Emily Daniels

Hoppe Block 2

2/16/15

All living things have an instinct within that gives us the extra push to survive in

dangerous situations. This instinct gives a boost of adrenaline to help us run away from danger,

or even extra strength in order to combat it. Our survival instinct will go to extreme advances to

keep us alive, and in some cases, can completely change our inner selves. In Veronica Roths

Divergent series, Tris Priors character development proves over time that survival is a major

factor in deciding how a characters identity will change when the influences around them

conflict.

Identity is first shaped by a persons ability to survive in their environment before any

other factors come into play. In Divergent, Beatrice Prior grows up in the faction of Abnegation,

where the people are selfless, quiet, and kind. However, her environment changes when she

decides to leave Abnegation for the faction of Dauntless, who are known to be restless, violent,

and bold people. Beatrice changes her name to Tris to symbolize her new life in Dauntless, and

throughout her initiation into Dauntless, she is taught how to overcome fear and how to fend for

herself in her new environment. Her identity goes through drastic changes so she can survive her

initiation, such as when she endured a simulation of her worst fears multiple times. When Tris

goes through the fear simulation for the first time, she recalls that I try to run, but my feet are

firmly planted and refuse to move I scream as they surround me. I scream until tears come

from my eyes, my arms flailing. I am alone (Divergent, pg. 233), but after many weeks of
living in the Dauntless compound, she would feel my fear as a distant thing, a hammering heart

and a squeezed chest, but not something that exists in my mind (Divergent, pg. 384) in her final

simulation test. Her Abnegation identity had to be left behind when Tris joined Dauntless

because she would not be able to endure the initiation if she had kept her Abnegation way of life,

so her identity was forced to change. Eventually, she was able to find a part of herself that was

bold and courageous like the Dauntless, and she quickly changed in order to pass her initiation so

she would live another day. Therefore, Triss Dauntless ideals had won the battle against her

Abnegation ideals because they had kept her alive.

Although personal choices control a persons identity when they are not in any real

danger, there are rare instances when a persons choices will overrule their survival instinct.

When Tris and her friends escape Chicago and the faction system, her identity goes through

another drastic change when they discover the Bureau, the government agency behind the faction

system, and the rest of the world outside. They soon realize that the Bureau needed to be

destroyed because they held too much power over the people living in Chicago. It was decided

that Triss brother, Caleb, would wipe out the memories of the Bureau by breaking into a top-

secret lab, where there was no chance of him surviving the mission. Triss friends had originally

chosen him to go on the suicide mission because he had betrayed them, but when Tris was in the

process of safely getting him to the lab where he would meet his death, she realized that I dont

belong to Abnegation, or Dauntless, or even the Divergent. I dont belong to the Bureau or the

experiment or the fringe. I belong to the people I love, and they belong to me- they, and the love

and loyalty I give them, form my identity far more than any word or group ever could

(Allegiant, pg. 455), and she decides that she needs to protect her brother, no matter what he may

have done in the past. In this mindset, Tris sacrifices her life and goes into the lab instead of
Caleb to stop the Bureau, and in her last breaths, she asks herself Can I be forgiven for all Ive

done here? I want to be. I can. I believe it (Allegiant, pg. 476), showing a major shift in her

identity. In this instance, the part of Triss identity that held her ideals about the people she loved

won over her survival instinct. Certain pieces of ones identity can be substantially stronger than

others, and survival will no longer have a grip on that part of the persons identity. This can

cause a person to react differently in a dangerous or hostile setting when that strong piece of their

identity is put at risk, such as when Tris died to save her brother. Triss death proves that

although survival is a strong factor, it isnt always the absolute power over identity.

The Divergent series shows that survival is one of the most forceful aspects of shaping

identity. For living beings, survival instinct is of the highest importance, or else we would have

no ability to exist. All living species have evolved over time, and have gained characteristics that

would help us survive and exist on Earth. Could our identities be merely an evolved mechanism

of survival for humans, or is there a deeper and more spiritual meaning behind it?