Published: May 3 2011
Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books
Series: #1 of the Divergent Trilogy
Website: Author’s Blog
Introduction
Society is divided into five
factions. Once you turn 16, you are forced to choose which faction you will
join for life, or risk being factionless. Beatrice has always been part of her
family’s Abnegation faction, living a quiet life of selflessness. When she
turns 16, she surprises everyone, including herself, by choosing to leave her
family permanently to join the wild Dauntless faction. There’s one problem: her
faction test was inconclusive. She doesn’t belong to any single faction. She’s
Divergent, a problem in their system, and if her secret comes out, she’ll be at
the mercy of those who made the rules. Of course, she has to survive the
Dauntless initiation process, where the mysterious instructor Four is trying to
keep her safe by throwing her into danger.
Beatrix’s Character
The
story is engrossing; it is easy to forget about other aspects of the novel,
such as the characters. The protagonist, Tris, is one of those characters I
have to defend. Yes, she has very little personality. She has desires (that
surprise even her) and motivations, but what are her personality traits? There are actually surprisingly few
character traits you can pin to her, though there are reasons why this makes
sense.
Abnegation
is a faction that is selfless. They strive to be invisible by dressing in
bland, grey clothes. Their children do not speak unless spoken to. They are
taught to help whenever help is needed, to give what they have to others, and
they are committed to community service. Their faction strikes away the idea of
having an individual image. The adults have a private image, as they can do fun
things like talk at home. The kids
are meant to be perfect and quiet.
Whether
it was a well-planned move by the author or not, Beatrice, who grew up in
Abnegation, lacks a definitive personality because she wasn’t allowed to explore
her individual self. Additionally, teens
fluctuate in their personalities almost daily as they are still trying to
define themselves. When it is her time to choose her faction, she has to do
some soul searching. Children of Abnegation parents generally stay in
Abnegation; their parents are in Abnegation, and they are raised to be obedient
to them and not stand out in any way. Leaving Abnegation would cause a fuss and
it would sadden their parents.
What
Beatrice does have is uncertainty, feelings of not-belonging, and a desire to
break free and be an individual. The Dauntless are reckless in physically and
psychologically. They also have the bravery aspect, and Beatrice wants to be
brave enough to break free of her Abnegation ways.
The Problem with
Factions
One problem that I have is that
the factions run on your personality and your
job prospects. In my situation, I like community service and helping people,
but I don’t want to be in the government. I am creative and peaceful, so I
would also like Amity. Yet all Divergent shows
them doing is picking fruit. While I am sure I would have fun picking fruit, it
isn’t what I want to do with my life. I enjoy studying, learning, and teaching,
so Euridite is probably the best for me because I could probably be a librarian
with them (yay!), but there are aspects that I dislike about that faction. And
what do Candor do? As far as I can tell, they are lie-detectors. Aside from prosecutors,
what are the jobs they are supposed to be suited for?
The Society
I want
to know how their society came into being. The
Hunger Games’ Panem is explained, and it is central to the plot. Since I
have read Divergent, I have spoken to
a teen who has read the whole trilogy, and she has informed me that the later
books do explain it. However, I would have liked to hear about it in the first
book. That is standard world building that has been missed. As I was reading, I
wanted to know if the city has always been like this and if it is just this
city or the whole world. I wondered what is beyond the city’s walls. Is it full
of monsters, murderers, radiation in the soil? Something that drives the plot
of the video game Resonance of Fate
is the mystery of what is outside of the tower, Basel, that they live in.
Finding out was an amazing experience, and I was confused when I read the last
page of Divergent and closed the
book. I want to know more about the world they live in! Yes, apparently I’ll
get to read all about it in the next books, but there is a huge gap in world
the building in the first book that aggravates me!
The Government
What I
do like about this dystopian is that the government is not immediately evil,
like in 1984 or Brave New World. After all, when people set out to create new
governments, they do not purposefully intend to create a dystopia; the people
who set the rules believe they are doing the right thing. I can see why you
would want to group like-minded people together for an efficient society. It is
when the details of the society come to light that you realize that you don’t want to live there.
The Writing
The
writing works, though it is nothing special, and the lack of commas pesters me
to no end. Since I started writing this review, I began reading Insurgent, the second book, and there are
also moments when I noticed that Roth really should be using commas and she isn’t.
I don’t have access to the first book at the moment, and if I catch any more
while reading Insurgent, I’ll flag
them so I can post them in my Insurgent review.
Final Verdict
I hate
to jump on hypes, but I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I had a lot of questions
regarding the history of the city, why Tris falls for Four (perhaps because no
one else is interested in her?), and the grammar quality is sometimes lacking,
and this brings my critique down. But should everyone and their moms read this?
Yes! Regardless if you believe
running a society this way would work or not, Divergent has a story that unfurls and keeps you reading.
The Movie
I
admit, I didn’t read the books until I saw the first trailer for the film
during the previews at the theatre for The
Hunger Games: Catching Fire. I had access to the books, but I hadn’t gotten
around to reading them. So, here are two trailers, in case you haven’t seen
them, and I personally haven’t seen any on T.V.:
The
actress that plays Tris, Shailene
Woodley, doesn’t reflect the image in my head. In the
book, Tris is very small with a boyish figure. The actress is very pretty, but
I didn’t envision Tris to look like that. I also pictured Four to look more
tough, angrier, and gruff.
And WHY does IMDB state: “When she discovers a plot to destroy
Divergents, Tris and the mysterious Four must find out what makes Divergents
dangerous before it's too late”? It isn’t like this
in the book. *Cries hysterically in a snow bank*
With that said, I am still
planning on seeing it with someone. If I were forced to go alone, I wouldn’t; I’d
wait until it came out on DVD. I’m interested in how this will turn out, though.
Edit: Movie Trailer Reaction
Edit: Movie Trailer Reaction
I, and some other people, are concerned that Four doesn't appear to be the Four that we know from the books. The best reaction to the movie trailer has been (and I'm paraphrasing), is Four saying: "Welcome to Dauntless. We're all about free love here."
Edit: Tattoos
In the book, Tris gets three crows tattooed along her collarbone. Has anyone noticed the popularity of bird tattoos on collarbones? I wonder if the popularity happened before the book, or after. It's unfortunate that they are overdone now, because I have a soft spot for bird tattoos.
No comments:
Post a Comment