Divergent (novel)

Divergent

Cover
Author	Veronica Roth
Language	English
Series	The Divergent Trilogy
Genre	Science fiction/ Dystopian
Publisher	Katherine Tegen Books/HarperCollins
Publication date	April 25, 2011
Media type	Print (Hardcover)/e-book
Pages	487
ISBN	0-06-202402-7
Followed by	Insurgent (2012)

Divergent is the debut novel of American author Veronica Roth and is the first installment in the Divergent trilogy. It is set within a dystopian version of Chicago. The novel has been compared to similar young adult books such as The Hunger Games and The Maze Runner because of its similar theme and target audience. Roth has said that the idea for the series was born while she was studying in college. Its major plot device, the division of society into personality types, is similar to Philip K. Dick's 1964 novel, Clans of the Alphane Moon and Rupert Thomson's Divided Kingdom.

Summit Entertainment purchased the media rights to the book, and production on the movie took place in 2013, also titled Divergent. The second novel in the trilogy, Insurgent, was published on May 1, 2012, and the third and final book, Allegiant, on October 22, 2013.

Plot

This story takes place in the city of Chicago in the near future. The city is divided into 5 factions: Abnegation, meant for the selfless; Amity, meant for the peaceful; Candor, meant for the honest; Dauntless, meant for the brave; and Erudite, meant for the knowledgeable. On a given day each year, all sixteen-year-olds take an aptitude test that will tell them for which faction they are best suited. After receiving the results of their test, they must decide whether to remain with their family or transfer to a new faction.

Sixteen-year-old Beatrice Prior was born into an Abnegation family, but selflessness has never come naturally to her like it does to her brother, Caleb. She feels lonely and constricted by her environment and feels like she does not belong. When the time comes for Beatrice to take her aptitude test, the results are inconclusive: instead of fitting neatly into any one faction, she shows equal aptitude for three: Abnegation, Erudite, and Dauntless. This makes her "Divergent" and she is warned never to share this information with anyone for fear of her life. Even for a Divergent, it is very rare to have results with three factions. On her way home from the aptitude test, she encounters a factionless man who grabs her hand and frightens her. This makes her feel very nervous because she does not want to end up like him and is worried about risking her normal lifestyle and failing. She does not want to upset her father, who is certain that she will remain in Abnegation even though she is skeptical.

On Choosing Day, much to her and her parents's surprise, Beatrice makes the decision to leave Abnegation and join Dauntless, while her brother Caleb chooses Erudite. She immediately leaves to join her new faction and her new home. Beatrice, who renames herself Tris when she reaches the Dauntless compound, becomes good friends with fellow transfer initiates Christina, Al, and Will. Another transfer initiate, Peter, quickly sets out to antagonize her as he does not believe Tris is good enough to be in Dauntless. Peter also has two friends, Drew and Molly, who back him up as he tortures Tris. She is also introduced to their instructor, Four, who explains that they must pass an initiation process before they are accepted as full-fledged Dauntless members. They must rank in the top ten at the end of initiation, or else they will be dismissed and become factionless.

Initiation is broken into three stages. The first involves learning how to handle guns and knives as well as engaging in hand-to-hand combat. Despite being physically weaker than most of her fellow initiates, Tris finishes the stage in sixth place. Peter is jealous and intimidated by the first-place finisher, Edward, and retaliates by stabbing Edward in the eye with a butter knife. Tris is ranked just after Molly, which can be attributed to the time when Tris came into the dormitory with only a towel and Peter pulled it off, exposing and tormenting her. Tris hopes that she can fight Peter, but instead she fights Molly, one of Peter's cronies, quickly trouncing her. Although she nearly beats Molly to death, Tris continues to fight because of her anger towards her tormentors.

Meanwhile, the Erudite stirs up dissent among the factions by releasing antagonizing reports about the Abnegation leaders, who run the city government. Peter and his cronies, Molly and Drew, give Tris a hard time because she came from Abnegation. The Erudite's reports called Abnegation's leader, Marcus, abusive because they thought he was abusing his son, Tobias. Tobias was known as a "traitor" to Abnegation because he transferred from Abnegation to Dauntless. The reports also say that Tris and Caleb's mother and father raised them the wrong way because they both switched factions, the Abnegation wasted the city's food by giving it to the factionless, and quoted Molly saying that Tris talks in her sleep, telling her father to stop. Tris begins to befriend the Dauntless-born initiates, including Uriah, Lynn, and Marlene.

Stage two puts the initiates into simulations, much like during the aptitude tests, in which they will encounter various fears—or scenarios symbolic of their fears—and are tested by how quickly they are able to calm down. Because Tris is Divergent, she is able to recognize that she is under a simulation while others do not, and she can even manipulate the system. After monitoring Tris's results, Four realizes she is Divergent. Tris is again warned never to allow anyone to know that she is Divergent, because those who are found to be Divergent end up being killed by faction leaders. At the end of the stage, Tris ranks first among the initiates. That evening, out of jealousy and resentment, Peter, Drew, and Al attack Tris and try to throw her into the chasm at Dauntless headquarters. However, Four steps in and rescues her. Al begs Tris's forgiveness, but she rebuffs him, leading him to commit suicide by jumping into the chasm.

The initiates prepare for the final stage of their initiation, the fear landscape, a gathering of all of their fears in a single simulation. In the fear landscape, all of them, Divergent or not, will be aware that they are under a simulation and must use the skills they learned in the previous stages to break out of each fear. They will be scored according to how many fears they have and the amount of time it takes them to get through the simulation. Tris's relationship with Four continues to grow, and he lets her into his own fear landscape. Tris learns that Four only has four fears in his landscape, a record, hence his nickname. She also learns his real name, Tobias, and that his father is Marcus, the very Abnegation leader who has been accused of having physically abused him during his childhood. Four later shares with Tris information he has discovered about the Erudite's plans to use the Dauntless to stage an attack on the Abnegation.

Tris goes into her fear landscape for her final initiation test, in which she encounters a total of seven fears: getting eaten alive by crows, drowning while trapped in a glass tank, drowning in the ocean, being burned at the stake by Peter, being kidnapped by assailants, having sex with Four (thinking that he only wants her because of her body), and being forced to shoot her own family. After her test, Tris, along with all other Dauntless members, is injected with a new "tracking" serum that is supposedly only activated if someone goes missing. Before the official initiation ceremony, Four invites Tris back to his private apartment, and Tris expresses her feelings for him. Soon, the ceremony begins, the final rankings are posted, and Tris discovers she has been ranked first. In the midst of celebrating, though, she suddenly realizes that the Erudite will use the "tracking" serum to force Dauntless members to carry out their merciless plans of invading the Abnegation.

The plan is carried out that night; the serum induces a simulation and all of the Dauntless become sleep-walking soldiers, hypnotized into marching into Abnegation territory. However, the serum does not work on Tris or Tobias (Four) because they are both Divergent. After arriving at the Abnegation compound alongside their unwitting Dauntless brethren, they try to break away from the pack to escape. However, Tris is shot, and when Tobias refuses to leave her behind, they are captured and brought before Jeanine, the Erudite leader. She injects Four with an experimental serum, which counteracts the Divergent effect by controlling what he can see and hear. Satisfied with the results, Jeanine directs Tobias to be sent back to the Dauntless control room to oversee the attack, and sentences Tris to death. Tris wakes up sealed inside a real-life glass tank that fills up with water, but her mother, originally a transfer from Dauntless into Abnegation, breaks the tank and rescues her. As they escape, Mrs. Prior reveals that she is also Divergent, but shortly thereafter is shot and killed, while creating a diversion to ensure Tris can escape. Tris does so, but not before being forced to kill Will, who attacks her while under the influence of the Erudite simulation.

She finds her father, Caleb, and Marcus in the safe house indicated by her mother, and they resolve to take a train back to the Dauntless compound to find the source of the simulation. Fighting their way through the upper levels of the Dauntless headquarters, Tris' father also sacrifices himself, to clear the way for Tris to reach the control room and confront the mind-controlled Tobias. He attacks Tris, but she manages to grab hold of a gun and aims it at Tobias. Yet, when she realizes she cannot bring herself to kill him, Tris surrenders, and this allows Tobias to break through the special sight-and-sound-only simulation. Once he comes to his senses, the two shut down the Erudite simulation and free the remaining Dauntless from their mind control. They rejoin Caleb and Marcus, as well as Peter, who had helped Tris find the control room in exchange for his safety. The group then boards a train to the Amity sector to find the rest of the Abnegation survivors, leading to the events Insurgent describes.

Characters

• Beatrice "Tris" Prior: Protagonist of the novel, born into Abnegation but chooses Dauntless as her faction.
• Tobias "Four" Eaton: Instructor to the initiates, born into Abnegation. Serves as the love interest of Tris.
• Caleb Prior: Tris' brother, who chooses Erudite as his faction, born into Abnegation.
• Natalie Prior: Tris' mother, born Dauntless, but chose Abnegation.
• Andrew Prior: Tris' father, born Erudite, but chooses Abnegation, now one of the Abnegation leaders.
• Eric: Dauntless Leader who turns out to be evil. Four's nemesis.
• Christina: Tris's fellow Dauntless initiate and her best friend.
• Will: Another Dauntless initiate. Christina's boyfriend, and Tris's friend.
• Albert "Al" : A friend of Tris who shows an interest in her. After Tris's rejection, he attacks her along with Peter and Drew, and later commits suicide.
• Peter: Tris's nemesis and fellow Dauntless initiate. Later becomes an ally of Tris's.
• Tori Wu: Member of Dauntless faction who administers the aptitude test for Tris. Former Erudite, and is a tattoo artist.
• Jeanine Matthews: Antagonist of the novel and the leader of Erudite.
• Molly: Peter's friend, who later becomes factionless.
• Drew: Peter's friend, who later becomes factionless.
• Edward: A Dauntless initiate who later becomes factionless after being stabbed in the eye with a butterknife by Peter.
• Myra: A Dauntless initiate who also chooses to be factionless to stay with Edward but later leaves him.
• Marcus Eaton: Tobias' father. One of the Abnegation leaders.
• Uriah: Tris' friend and a Dauntless born.
• Zeke: Uriah's brother and Four's friend.

Style and themes

D is described as having a fast pace by many reviewers. Nolan, from The American Prospect, noted that Divergent follows patterns that are present in both The Hunger Games and Blood Red Road.

The New York Times stated that Divergent "explores a more common adolescent anxiety--the painful realization that coming into one's own sometimes means leaving family behind, both ideologically and physically". The Voice of Youth Advocates agrees, writing that Divergent shows the pressure of "having to choose between following in your parents' footsteps or doing something new".

Reception

Divergent has been well received. In a review in The New York Times, Susan Dominus wrote that it was "rich in plot and imaginative details", but also that, compared to other such books in the same genre as the Hunger Games trilogy, it did "not exactly distinguish itself". In a review for Entertainment Weekly, Breia Brissey said that it was "flimsier and less nuanced" than The Hunger Games but was good, giving it a B+ rating. Kirkus Reviews said it was "built with careful details and intriguing scope". Common Sense Media commented on the book's "deep messages about identity and controlling societies" and on the "unstoppable plot that's remarkably original". It was rated 5 out of 5 stars and given an age 12+ rating.

The book debuted at #6 on the New York Times Children's Chapter Books Best Seller list on May 22, 2011, and remained on the list for 11 weeks. It also spent 39 weeks on the Times's Children's Paperback Books Best Seller list in 2012, reaching number one. The Times changed its Children's Best Seller lists in December, 2012, eliminating the Children's Paperback list, and Divergent continued its run on the new Young Adult Best Seller list. It is still on the list as of February, 2013. To date, book sales are now over 5 million copies for both novels combined, and both titles are HarperCollins most successful e-books ever in regards to sales.

Awards and nominations

Divergent won Favorite book of 2011 in 2011's Goodreads Choice Awards. Also, Divergent was number one in the Teens' Top Ten Vote, sponsored by YALSA. It also won the Sakura Medal Contest.

Film adaptation

Main article: Divergent (film)

Summit Entertainment bought the rights to film an adaptation of the novel and recruited Neil Burger to direct, with Shailene Woodley starring as Beatrice "Tris" Prior. Lionsgate and its subsidiary Summit Entertainment were slated to distribute the film. The role of Tobias "Four" Eaton eventually went to Theo James after an extensive search that included competition from Alex Pettyfer, Alexander Ludwig, Lucas Till, Jeremy Irvine, Luke Bracey, Brenton Thwaites and Jack Reynor. Lionsgate-Summit’s feature adaptation of the dystopian teen tale, with a screenplay adapted by Evan Daugherty from Roth's novels, had gone into production by late November 2013 and was scheduled for a release date of March 21, 2014. The company also obtained rights to Roth’s sequel, Insurgent. Kate Winslet was signed as Jeanine Matthews. Also recruited into the cast were Maggie Q as Tori, Zoe Kravitz as Christina, Ansel Elgort as Caleb, Miles Teller as Peter, Ashley Judd as Natalie Prior, Tony Goldwyn as Andrew Prior, and Jai Courtney as Eric.

Further reading

• "Summit Signs Scribe for 'Divergent' Adaptation (Exclusive)". The Hollywood Reporter. Accessed October 2011.
• "The Scary Future, the Embarrassing Past". The Wall Street Journal. Accessed October 2011.
• "Book review: Divergent". Ballina Shire Advocate. Accessed October 2011.

External links

• Spisak, April. "Divergent (review)". Project MUSE Journals Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, Volume 64, Number 9, May 2011.
• Divergent by Veronica Roth (book #1) review
• Divergent on Google Books
• Veronica Roth's official website