Not Completely Alone: The Divergent series ~Veronica Roth~

Last Christmas break, I walked into my room after baking cookies. Little could have prepared me for the sight that greeted me as I entered my haven. My sister Karina sat hunched over on the floor, sobbing. Thinking a relative or a cat had died, I began to panic, “Karina! What’s the matter?” She couldn’t reply through her tears so she chucked a book at me. I grabbed the thick book and turned it over. Allegiant, the front cover read.

And that is the story of how I began to read the Divergent series. The plot of the series was intriguing, though at first I couldn’t seem to get past the horrific grammar. Beatrice Prior lives in a world where the clique system of high school has escalated into full blown segregation. The present day Chicago has been divided into five sections, called factions. Each faction has a certain virtue that perfectly sums up its purpose.

Abnegation: the selfless

Amity: the peaceful

Candor: the honest

Erudite: the intelligent

Dauntless: the brave

Upon reaching sixteen years of age, one must choose the faction that he desires to be in for the rest of his life. When Beatrice chooses Dauntless over Abnegation, the faction she was born into, the repercussions are great. She is no longer permitted contact with her family, she must survive Dauntless initiation and she must make friends instead of enemies. She discovers she is Divergent, which means that she doesn’t have a specific aptitude to any one faction. Her divergence also means that she is dangerous in the eyes of the government.

The first time I read the Divergent series, I hated Tris (Beatrice). Now, I realize that the reason I disliked her is because she reminds me of myself. There is a part of Tris that cries to be selfless, the Abnegation part of her. However, that part of her is constantly outweighed by her adventurous and wild side, the Dauntless in her. I feel like that most days. The selfless part of me is overcome by my natural wild self and I usually end up regretting most of my dauntless decisions.

Tris divides herself into two sections: selfless and brave. Tobias reminds her, though, that often selflessness and bravery aren’t different.

“’Because you’re from Abnegation,’ he says, ‘and it’s when you’re acting selflessly that you are at your bravest.’”

The Dauntless faction manifesto sums up this idea when it states, “We believe in ordinary acts of bravery, in the courage that drives one person to stand up for another.” I don’t have to be unadventurous to be selfless. In fact, one of the characteristics that define bravery is selflessness. To me, this seems to be the principal journey Tris travels throughout the series.

Initially, I hated Tris because she seemed so selfish, but now I’m realizing that Dauntless taught her to live selflessly. When Caleb, her brother asked her why she chose Dauntless over Abnegation she said,

“There were some things I needed to learn….How to be selfless. Often [bravery and selflessness] are the same thing.”

Tris acts selflessly throughout the books, and for some reason, I was too blind to see it when I read them for the first time. She gives up her position as a Dauntless leader for Tobias. She sacrifices herself for the rebellion by answering Jeanine’s call for Divergents.

“This is the last moment I will be able to turn back….Hope and pray and wish that no one else dies because of my selfishness.”

Tris’ greatest act of selflessness came at the end of Allegiant, when she sacrificed her life for all of the ones she loved, the ones she hated, and the ones she would never know.

“[My mom] taught me all about real sacrifice. That it should be done from love….That it should be done from necessity, not without exhausting all other options. That it should be done for people who need your strength because they don’t have enough of their own.”

I am so glad that I read this book again because it gave me such a better perspective on Tris’ life and how she used her circumstances to act bravely and selflessly. My favorite relationship in the book was the relationship between Caleb and Tris. To me, this relationship portrayed excellent themes of love, forgiveness, and selflessness.

Caleb and Tris grew up together in Abnegation. They were close as children; Caleb played the perfect older brother role, rescuing Tris from trouble. When they both chose different factions, Tris felt the absence of Caleb in her life and visited him in the Erudite compound, which was illegal.

“I wanted to go home…and you were the closest I could think of.”

“I thought I had gotten to the point where I didn’t need my brother anymore, but I don’t think such a point actually exists.”

Caleb betrayed Tris by siding with Jeanine Matthews, and taking part in the attempt of Tris’ murder. When I first read these books, I felt like Tris should just forgive Caleb, after all---he is her brother. Reading them again though, I was able to empathize with Tris and feel the full blast of Caleb’s disloyalty.

Even though Caleb hurt Tris, she forgives him in the end, by dying in his place. I loved the fact that Tris loves Caleb more than life itself, no matter what he had done to her. I admire her for her unconditional love, and I hope I would show the same forgiveness in a similar situation.

“The first step to loving someone else is to recognize the evil in ourselves, so we can forgive them.”

I love these books: probably not for the reasons everyone else does. I don’t want to marry Tobias. I don’t wish I was in Dauntless. And I would rather die than pick up a gun. But I love this series for the themes they portray. Tris learns how to live selflessly, forgiving those who wrong her. Brokenness and healing is shown through Tobias, Uriah, Christina, Tori, Evelyn, and Johanna. And the transforming power of the choices made teach the reader to remember that choices define our inward love, loyalty, and struggles.

“This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.”

–I John 3:16

Abnegation: the selfless