Work Cited

Divergent
A3
Garrett Wade
10/12/17
 Work Cited

Divergent is a novel that takes place in futuristic world where society is divided

into five factions. The totalitarian government in the novel controls everything, and

designed this system in hopes of resolving disputes. One of the main issues within in

their society is how people are divided into factions, they are divided up based on their

aptitudes and values. Also, the government presents another problem because it is

does not allow the people to participate and is centralized around one person making

choices, in this case it is Jeanine Matthews, whereas in the U.S. every citizen of age gets

to participate in government. The United Sates is a representative democracy, meaning

that people vote on electing officials whom share the same values.

Divergent is a futuristic dystopian novel that takes place in Chicago after the

collapse. Society is organized into five factions, and each faction places value solely on a

specific virtue. Abnegation, which values selflessness, Amity, which values peace,

Erudite, which values knowledge, Candor, which values honesty, and dauntless, which

values bravery. At the beginning of the children’s lives they are forced to live the lives

their parents chose, until they’re sixteen. Once they turn sixteen they are forced with

the task of choosing a faction to spend the rest of their lives in, whether they grew up in

it or not. The main character in the story Beatrice Prior has come of the age to take the

aptitude test that is supposed to help them make the right choice in picking a faction.

The test consist of a task that is supposed to put them in an uncomfortable situation so

that they can see how they will react. While Prior is taking her aptitude test she gets
 Work Cited

results for three different factions, meaning she is what they call divergent. She is told

to never tell anyone about her results, because it is dangerous to be divergent. Prior

ends up choosing to switch factions and move to Dauntless, while her brother chooses

Erudite. In Dauntless, Prior decides to change her name to Tris because she feels as

though this a fresh start. Initiation into the fearless faction involves three stages, in

which all members will be ranked in. At the conclusion of the stages only the top ten

members will be selected to be a part of Dauntless, the rest will become factionless and

forced to live on the outskirts of the city in poverty. Tris soon realizes that it is going to

be difficult to make it, but earns the respect of the elders and other players in a game of

capture the flag. She soon forms a bond with Four, one of the instructors in Dauntless.

As the stages go on she begins to stand out from all the others in fear simulations, and is

beginning to become closer to four, who starts to open up to her. Four finally reveals his

true identity to Tris and explains that he divergent also. One day Tris decides to go visit

her brother, however, she is stopped by the Erudite leader Jeanine Matthews. Tris

begins to question Matthew’s morals and suspects her of colluding with Dauntless to kill

all the Divergents. Initiation day finally comes around, and Tris goes through her final

assessment and is extremely successful. Her excitement is soon ruined when she

realizes that they will be injected with a serum that will separate the divergents from

the others. Once Matthews figures out Tris is a divergent she is taken to a tank where

she is to drown, and right before that her mom rescues her. Before she leaves with her

mom she goes to find Four, and finds him hooked up to a simulation, but he is able to
 Work Cited

escape it. They destroy the Dauntless computer and head out the city to look for safety

in the Amity compound1.

Society’s like the one used in the novel are popular in dictatorship countries,

such as North Korea. In North Korea people are influenced into believing false

information with the use of propaganda. Their government filters who and what comes

in and out the country, also citizens are not allowed to leave at free will and no one is

allowed in2. The government chooses jobs their citizens and determines what they can

and cannot do. North Korean leaders are born into their position and are not elected

like some countries. Also, like in the novel they have the freedom to force citizens to

move to certain areas and remain there. They also still use inhumane ways for

punishment like the novel did. Other countries such as China, Sudan, Saudi Arabia,

Afghanistan, etc. control their society’s as well, but none as controlling as North Korea3.

In America or other democratic countries people elect officials who have share

the same beliefs to hold office. A prime example of a Representative Democracy is the

United States. In the U.S. we elect officials who supposedly share the same beliefs to

pass laws for us, we also elect members of congress, state, and local officials. In order

for a direct Democracy to work properly several conditions must be met. One of those

conditions is that there must be competition for the position being voted on, however, if

1
Roth, Veronica. Divergent. London: HarperCollins Publishers, 2016.
2
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-pacific-15256929

3
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-wallechinsky/the-worlds-worst-dictator_b_28679.html
 Work Cited

people feel as though the competition is rigged or has already been deicide there will be

no way of genuinely picking a leader. Also, there has to be no restrictions on

communication, both in the people and the press. Lastly, each voter must believe that a

meaningful choice exists between candidates. In order for a representative democracy

to effective these factors must be present. Representative Democracy originated in the

Greek city-state of Athens, in 508 BCE. Originally, they had what they call a direct

democracy where everyone votes on every issue, however, it became a problem due to

the amount of people and issues. At the time of this only male citizens could vote which

means technically one could not necessarily classify it as a democracy. Overall, for a

democracy to function well you have to have, equality in voting, participation,

enlightened understanding, and must be open to all citizens within a nation. Many

different versions of democracies exits too. Such as, direct democracies, representative

democracy, religious democracies, etc4. but they all share the same value in that people

should have a say. Representative democracies are the most common form of

democracy, and differ more, than direct democracies today5.

Divergent was an extremely well thought out book and was very good novel. It

addressed the problems in their society like how the government controlled how people

lived their lives, and addressed how the government wanted to rid the planet of

divergents. It the novel they lived in a futuristic world that had been destroyed and

4
http://www.democracy-building.info/systems-democracy.html

5
Study.com. Accessed October 15, 2017. http://study.com/academy/lesson/what-is-representative-democracy-
definition-examples-pros-cons.html.
 Work Cited

rebuilt into a totalitarian system where people were divided up, almost like how North

Korea tells their citizens what they can and cannot do. They believed it would fix all the

problems they once had but in the end it created more conflict and chaos. It differed

from a representative democracy vastly, because it does not allow peoples to elect

officials who share the same beliefs to pass laws. Democracies are not all like that, but

all share the same mind set in allowing the people to participate with choice. The

original democracies were tasked with voting on all issues, however, it presented a

major obstacle because of how many issues presented themselves in time. We believe

that the original country to perfect representative democracy was Athens, although a

government can never be perfect. Overall, It was a good book in comparing and

contrasting different forms of government, and was good and well thought out.
 Work Cited

1) Roth, Veronica. Divergent. London: HarperCollins Publishers, 2016.

2) http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-pacific-15256929

3) https://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-wallechinsky/the-worlds-worst-

dictator_b_28679.html

4) http://www.democracy-building.info/systems-democracy.html

5) Study.com. Accessed October 15, 2017. http://study.com/academy/lesson/what-is-

representative-democracy-definition-examples-pros-cons.html.