Divergent by Veronica Roth

The book I selected this six weeks is called “Divergent” and it is written by Veronica Roth. It was published on April 25, 2011, is the first of a three-book trilogy (the books that follow are Insurgent and Allegient), and it is a dystopian science fiction novel. Divergent takes place in a futuristic Chicago where the city is divided into five factions, which act as small, individual little communities. Each faction wears its own assigned clothing colors and each has a virtue which they believe is the best. The factions are called Abnegation (the selfless), Amity (the peaceful) Candor (the honest), Dauntless (the brave), and Erudite (the intelligent). The story focuses around Beatrice (later nicknamed Tris) Prior, who is a sixteen-year-old Abnegation girl. All sixteen year olds in the city are required to take an aptitude test, which decides which faction the person is going to live in for the rest of their life. Usually a person’s aptitude results would show them the one faction they are eligible for, but Tris’s results show that she has equivalent aptitudes for Abnegation, Dauntless, and Erudite, and her multiple aptitudes are a sign that she is a Divergent. Being a Divergent is an extremely dangerous matter, and Tris is never allowed to share this information with anyone, although at first she does not know why. Of the three factions she is given to choose from, Tris selects Dauntless, which she has secretly always wanted to join. The majority of Divergent is about Tris’s time in Dauntless, and her many adventures. She experiences romance, and also discovers who she is and who she really wants to be.  In my opinion the main theme of this book is never to give up hope, and always to stand up for what you believe in-- even in the most dire times.

Divergent is told in the first person from Tris’s point of view. Many of her opinions are included in the story and the information she gives the reader can sometimes be a little limited, although for the most part she is an exceptional narrator. The intended audience is most likely teenagers, because the story is told from a teenager’s perspective, and many teens can relate to Tris’s emotions and opinions.  Of course this book can also be enjoyed by people of all ages, and anyone can potentially get many things out of the story. Divergent is a fictional novel, and the main genre of this story is science fiction that includes a large amount of futuristic technology and equipment, which are presently unknown. It is also a dystopian novel, with the entire setting of the book in a future dystopian society. The author keeps interest going by including a great amount of suspense. Stylistically, there are many sentence fragments in the book, but they are effective in adding emotion and voice to the main character’s narration. Also, the fragments sometimes provide incomplete information, and the less the reader knows, the more they can interpret on their own. Overall, the author’s style includes using short, clipped words which can convey many emotions. The book is well written, the word choice sounds very realistic, and the characters behave very much as people in real life their age do.

This book made me realize that not everyone is perfect, and that people cannot fit into small communities where they have only one valued quality. Many people are not just selfless, or not just brave, or intelligent, or honest, or peaceful. Most are a mixture of all different virtues. This also leads to the fact that no person is just good or just evil--they are both (whether or not they chose to act more on the good or more on the evil side). In the story, the Candor (the honest) always wear black and white, because they see honesty and truth as these colors. In reality, however, life is not just black and white, but all sorts of shades of gray. I had already thought about these concepts before reading Divergent, although this book really did reinforce my opinion that life is not black and white. Many people compare this book to the Hunger Games (by Susan Collins), mainly because they are both dystopian and about a teenage girl who struggles to fight for freedom. Personally, I love both novels, but I believe  Divergent is different mainly in the message it is trying to convey. There are of course similarities, but there are also many differences.

In general I believe that Divergent is a very well written, enjoyable book. There is very little I would criticize about it, since the amount of positive qualities in this book completely outweigh the negative. The setting, characters, plot, action, and much more comes together very well, and I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys adventure, science fiction, dystopian futures, and a little romance.

Rachel Sacks

12/16/13

Rating: **** 4.5/5