Divergent is the debut novel of American novelist Veronica Roth, published by HarperCollins Children's Books in 2011. The first in the Divergent series, a trilogy of young adult dystopian novels (plus a book of short stories), the novel is set in a post-apocalyptic Chicago, where society defines its citizens by their social and personality-related affiliation with one of five factions. This rigid system has removed the threat of anyone exercising independent will and re-threatening the population's safety. In the story, Beatrice Prior joins the ranks of the Dauntless faction and explores her new identity as "Tris". Underlying the action- and dystopian-focused main plot is a romantic subplot between Tris and "Four", one of her instructors in the Dauntless faction.
The novel has been compared to other dystopian young adult books of the 21st century such as The Hunger Games (2008) and The Maze Runner (2009) because of its similar themes and target audience. In particular, the novel explores themes common to young adult fiction such as adult authority and the transition from childhood to maturity. Motifs considered within the post-apocalyptic society include the place of violence and social structure. Its major plot device, the division of society into personality types, is one used in other science fiction works. Beyond its literary context, Roth's open declaration of her religion as a Christian has brought commentary from Christian communities both endorsing and challenging the novel.
Roth wrote Divergent while working on a creative writing degree at Northwestern University, and it was quickly purchased for publication alongside the subsequent books in the trilogy (published 2012 and 2013). Summit Entertainment purchased the media rights to the book in 2011 and subsequently produced a film adaptation, released March 21, 2014. The film generated nearly $290 million at the box office on a $88 million budget, but received mixed reviews from critics.
Background and setting
The novel is Roth's debut novel and was published a little over a year after Roth graduated with a bachelor's degree from the Creative Writing program at Northwestern University. Roth wrote the novel during her senior year winter break and sold movie rights to the novel before she had graduated. She had been working on the series from Four's point of view but decided that he was not the character she wanted for her series. Years later, she decided to pick up the novel from a different point of view. Roth wrote the series from Beatrice's point of view.
The novel is set in a post-apocalyptic Chicago. Roth indicated that she did not originally intend to use Chicago as the setting:
Plot
In a post-apocalyptic Chicago, people are divided into five factions: Abnegation, for people who are selfless; Amity, for those who are peaceful; Candor, for the honest; Dauntless, for the brave; and Erudite, for knowledge-seekers. All sixteen-year-olds are tested to determine which faction suits them best, but most end up selecting their own faction at the annual Choosing Ceremony. Those who do not pass their chosen faction's initiation become "Factionless" and live as outcasts, doing menial tasks.
Sixteen-year-old Beatrice Prior, a member of Abnegation, takes the standard test to help determine her best choice. Her inconclusive test results—Abnegation, Dauntless, and Erudite—mark her as "Divergent," and the test administrator, Tori, warns her never to tell anyone. Agonizing over her future, Beatrice leaves Abnegation, her original faction, and joins Dauntless. Her brother, Caleb, chooses Erudite, much to her and their parents' shock.
The new Dauntless initiates jump onto a moving train to Dauntless headquarters and are instructed to jump off onto its roof. One initiate falls to her death, while another is too afraid to jump. Beatrice goes first when they are later ordered to jump off the roof into a dark hole. At the bottom is a net. She tells the instructor, Four, that her name is Tris. When eating later that evening, Four joins them. Tris is the only one brave enough to actually talk to him.
Four explains that only the top ten Dauntless initiates will stay; the rest will become Factionless. Tris befriends fellow initiates Christina, Will, and Al, but comes into conflict with others like Peter, Drew, and Molly.
In the first initiation stage, they are trained in guns, knives, and hand-to-hand combat. Despite her lack of physical strength, Tris finishes in sixth place. A relationship develops between Tris and Four, while Peter pummels Tris in a fight. After the first-stage rankings are announced, the second-place Peter is suspected of stabbing the first-place Edward in the eye. Edward leaves to become Factionless, followed by his girlfriend Myra, and Peter takes his place at the top.
On Visiting Day, Tris' mother, Natalie, tells Tris to stay strong but not to bring too much attention to herself during training. Tris is suspicious of Natalie's knowledge of Dauntless initiation and reasons that she was a transfer from Dauntless into Abnegation.
Erudite stirs up dissent against Abnegation, which because of its selflessness holds most of the government positions, and accuses its leader, Marcus, of abusing his son. The rumors are fueled by the fact that Marcus's son, Tris, and Caleb all left Abnegation, which is also alleged to be hoarding supplies.
In the second stage, the initiates face their deepest fears in induced hallucinations. Tris's Divergent abilities give her an advantage and earn her the top rank. Peter, Molly, Al, and Drew attack her and nearly succeed in throwing her to her death, but Four intervenes. Al later begs Tris for forgiveness, but she rejects him. He is also near the bottom of the ranking, and dies hours later by suicide.
The final stage gathers the initiates' fears into a simulated "fear landscape" to test their acquired skills. Tris and Four grow closer, and he shows her his fear landscape. She discovers that he has only four fears, hence his nickname. In Four's final fear, Tris learns his real name, Tobias. She also finds out that Tobias's father, Marcus, was very abusive, proving claims about Marcus's neglect. Tobias uncover an Erudite plan to use Dauntless to stage an attack on Abnegation.
Tris overcomes her fear landscape, and is later ranked first at the initiation ceremony. She shares her feelings for Four. Nearly all of the Dauntless, including initiates but excluding complicit Dauntless, are injected with what Tris is told is a "tracking" serum. All of the Dauntless, get into lines, and allow Dauntless leaders to inject them with the "tracking" serum.
Tris soon wakes up to discover that all her friends are in a sleepwalking-like state where they move in unison, caused by the serum. She is the only one in her group that is not under the effect of it. Tris realizes the plan to attack Abnegation with Dauntless troops is underway. Tris and Tobias's Divergence leave them unaffected, and they escape to the Abnegation compound. Tris is shot, and they are captured. Jeanine Matthews, the Erudite leader and the attack's mastermind, injects Tobias with an experimental serum that overrides his Divergence, causing him to see his enemies as friends and vice versa. She then sends Four to oversee the attack from the Dauntless control room. Tris is almost drowned in a tank but is rescued by her mother, who reveals that she is also Divergent while helping Tris escape. Natalie sacrifices herself to let Tris reach the location where her father and brother are. Tris is then forced to kill her friend Will in an act of self-defense.
She finds her own father along with Tobias's father and explains the truth behind the attack. They fight their way to Dauntless headquarters, where Tris's father sacrifices himself to divert their pursuers. Tris is distraught but pushes on. The mind-controlled Four attacks Tris. Unwilling to kill him, Tris surrenders, which enables Four to break free of the serum's control. They shut down the Erudite controlling computer program and free the Dauntless. They board a train to the Amity sector to find the rest of the Abnegation survivors, who were headed to the Amity compound.
Style Many reviewers stated that the novel's writing style offers a distinctive, terse prose that creates a fast-paced reading experience. Susan Dominus, writing in The New York Times, described the style as "brisk pacing, lavish flights of imagination and writing that occasionally startles with fine detail." Abby Nolan, from The American Prospect, noted that Divergent follows the structural and stylistic patterns of The Hunger Games and Blood Red Road.
Themes Identity As in other children's and young adult fiction, the novel probes placement of authority and identity within the youths' relationship to parents and other social forces. The critic Antero Garcia describes the thematic similarity between the dystopian novels as an interest in the "grasp of power between youth and adult authority" and compared the novel to Unwind by Neal Shusterman. In The New York Times, Susan Dominus stated that Divergent "explores a more common adolescent anxiety--the painful realization that coming into one's own sometimes means leaving family behind ideologically and physically." The Voice of Youth Advocates agreed and wrote that Divergent shows the pressure of "having to choose between following in your parents' footsteps or doing something new." The critic Antero Garcia compared the thematic interest in the characters being "forced into limiting constraints of identity and labor associated with their identity" to similar interest in forced identities and labor in the dystopian children's novels Matched by Allyson Braithwaite Condie and The Maze Runner by James Dashner.
Social structure and knowledge The government division of a population into fragmented communities is a frequent device in young adult and children's fiction. YA classics such as Lois Lowry's The Giver, Monica Hughes’s The Dream Catcher, and Zilpha Snyder’s Green Sky Trilogy use that device to different ends. In her masters' thesis, Ashley Ann Haynes describes fractioning of societies in Divergent as a supporting comparison with Hunger Games. Unlike the latter, however, all can choose which faction to join if they follow the rules and pass the tests. Divergent adds a new layer of complexity with its creation of an illusion of democracy for participants in its fractioned society, with the factions controlled by outside forces.
The basis of the social structure in Divergent is that each faction fulfils a role in society. Those who cannot contribute to society are cast aside to become "factionless" and are deprived of access to an identity and resources. In a journal article, Andrea Burgos-Mascarell compared the factionless to illegal immigrants, who do not have access to certain public services either. Both are marginalised from society because they are unable to contribute to it.
Some reviews criticized the lack of depth and realism of the social structures in the novel. Kirkus Reviews called the social structure a "preposterous premise." Booklist called the structure a "simplistic, color-coded world [that] stretches credibility on occasion." In a review for the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater's student newspaper Royal Purple News, Abrielle Backhaus notes how the "entire system seems insubstantial" and asks rhetorically, "How could it be possible for any individual, with his or her infinite emotions and experiences, to be condensed to one single quality to tolerate for the rest of their lives and to choose at the mere age of 16?" In an interview, Roth described the social structure to have expanded from her initial conception, and she added Candor to fill "a gap in the reasoning behind the world that needed to be filled."