Divergent

The image of a future society?

This book written by Veronica Roth, takes us into a dystopic society. In a city that is completely surrounded by a great impenetrable wall that aims to protect and preserve the peace of its society. We will be able to follow the life of Beatrice, a young woman who is going to live an unusual adventure and who will not finish surprising you.

5 factions, one city

The population living in the city of Chicago is divided into 5 major factions:

The Dauntless for the brave and fearless;
The Sinceres for those who always tell the truth, they are in charge of justice and protecting order;
The Erudites for the most intelligent;
The Fraternal for the most benevolent, they are in charge of cultivating the fields;
And the Altruists the most generous, they govern society.

Emblems of the 5 factions in Divergent

A character out of the ordinary

Beatrice Prior is a young woman living in a post-apocalyptic world where society is divided into five clans. At age of 16, she is faced with the most important choice of her life, which is to choose which faction she belongs to. To do this, she has taken a test that is supposed to tell her which faction to choose for her future. Problem, her aptitude test is not conclusive: she is Divergent.

Divergents are rare individuals who do not belong to any clan and are hunted down by the government. So by hiding her secret, Tris decides to join the brutal world of the Dauntless.

When she joins them, Beatrice chooses to go by the pseudonym Tris which better suits her new life.

An absolute takeover, or maybe not

The Erudite faction is in conflict with the Altruists. They are fighting for power.

So the Erudites, in order to take power, have synthesized a serum in order to control the mind. All the Dauntless are forced to receive an injection of the serum. Soon after the injection, they all find themselves under control. But Tris, because of her discrepancy, is not under his control and pretends to be to avoid suspicion.

The Dauntless under her control are then forced to fight against the Altruists and thus allow the Erudites to take control of the city.

But Tris, along with Four, also a Divergent, manage to escape.

The Divergents are actually being hunted down and killed because they pose too great a threat to society. In the sense that they can't be controlled. The serum has no effect on them.

Extract from the book Insurgent (2011),

Volume 1, Chapter 13

"It's dangerous to be a Divergent. Except I still don't know why, or even what it means.

— Why?

She shakes her head.

— I can't tell you.

She looks behind her, towards the distant glow of the Pit. I hear shouting, conversations, the scrape of soles on the floor. The smell of the cafeteria wafts up to my nostrils, a sweet smell of yeast and bread from the oven. My mother turns to me again, her face tense.

— I want you to do one thing. I can't go to your brother, but you can, when the initiation is over. So I want you to go to him and ask him to research the simulation serum. Okay? Can you do that for me?

— Not until you explain to me why, Mom! If I'm going to spend the day in the Erudites' Corner, it deserves an explanation!

She kisses me and tucks a strand of hair from my bun behind my ear.

— I'm sorry, darling, I can't. I'd better go now. You'll look better if we don't seem to be too attached to each other.

— I don't care how I look, I said.

— You're wrong. My guess is that they've already got you under surveillance.

She leaves, and I'm too stunned to follow her. She turns around at the end of the hall and says to me:

— Take a piece of cake for me, okay? The chocolate one. It's delicious.

She gives me a funny smirk before adding:

— You know I love you.

I stand alone in the blue light of the hallway and everything falls into place in my head. She has been here before. She remembers this hallway. She knows the initiation procedures. My mother was a Dauntless."