By Siarra Hoover

I had always told my friends and family that I did not like to read on my own time, let alone for a school assignment. But then I walked into my seventh-grade language arts class. I found out that we had to read books on our own as well as a couple as a class. I was dreading going to that class every day because I had no desire to read whatsoever. However, that changed slightly when I learned more about one of the books we were reading. Our teacher told us we were going to read Veronica Roth’s Divergent together. I had never heard about the book prior to this moment. I started to look into it and decided that it sounded like it had an interesting story line. Our teacher assigned the reading as independent homework by chapter. Then, we would come to class to discuss what we read the night before and complete some writing assignments concerning the story. As I read the first few chapters, I remember thinking how the book was just another book that I have to read for class, and it wasn’t as interesting as I thought it would be. As time went by and the class read more of the book, though, it became more intriguing and interesting. I started to really enjoy it because it was different than everything I had ever read before. To this day, it is one of my favorite books that I have had.

Divergent is about a dystopian society that is made up of five factions, Abnegation, Dauntless, Amity, Erudite, and Candor. Beatrice Prior, or Tris (the main character), grew up with her parents and brother in Abnegation. When Tris turns 16, she takes the aptitude test to determine what faction she was best fit for. After the test, her results come back and show that she is Divergent. Being Divergent is very uncommon and means that Tris is fit for all the factions instead of just one. She is instructed not to tell anyone and just choose a faction instead. Eventually, she decides to join Dauntless and soon realizes that cruelty is expected in this faction. While going through the initiation process, she meets Four, whom she discovers is also Divergent. Four and Tris uncover Erudite’s plan to use the Dauntless to overthrow Abnegation by controlling them with computers and tracking devices. But Four and Tris can’t be controlled because they are Divergent, which means Erudite is trying to neutralize them to ensure that their plan isn’t ruined. Tris wants to protect and help Abnegation because that is where her parents live. Eventually, Four and Tris end up with the hard drive that Erudite is using and are on the run and hiding from the Erudite. The book goes on to tell about their experiences along the way.

As you may have already guessed, Divergent consists of a variety of different problems. However, many are small and are resolved in a quick manner. The central problem begins when Tris and Four uncover Erudite’s plan. After they uncover this plan, Tris’ parents fall victim to the controlled Dauntless. Now, Tris and Four are on the run from the leaders of Erudite and the Dauntless members that they are controlling. Therefore, the central problem is how Tris and Four are on the run and fighting against the war between the factions. On top of all of this, Tris is trying to figure out who she really is and what faction she belongs in.

Put yourself into the story so you can really see the central problem and where it begins. After the initiation process for becoming a Dauntless member, Eric, the ruthless leader of the initiates of Dauntless, congratulates Tris on passing her test and informs her that all members of Dauntless have to be fit with a tracking device. She is suspicious of the tracking serum, but she still allows Eric to inject her. Later that night, she comes to realization that Erudite is planning to use the tracking devices to control the Dauntless. The serum does not work on her or Four because they are Divergent. Tris and Four follow a group of Dauntless onto a train. When the train arrives at Abnegation, the Dauntless begin to shoot everyone in sight. Four and Tris are caught and taken to Jeanine, leader of the Erudite, who explains her plan to take over the government. Four is put under a trance and is forced to help Jeanine run one of the systems controlling the Dauntless. Eventually, Tris helps Four get out of the trance. Once he is out of the trance, Four stops and steals the hard drive for the computer systems that Erudite uses. Then, Four and Tris reunite with a couple of other people and hop onto a train traveling toward Amity headquarters with the stolen hard drive. Tris and Four are now on the run with the hard drive and Tris has to start figuring out her identity. Now that you can see it better, do you recognize the central problem of Divergent?

This central problem of the story also illuminates the overarching theme. The theme is not on Gotschall’s list of the “big three” themes. However, it is still a very strong theme in many different stories. The theme of Divergent is identity. Identity is very relevant to this story because, from the start, Tris’s identity as Divergent is very uncommon and dangerous for people to know. People that are labelled as Divergent are definitely not the favorites of society. The authorities are not able to control Divergent people easily because many serums, tracking devices, tests, etc. do not work on them. Basically, they are not under the authority’s control like the people that are labelled with one faction. Overall, being Divergent is not easy when it comes to the authorities. So, she is supposed to keep it a secret from most people, but word spread fasts. As she tries to identify with the members of Dauntless, it obviously does not work out in her favor. Now that she is on the run, she has to explore and decide what faction she truly belongs in.  In fact, she wants to determine what is like not identifying with a faction or identifying with all of them. To do this, she is being forced to determine who she actually is (self-identity) and whether she identifies with or not with a faction.

Divergent is narrated in the 1st person point of view. The story is narrated by Tris, who is obviously the main character of the story. Tris is not just an observer of the story like some 1st person narrators. Rather, she is a participant in the story. You might be wondering if Tris is reliable enough to narrate the story. Tris could be very reliable at times because we, as the audience, are getting first-hand information from a Divergent. We can truly see how Divergent people live and see the society around them. On the other hand, Tris could be a very unreliable narrator because we only see her point of view. What if Four, who is also Divergent, sees the society differently than Tris? Tris’s view is not going to be exactly the same as all the other people that are labelled as Divergent. Also, what do other people in the society, like the ones that simply belong to one faction, think about the people that are labelled as Divergent? Tris cannot provide us with that information because she only can explain her side of the story. Throughout the story, Veronica Roth uses Tris’s narration to show us the thoughts that run through Tris’ mind. The thoughts are not really told in a unique manner but are told to a point that the audience can read and understand her point of view. Roth does not address others’ thoughts nearly as much Tris’ because it is not easy when the narration is in 1st person. Overall, we only see the point of view of a person that is labelled as Divergent, or one could say multi-dimensional. We see what Tris sees, which means that we understand the life of a Divergent better than the life of a person that belongs to one faction, or someone who is one-dimensional.

The central problem and overarching theme of Divergent can be connected to many things in our contemporary culture. For example, identity relates to sexual orientation in our society. According to Merriam Webster’s Dictionary, sexual orientation is defined as a person’s sexual identity or self-identification. One may identify as bisexual, heterosexual, homosexual, pansexual, or something else. People across the world get to choose how they identify themselves when it comes to sexual orientation. Many people struggle to navigate what they identify as due to peer pressure and/or fear of not being accepted for who they are. Unfortunately, sexual orientation, or sexual identity, is something that many struggle with, but there are also people that it clicks easier with because they were born like that. Divergent therefore would likely resonate with someone either struggling with or struggling to understand sexual identity, because the overall theme is applicable to their lives.

The theme of Divergent could also relate to social acceptance at schools. Many young people find their group of friends easily where they feel truly accepted. However, there are others who struggle to find a group of people that they feel accepted by. Social acceptance is all about finding where you fit in the best, which is similar to Tris finding what faction (or lack thereof) that she belongs to. This can be easily connected to Divergent because some people click right away with their identity by belonging to one faction. Then, there are people like Tris and Four that struggle to figure out who they truly are because they don’t belong to one specific faction. Overall, identity is a common idea in many stories, like Divergent, and in our contemporary culture.

If you haven’t read Divergent already, you might want to hop on it. Like I said, I did NOT want to read this book because I didn’t like reading. When I was reading it, though, I couldn’t wait to see what happened next. Reading this book made me realize that a book can be enjoyable and fun to read in your free time if it’s something that is interesting to you. I loved reading this book because it was a unique story about a society that isn’t realistic to our country now. I hope you give this book a try. Don’t forget the first few chapters are boring, but I promise it does get really good!