Essay: Divergent

Veronica Roth is an American writer and novelist. She was born in August in 1988 and is only 25 years old. Although she’s young, she’s famous for her bestselling trilogy, called Divergent. For these books, she has won prices like ‘Goodreads Favourite Book of 2011’, ‘Best Young Adult Fantasy & Science Fiction’ and ‘Best Goodreads Author’ in 2012. The first book, Divergent, has been made into a film and opens theatrically in March 2014. Divergent is a science fiction book about a society in the future. It was published in the USA by HarperCollins Publishers Inc in 2011.
The book follows a young girl, Tris, who lives in a future society destroyed by corrupt leaders. At the age of sixteen, girls and boys are forced to choose between five different factions that will define the rest of their lives. There are Erudite; intelligence, Abnegation; selflessness, Dauntless; bravery, Amity; compassion and Candor; honesty. They go through a test, which will point them in one direction and define what kind of person they are. Tris is Divergent, which means she can’t be categorized into one individual faction. The leaders think that divergence is not pure; they can’t be controlled, so they’re ruining the system. The only way for the system to survive is to stop the Divergent. The system removes the threat of anyone exercising his or her independent will. Divergence threatens that system. It won’t be safe, until they’re removed.
‘One hundred years ago, after the war, our founders created a system they believed would create lasting peace. They divided society into five factions. Everyone is tested to determent who we are and where we belong.’
Tris, who’s born in Abnegation, chooses Dauntless. Here, she has to jump from tall buildings, fight her friends until one of them are incapable of continuing and learn how to shoot a gun. She soon makes enemies and finds threats everywhere. She has to be careful in order not to die. She goes through initiation, which is a hard competition. Those who aren’t strong enough, end up factionless, which is described as worse than dying. At first, Tris’ worries are to get through initiation, to stay alive, and get used to her drastically changed life. She then falls in love with Tobias, and together they fight the leaders who want to kill them because they’re Divergent and seen as a threat.
The main theme in the book is —–. It’s about choice and how you define yourself. It’s about belonging somewhere.