything, even though there are still so many unanswered questions to be answered in the sequels. This style of writing is something different than what I have read before and I definitely thought it made me want to keep reading until the end. I would definitely recommend Divergent for anyone who is interested. Be sure to leave a helpful comment on this post, and once again, sorry for the spoilers.