Book Report
Objective summary
Insurgent
by Veronica Roth
Fiona Jones
First of all….
Since I’m presenting this to you guys, this
is going to sound incredibly cheesy, but I’m
going to say it anyway.
Hi. This is my book report for language
arts. I’m doing an objective summary on the
book Insurgent by Veronica Roth. It’s a bit
long, so just bear with me.
Enjoy!
Synopsis
Insurgent is the second book in the Divergent trilogy. This entire book
goes back to the first one a lot, so I’m going to give you a short summary of
the first one just in case you haven’t read it. You know, so you’re not dazed,
lost, or confused. Here we go.
The Divergent trilogy is set in a city far into the future. The city is divided
into 5 factions of life. Whichever faction you are in determines your entire
future. The factions are the Amity, who value peace, the Candor, who value
honesty, the Erudite, who value knowledge, the Abnegation, who value
selflessness, and the Dauntless, who value bravery.
When a child in any one of these factions turns 16, they take a test to
determine which one of the factions they’d best fit into. Normally, the child
would only get one result.
Beatrice Prior got three. She got equal aptitude for Abnegation, her
home faction, Dauntless, and Erudite. She was classified as Divergent, and was
warned by her test administrator, Tori, that she should never tell anyone about
this, as it was extremely dangerous.
Beatrice, or Tris, as she later preferred to be called, had never been
satisfied in Abnegation, thinking herself too selfish. So when the time came to
choose the faction she’d be in for the rest of her life, she chose to transfer to
Dauntless.
Well, she began Dauntless initiation, made a few friends named
Christina and Will, and also made a bad enemy named Peter. She also
happened to get into a relationship with one of her instructors, a teen named
Tobias, nicknamed Four for only having four fears. He was a fellow Abnegation
transfer, choosing Dauntless to get away from the cruelty of his father, Marcus.
He also happened to be Divergent.
The night after she was accepted among the ranks of the Dauntless, Tris
woke up to find out that everyone around her was being controlled in a
simulation by Jeanine, the leader of Erudite. Everyone, that is, except her and
Tobias. Simulations had no effect on the Divergent. The rest of the Dauntless
were all like mindless zombies, capable only of carrying out orders.
And those orders were to go to the Abnegation faction and kill everyone.
Tris and Tobias managed to shut down the simulation controlling the
Dauntless, but not before Tris’s parents were killed and she was forced to kill
her friend Will.
The book ended as Tris, Tobias, Tris’s brother Caleb, Tobias’s father
Marcus, and Tris’s enemy Peter were riding on a train heading toward the
Amity faction, the hard drive containing the simulation data in Tris’s back
pocket.
Sorry that took so long. Now, the real book report can begin.
The Summary
The book began with Tris, Tobias, Marcus, Caleb, and Peter riding on the
train, heading for the Amity base. When the train arrived, the five jumped off
and went to find Johanna Reyes, the representative of Amity. Though she did
not appreciate having members of Dauntless in Amity headquarters, she
allowed them to stay the night, informing them that tomorrow the Amity
would decide their fate.
Tris fell asleep almost immediately. When she woke up, she imagined
that Will was right in front of her haunting her from the grave. She was
traumatized because she was the one that had killed him. The image
disappeared when Tobias opened the door, telling her that it was time for the
Amity meeting.
The Amity decided that their compound would be a safe house for all
factions if there was absolutely no violence. After this statement was made,
Tris noticed that Marcus and Johanna were arguing about something, and she
snuck closer to find out what they were talking about. Tris discovered that
Marcus knew some sort of big secret. When Johanna pressed to discover what
it was, Marcus got angry and walked off. Tris later talked to Tobias about it, but
he dismissed it offhand.
When everyone was at breakfast, Marcus approached Tobias and Tris
and suggested that all the Abnegation refugees leave the city. The two agreed,
but Tris couldn’t help but suspect that this decision had something to do with
the conversation that Marcus had had with Johanna. After he left, Tris
followed him. She cornered him and told him that she had heard him talking
to Johanna, and that she wanted to know what the secret was. Marcus told
her that it was something that her father risked his life for, but he refused to
elaborate. A frustrated Tris Went to bed.
When she woke up, to her dismay, Peter was standing by her bed. He
had taken the hard drive containing the simulation data! Tris leapt at him,
beginning a scuffle. Tobias arrived and broke up the fight, after getting the
hard drive back from Peter. An Amity official then came, informing Tris that
she violated the compound rules by starting a fight. She was escorted away.
Tris was taken to a room in which an Amity scientist was waiting for her.
Against her will, Tris was given an injection that made her calm and happy to
the point of insanity. Tobias found her like that and escorted her to her room.
The serum took five hours to wear off, at which point Tris decided that she
hated Amity.
A few hours later, Tris was in a very tall tree when she saw Erudite cars
arriving at the complex, undoubtedly to kill the remaining Abnegation
members. Their only hope for escape was to try and blend in with the Amity
members.
It didn’t work. The Erudite attacked the Abnegation members, and in the
commotion, Tris accidently saved Peter’s life.
In the end, only a few people escaped the attack. Tris, Tobias, Caleb, and
a girl named Susan got out together and made for the train tracks. However,
when they boarded the train, they discovered that it was run by the
factionless, those who failed their training or were cast out. The factionless
were about to force them off the train when Tobias told them that his last
name was Eaton. To Tris’s total bewilderment, the factionless stood down and
told Tobias that someone had been looking for him. This person turned out to
be Tobias’s supposedly dead mother, Evelyn, who had become leader of the
factionless. Tobias, however, resented her for leaving him with Marcus. He
argued with her, and she left the room.
Tris fell asleep troubled.
Voices woke her. She overheard a conversation between Evelyn and
Tobias, Evelyn saying that the goal of the factionless was to overthrow Erudite
and set up a new government without factions.
Tris didn’t get any more sleep that night.
The next day, Tris and Tobias decided to go to the Candor headquarters,
where the Dauntless were taking refuge; the ones who weren’t on Erudite’s
side, anyway.
Once the two got to the compound, they were arrested and taken to a
holding cell. Later, Jack Kang, leader of Candor stepped in and informed Tris
and Tobias that they were being pressed with charges of helping Erudite. To
prove whether this was true or not, they would be asked questions under the
influence of truth serum.
While waiting for the trial, Tris was reunited with Christina, one of her
best friends, who tearfully told her that Will had been killed. Unable to tell her
the truth, Tris lied and claimed that she didn’t know. Before they were able to
talk more, it was time for the trial to begin. Tobias was called up first. His
innocence is proven, but he is also forced to tell everyone why he left
Abnegation for Dauntless: to get away from his father, Marcus.
Tris’s interrogation was next. She was also proven innocent, but she had
to admit that it was she who killed Will, making Christina hate her for doing so,
and making Tobias angry with her for concealing the truth.
“The Candor sing the praises of the truth, but they never tell you how much it
costs.” -30% through the book
The next day, Tris and Tobias had an argument about the issue, after
which, Tris wandered aimlessly around for a while. Lynn, a friend of hers from
Dauntless, found her and took her to where the other Dauntless were staying,
where Tris was reunited with other friends such as Uriah, Marlene, and
Shauna. After getting reacquainted, Uriah suggested that they go to the top of
a building to spy on the Erudite.
While they were there, Dauntless traitors attacked them, shooting some
sort of blue object at them. Tris got hit in the arm and went down, feigning
unconsciousness when she realized that everyone else was out like a light. She
figured out that the others must be under some sort of simulation, or she, as
Divergent, wouldn’t be the only one awake. After the Dauntless traitors were
gone, Tris sat up, as did Uriah, letting Tris know that he was Divergent as well.
Together, they went back into the city to try to rescue any other Divergent, but
they were captured by Eric, a ruthless leader of Dauntless.
However, Tris realized that she still kept a knife in her back pocket. She
stabbed Eric, and chaos ensued for a few moments. Then, Tobias arrived
with a backup of about 70 Dauntless. They drove the Dauntless traitors out of
the Candor compound and captured Eric. The battle was won.
However, there was a catch. Tris discovered that the blue things that the
Dauntless traitors were shooting at everyone contained a simulation serum.
This meant that all those who were shot by the Dauntless traitors could be
controlled under simulations made by the Erudite.
As she went to go find Tobias to tell him this unnerving discovery, Caleb
saw her and beckoned her over to him. He then told her that Marcus and
Peter had just arrived, apparently having escaped the shooting at Amity.
Before she could find Tobias and relay this news to him, however, Jack Kang,
leader of Candor, called a meeting.
He spoke a lot about the invasion of Candor, and then asked all
Divergent to step forward. Tris and Tobias both walked up, and more
surprisingly, so did Marcus. Kang then asked them why they thought the
Dauntless had attacked, but dismissed Tris’s theory that they had come to find
the Divergent and control the rest of the faction.
A few hours later, Zeke, Uriah’s older brother, and Tori, Tris’s test
administrator arrived from spying on the traitor Dauntless. Tori was injured, so
was taken to a hospital, but Zeke warned that a representative from Erudite
was coming to discuss peace with Jack Kang. Lynn, Uriah, Shauna, Marlene,
and Tris decided to listen in on the meeting, which was scheduled for 12 hours
later.
At lunch, the Dauntless began to call Tobias a coward, reminding Tris
that he had revealed to them why he had really joined the Dauntless. To prove
himself, he walked over to where Marcus was sitting and basically beat him
up, stalking out of the cafeteria afterward. Tris followed him and began to
argue that he shouldn’t have just beat up Marcus for no good reason. When
he wouldn’t listen, she huffed out of the room to find Marcus.
“We both have war inside of us. Sometimes it keeps us alive. Sometimes it
threatens to destroy us.” -47% through the book
When she found Marcus, Tris informed him that whatever secret he was
talking about with Johanna, she could help him with it. He told her to go away.
12 hours later, it was time to spy on Kang’s meeting. However, Tris was
unable to take even a gun to protect herself, the memory of what she had
done to Will still haunting her. She walked out of her room to meet the others
unarmed.
The representative that Jeanine sent turned out to be Max, a cruel
Dauntless leader just like Eric. He demanded that Kang turn over all Divergent
to the Erudite, or they would destroy Candor.
At that point, Lynn shot Max.
When the utter confusion started, Tris bolted off to find Jeanine. She
almost caught up to her, but Peter, the traitor, forced her to retreat. Going
back to her friends, Tris discovered that Shauna had gotten shot in the back.
They transported her to a hospital in the city, barely in time to save her.
A few minutes afterward, Tris found herself at a meeting of the
Dauntless members. They began to elect new leaders. Tori, Tobias, and
Harrison, and older man, were nominated, and the Dauntless began to make
plans to leave the city, plans furthered by Jack Kang’s announcement that all
Divergent had to turn themselves in. The Dauntless moved out, leaving chaos
in their wake. With nowhere else to go, the Dauntless traveled back to their
compound, despite the fact that it was under surveillance from the Erudite.
One night, Tobias woke Tris up to go to a meeting with the factionless.
He met with Evelyn, and they discussed the alliance. They reached an
agreement, to Tris’s apprehension. As they were heading back to the
Dauntless compound, Tris told Tobias that she didn’t like this alliance. Tobias
agreed, but claimed that in order to succeed, they needed the help of the
factionless. Tris went back to bed angry with Tobias…
…and woke up to a panicked Christina. Three of the Dauntless were
being controlled under the Erudite simulation- Marlene, a young girl, and
Hector, Lynn’s younger brother. Christina dragged Tris up to the roof
because they were saying that they had a message for the Divergent. The
message was this: if a Divergent didn’t deliver themselves to Erudite
headquarters, this would happen again. Then, all three stepped backward off
the roof! Cristina rescued the young girl, and Tris saved Hector, but that meant
that Marlene was dead. After this horrific issue, Tris reconciled with Christina.
The next night, Tris decided to give herself up to the Erudite as the
message had ordered, to save lives. She left the Dauntless compound and
allowed herself to be captured. It was none other that Peter who escorted her
to her cell.
A few hours later, Jeanine entered the holding area, refusing to give the
time when Tris asked. She did, however, escort her to the room where she
would be studied, and, finally, executed. Tris realized that by coming here she
had given Jeanine the capability to develop a simulation serum that would
work on the Divergent.
Then, disaster! Tobias showed up, captured like Tris. Jeanine used this
opportunity to torture Tris to force Tobias to tell her the locations of the safe
houses for the factionless. After Tobias gave up this information and was
escorted back to his cell, Jeanine revealed to Tris that her brother, Caleb, was a
traitor, further rocking her world.
After yet another tried simulation that didn’t work on her, Tris angered
Jeanine, making her decide to execute Tris early. She ordered Peter to deliver
this news to Tris in her cell. Peter informed Tris that the execution date had
been moved to the next day, but he also told her the time.
‘“It’s 9:24”
Telling me the time is a small act of betrayal, and therefore an ordinary
act of bravery. It is maybe the first time I’ve seen Peter be truly Dauntless.”’71% through the book.
In the morning, Peter came to take her to her execution. Jeanine
injected her with the death serum, but to her surprise, she didn’t die. Peter
took her out of the room, quietly explaining to her that he had switched out
the death serum for a different one that caused her to be paralyzed. He then
took her to Tobias and helped them both escape for the sole reason that he
owed Tris for saving his life back at the Amity shooting.
After escaping Erudite, Tris, Tobias, and Peter ran to the Abnegation
section of the city, where all the Dauntless and factionless had moved. The
plan was to attack Erudite sooner rather than later.
In the morning, Marcus approached Tris and told her more about his big
secret; it involved what’s outside the fence that bordered the entire city. He
also informed her that he was willing to show her the secret, only, it was
contained on a file on Jeanine’s computer. Tris was faced with a nervewracking choice- go with the factionless but not learn the secret, or go with
Marcus but lose Tobias’s trust forever for working with his father.
Evelyn and Tori revealed the ruthless attack plan against the Erudite, but
this furthered Tris’s uneasy feelings regarding this alliance.
“We share a common enemy, but does that make us friends?”- 79%
through the book.
Tris decided to work with Marcus, even though this decision could ruin
her relationship with Tobias forever. She managed to convince Christina to
help her. She, Marcus, Christina, and a few Erudite refugees snuck into the
Erudite compound while the conflict was going on outside. Tris felt certain that
the file would be on the laboratory computer- the most secure computer in
the entire building. On the way up there, Tris was separated from the rest of
her group, so she had to get through all the security measures on her own.
When she got through to the laboratory, Tris, to her shock, found that
Tori was already there and about to shoot Jeanine. Tris tried to prevent it fom
happening, but Tori was too determined.
Tori shot Jeanine.
Jeanine died.
Tris is taken for a Dauntless traitor and captured, without even getting
the data from Jeanine’s computer.
And on top of that, Tobias started to hate her for working with Marcus.
In the square, where everyone was gathered, Evelyn made an
announcement; with the downfall of the Erudite also came the downfall of the
factions. As Evelyn talked, Tobias walked over to Tris and told her that he had
gotten the information from the computer. The projectors in the square
flickered, then came on.
‘ “What is this?”Evelyn demands.
“This,” Tobias says, only to me, ”is the information that will change
everything.” ‘ -97% through the book
Guess what? I’m not giving away the
ending!
Objectiveness
This was an objective summary, as I’ve told you. It’s
actually a bit difficult to be objective when writing about a
book like this. It’s difficult because I had several opinions
about events in this book that I really wanted to share.
However, I couldn’t, because an objective summary is, by
definition, opinion-free. It’s also difficult because a human
being, by nature, wants to share his/her opinions with the
world, so suppressing them is not natural. That’s why it’s hard
to be objective when writing an objective summary.
Thanks for watching my powerpoint!