Divergent

Roth, Veronica. (2011). Divergent. New York, NY: Katherine Tegen Books.

Series Book – Divergent

Divergent has been on the New York Times’ Best Seller List for Young Adults for 14 weeks now; it is currently ranked as #3, and I can definitely see why.  Out of the fifty books I have read for this class, Divergent is by far one of my very favorites.  There were a few similarities throughout the story to The Hunger Games, another of my favorites, including The Choosing Ceremony, the strong female heroine, a controlling and crooked government system, and revolting against the leaders, but Veronica Roth’s plot is very different.  I was hooked to the story from the very beginning.  I was very intrigued by the idea of the five factions each living by a single core value, by Beatrice being Divergent and what it meant, and by her instant connection with Four, and I could not wait to find out if Beatrice would survive the Dauntless initiation.

In addition to the plot, I could not help but identify with the main character, Beatrice Prior, who struggles with being selfless and brave throughout the book, something I struggle with myself.  Torn between her home faction Abnegation and chosen faction Dauntless, Beatrice undergoes several difficult tests - physical, mental, and emotional - as she completes the Dauntless initiation process.  But through it, she faces her fears, discovers herself, and realizes that being selfless and brave are not that different.  And in the end, even though she is ranked #1 out of the initiates after the final test, she has to leave Dauntless behind, own her Divergence, and join forces with her family in Abnegation to save the faction from the Erudite and Dauntless leaders who wish to destroy it and gain control of the government. 

I was also drawn to the underlying theme of good vs. evil throughout the book.  This theme is evident both outwardly with the good attempting to overthrow the corrupt leaders, and inwardly with Beatrice’s daily struggle of making good and bad decisions, just as it is in the real world today.  Even though the creators of the factions intended for them to eliminate those qualities they believed were responsible for the world’s disarray and war, in the end, as Beatrice’s mother stated, “human beings cannot be good for long before the bad creeps back in and poisons us again” (Roth, 2011).  We need to be reminded of this message daily as we remember making good and bad decisions is a constant struggle, and even when we mess up, we have to be determined next time to do better.

I anxiously await getting to read the sequel to this book, Insurgent.