Divergent

When faction members turn sixteen, each one must undergo an aptitude test that indicates which faction they are best suited to. This is an important event in each person’s life but it turns out to be especially crucial for Tris, as this is when she first learns that she is Divergent. She does not understand why this is such a dangerous result at first, but Tori explains that, normally, a person proceeds through the test in a linear manner, ruling out options until a suitable faction has been established. Tris’s actions, however, indicate an equal aptitude for Abnegation, Dauntless, and Erudite. That is, they mark her out as Divergent.

Though Tris does not understand the ramifications of being Divergent, she knows that it is not something that she should ever reveal. With that in mind, she opts to join Dauntless and throws herself into the initiation process. This process again involves numerous simulations intended to force initiates to face their fears. The fears that Tris experiences include being attacked by crows, drowning, being accosted by a hoard of faceless figures, confronting her fears about intimacy, and the ultimate fear—shooting her family or else sacrificing her own life.

As part of their blossoming relationship, Tobias also allows Tris to experience his own fear landscape. Unlike Tris, he has a fear of heights, so this factors into the simulation. However, his ultimate fear is of his tyrannical father, Marcus. As Tris witnesses Marcus wrap a belt around his fist, she throws herself in front of him so as to protect Tobias—another example of her selflessness. Tris and the readers also learn that Tobias’s nickname, Four, is due to him having four fears within his fear landscape. Such simulations therefore go beneath the surface to reveal the characters’ innermost fears and anxieties.

As the story progresses, it becomes apparent that being Divergent entails the ability to manipulate simulations. Tris does not understand why this should be so dangerous at first, but, as Erudite and Dauntless unite against Abnegation, we discover the answer. All the members of Dauntless have been injected with serum intended to turn them into unthinking subjects who will blindly obey the faction leaders’ commands.

The plan comes to fruition when, one night, the brainwashed initiates make their way into the city and proceed to kill members of Abnegation. Tris and Tobias are both Divergent and therefore immune to such brainwashing, though Jeanine has formulated a new serum that temporarily allows her to control Tobias. Ultimately, though, Tris manages to reach the real Tobias, and he puts a stop to the computer code that is controlling the members of Dauntless.

From this, we see why Divergence is seen as so dangerous: Divergents are individuals who cannot be controlled and who have the capacity to thwart the leaders in their murderous plans.

One aspect of the Dauntless that captures Tris’s attention is their appearance: they dress in black and have numerous piercings and tattoos. Tris’s father calls them “hellions,” but Tris is fascinated with them. The appearance of those in Abnegation is much less dramatic, with its members being expected to portray a basic, modest image. Tris notes, for instance, that her mother is beautiful but “must hide that beauty in Abnegation” (2-3) and that faction members are rarely allowed access to a mirror.

The houses in Abnegation follow suit, in that they are simple, uniform, economical, and gray. Tris reveals that this design is not based on a disdain for uniqueness, as some other factions imagine, but is designed to help protect faction members from vanity, greed, and envy. After all, if everyone is equal then envy is no longer an issue. Even Tris can see the logic behind this and the positive aspects of her faction, but her statement “I try to love it” (28) sums up her own position: Abnegation looks ideal from the outside but she does not feel as though she belongs.

Despite the image that Abnegation tries to project, Tris finds that it’s not having the intended effect at school. As she explains, “The gray clothes, the plain hairstyle, and the unassuming demeanor of my faction are supposed to make it easier for me to forget myself, and easier for everyone else to forget me too. But now they make me a target” (6). Indeed, in the same way that Erudite representatives have begun releasing antagonistic reports about Abnegation, a sense of division is likewise manifesting itself at school, which, of course, is an environment often noted for its own brand of “factions”.

Upon joining Dauntless, Tris is given a makeover by her new friend Christina, who unties her hair, applies some eyeliner, and picks out a black dress. Tris finds it difficult to break old Abnegation habits and look at herself in the mirror but, when she does, she agrees with Christina’s assessment: she looks striking. As she looks at herself, she feels that leaving her Abnegation identity behind does not make her nervous anymore; rather, it gives her hope. Now, she truly feels like Tris, as opposed to that “girl I saw in stolen moments at the mirror, who kept quiet at the dinner table. This is someone whose eyes claim mine and don’t release me; this is Tris” (87).

In the same way that Dauntless and Abnegation have unique images, the other factions have their own characteristics in terms of clothing. Candor, for instance, wear a standard uniform of black and white, as befitting their emphasis on honesty and the concept of the truth as black and white. Erudite norms, meanwhile, dictate that faction members wear at least one item of blue clothing at a time. This is based on the idea that blue prompts the body to release calming chemicals, in keeping with the belief that “a calm mind is a clear mind” (348).

Such features serve as obvious indicators of one’s respective faction, and Tris reflects that the blue of Erudite seems “impossibly bright” (349) to her now that she has become so used to dark clothing and dim lighting. So, while some personality traits exist regardless of faction, spending time in a certain environment shapes people’s behavior and expectations.

Growing up in the selfless, compassionate faction of Abnegation, Tris had no experience with guns: “They would say that guns are used for self-defense, if not violence, and therefore they are self-serving” (78). However, when she and the other initiates start their physical training, Tris has to acquaint herself with the use of guns. Target practice is one of the basic exercises in which she has to become proficient, and, initially, she is wary of handling a gun because “It feels dangerous to me, as if just by touching it, I could hurt someone” (77). She struggles to hit the target at first but, as she improves, she grows to enjoy the sense of control that comes from using a gun.

Guns are also involved in the simulations that Tris and the other initiates undergo. In one simulation, Tris finds herself attacked by crows and crumples to the floor, screaming with fear. However, when she faces the same simulation later, she remembers that the first time she felt powerful in Dauntless was when she was holding a gun. She consequently imagines a gun and shoots the birds that are attacking her.

Another simulation requires Tris to shoot her family, yet she cannot go through with it: even though Jeanine holds a gun to her head, she refuses to do as instructed and tells Jeanine to shoot her instead. Thus, while Tris has become comfortable using a gun in some contexts, the motif of the gun also symbolizes her recognition that selflessness and bravery can sometimes be the same thing.

As Tris’s mother was born Dauntless, she is used to weapons. However, when Tris is reunited with her father, he is perturbed by his daughter’s newfound capacity and willingness to use guns. With Erudite and Dauntless having begun their war on Abnegation, however, guns have become a key tool in combat. Not only does Tris witness brainwashed Dauntless soldiers shooting members of Abnegation, she is forced to shoot her friend Will in self-defense. Even her father brandishes a gun against their attackers, though, ultimately, both he and Tris’s mother meet their death at the barrel of the enemy’s gun. Still, Tris recognizes the difference between shooting to kill and shooting to maim: even though Peter has been her tormentor throughout initiation, she shoots him in the arm as a means of forcing him to cooperate.

In the same way that Tris refuses to shoot her family in the simulation, she cannot shoot Tobias when she finds him in the control room near the end of the novel. Though he seems to have been turned into a drone, she feels that, as a fellow Divergent, he cannot be controlled completely. Hence, she drops her own weapon and presses the gun barrel into her forehead, managing to speak to the real Tobias. So, while she is willing to use guns when necessary, this is one scenario in which she uses a different tactic. It is, moreover, another instance in which she demonstrates a link between selflessness and bravery—a link originally highlighted by Tobias himself.