Reading Response
Divergent by Veronica
Roth
Everyone
at this age is trying to fit in. Everyone just goes with the crowd and doesn’t really
stand out. This issue is an underlying theme in the book Divergent by Veronica Roth. The book is about a future
dystopian world. Everyone is split up into five “factions”. Each faction has its
own beliefs, morals, rules, etc. When members of the factions are 16 years old,
they take a test to see which faction they will choose. Beatrice (or Tris) chooses
Dauntless, a very violent, dare devil, ruthless faction that values courage and
hates cowardice. Tris has changed throughout the book. Before she goes to
Dauntless, she is ordinary. After she arrives, she becomes adventurous. After
she stays there a while, she must be strong because of the actions of her
fellow initiates. She grows and finds
her inner self throughout the story, and shows us the importance of being who
you really are.
Before Tris comes to Dauntless, she is ordinary. In her
home faction, Abnegation, everyone is very simple. They have the same hair,
clothes, and houses. Everyone is the same. “The houses on my street are all the
same size and shape,” states Tris. “To some the sight might be gloomy, but to
me their simplicity is comforting.” They thought something more elaborate was a
sign of being vain or greedy. Tris is very plain. She doesn't do anything
exciting. She follows all the rules, and
isn’t particularly memberable. Tris was
very simple and normal. This shows us that Tris is just following the rules because
she doesn’t really have a choice. She can’t do what she really wants so she
thinks she doesn’t have a choice till she can choose her faction.
After
Tris arrives at Dauntless, she becomes adventurous. She started to become rebellious
dare devil. She was the first jumper, she was the first person to jump off the
building to get into the Dauntless compound. She also went with Uriah, a
dauntless born initiate, to an abandoned building. They went up to the roof and
zip-lined 100 stories above the ground. When it was Tris’s turn she was filled
with adrenalin. After she reached the other side she said, “When can I go
again?” This shows she has left her Abnegation ways and now is experiencing
more exciting things that she would never do in her old faction. She is now
changing and becoming her own person, doing things she wants to do. She is realizing
she is her own person and can do things she wants to do, and that opens her up
to a whole new world of discovering herself and being happy.
After Tris has been at Dauntless for a while she becomes strong.
She becomes strong emotionally and physically. Since all the training she has
put on some muscle. But she becomes strong emotionally because some of her
fellow initiates are out to get her because she is doing so well. She ranked
first in the second stage of the initiation, and she also beat Molly, a great
fighter, in the first stage. So Molly really doesn't like Tris. Molly told the newspaper
horrible things about Tris’ father, and that hurt Tris emotionally. Also Peter,
Al, and Drew (all other initiates) tried to kill her. They tied her up and were
about to throw her in the Chasm (a river running through “the pit”- the main
center in the Dauntless compound) but then Four (one of the leaders/
instructors) came and saved Tris. Four tells Tris, “You belong here you know
that? You belong with us. It’ll be over soon, so just hold on, okay?” This
shows that Tris needs to be strong and push through. She needed to change to
help herself. She has realized her feelings and kind of who she is, and how she
needs to help and grow as a new person.
Tris changes throughout Divergent. At first she was
ordinary, then she became adventurous, and finally she had to change for the
better and become strong. Everyone can change. Everyone needs to change once in
a while. Whether you change for the better, that's your choice. This also shows
us just to be yourself, and how sometimes you need change to realize who you
really are.
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