Book Project
Taylor Holley
Beatrice Prior lives in a future version of Chicago where there are five distinct
factions. Each faction thinks one virtue is best: Dauntless think bravery is keen, Erudite
loves knowledge, Abnegation is pro-self-sacrifice, Amity hearts friendship, and Candor is
into telling it like it is. Beatrice grew up in an Abnegation family. But when she turns 16,
she decides to join Dauntless— because she doesn't feel selfless enough to be a good
Abnegation; and partly because her test result showed that she was Divergent, meaning
she doesn't really fit in with any one faction. Being divergent is very dangerous so during
her test, she was told to tell no one and just to choose a faction that she likes. Some of the
main characters in the story are Beatrice who later goes by Tris, Tobias Eaton, Caleb
(brother of Beatrice), and Jeanine Matthews. These characters go through so many
conflicts that they will have to face by coming together and fighting back. The mood of
this book is sort of dark and worried because the whole time I was reading this I was
worried on what’s going to happen next. It’s dark because when Tris chooses to become
part of the dauntless faction that’s what that faction is known as. The dark yet mysterious
group.
In Dauntless, Beatrice changes her name to Tris because she feels it will allow her to
start over and become someone else entirely. She makes quick friends with two Candor
transfers named Christina and Al, and an Erudite transfer name Will, while three other
Candor transfers Peter, Drew, and Molly, become her enemies. Initiation into this
courageous faction involves three stages, and they will be ranked after each one. Only the
top ten initiates will become Dauntless members; the rest will fail out and become faction
less, forced to live on the streets of the city in poverty. The first stage of initiation
involves learning how to fight from their mysterious initiation instructor, Four, and one
of the cruel Dauntless leaders, Eric. Because Tris is small, she isn't a particularly adept
fighter, but she manages to get by. Visiting Day arrives, and Tris's mother comes to visit
her in her new faction. She knows a suspicious amount about the Dauntless compound,
which leads Tris to believe that her mother may have originally been Dauntless. She tells
Tris to go visit Caleb in Erudite and tell him to research a simulation serum. Tris learns
that Abnegation members are now prohibited from entering Erudite. When they receive
rankings for stage one, Tris is ranked sixth, and is not cut.
As stages two and three of initiation commence at the end of stage two she receives a
shock; she's ranked number one. Considering her a threat, Peter and Drew attack her with
the help of Al, who used to be her friend. Four rescues her before they kill her. Al is
devastated with what he's done, and kills himself as a result. Four at last reveals to Tris
his true identity; he is Tobias Eaton, son of abusive Abnegation council representative
Marcus. At this point, they officially begin a secret relationship. After a bad day in
training, Tris leaves the Dauntless compound without telling anyone. She goes to Erudite
to pass on her mother's instructions to Caleb. There, she has a confrontation with Erudite
leader who Tris suspects of Jeanine Matthews colluding with Dauntless to kill the
Divergent. When she returns to Dauntless, Tobias warns Tris that Erudite is planning a
war against Abnegation and will use Dauntless to fight it. Initiation day comes, and Tris
goes through her final assessment, She's extremely successful and ranks first, becoming
an official member of Dauntless. However the Dauntless leaders injected everyone with a
simulation serum that day, calling it a tracking device. She knows they must be lying, and
that Erudite will use this serum as a simulation to get Dauntless to fight Abnegation for
them.
That night, everyone in Dauntless wakes up in a sleepwalking trance except Tris; she
can resist the simulation because she's Divergent. Tobias can do the same, and they find
each other in the crowd while pretending to be sleepwalking just like the others. But
when Eric tries to "accidentally" kill Tobias, the two fight back and are taken to Erudite
headquarters, where Jeanine takes Tobias in for simulation testing and sends Tris, who
was shot in the shoulder and therefore of no use to her, to be executed. The next morning,
Tris is taken to a large tank, similar to the one that appears in her fear simulations, and is
to be drowned. However, Tris's mother Natalie rescues her just in time, and takes her to
her father and brother. On the way to their hiding place, Mrs. Prior is forced to sacrifice
herself in order to ensure that Tris escapes. Tris realizes the only way to stop the killing is
to stop the simulation entirely. On the way they come across Peter, who bargains with
Tris, saying that if she takes him with her, he'll tell her how to get to the control room.
Tris's dad is shot and dies along the way. Tris is devastated, but she keeps going, and
eventually makes it to the control room where Tobias is controlling the simulation
because he is under some simulation they had given him. After hearing her voice, he is
able to fight off the simulation he's under, and the two turn off the computer and take the
data so that the Dauntless will not be able to restart it.
Overall I really enjoyed reading this book. There was so much going on, which made
me not want to put the book down. I really liked the general idea of this book and how
there were different factions that every person becomes a part of at the age of 16. I will
say something I didn’t like was that their wasn’t a faction for divergents. I think it would
have been really interesting if they made one just for them. While I was reading this book
I for sure think this book gets better and better the more you read on. In the beginning it
can be a little confusing when it comes to the factions but as you read it makes a lot more
sense. This book was really good and now I want to see the movie!
The Novel “Divergent” is considered Science Fiction because it takes place in the
future and contains speculations about future changes in human civilization. Some
technologies that are part of the book are serums that are way more advanced then what
we have in our time period. One serum they use in the book is a truth serum which makes
you only tell the truth when asked questions. In our society we don’t have this type of
technology therefore this makes Divergent a Science Fiction book.