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Good day, everyone. I am Thea and being part of the book parade, I will now provide the book review for the 2014's one
of the best selling book, The Divergent by Veronica Roth. Come to the adventure with me on how this book could be a
manifestation of the skills that we need in today's 21st century.

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Starting off with the author and co-producer of the film adaptation of the book, Veronica Roth. Veronica Roth was born
in New York on August 19, 1988. Her parents divorced when she was five years old, and she describes herself as a
serious and intense child. After the divorce, Roth lived with her mother, a painter who read to Roth every night and told
her that boredom was prohibited. She credits this creative environment with encouraging her to create her own worlds
and scenarios. As Roth grew older, she began writing, which eventually lead her to pursue a creative writing degree at
Northwestern University. In 2011, she married Nelson Fitch, a photographer from Chicago. Her connection to the
Chicago area led her to set Divergent in a futuristic version of the Midwestern city.

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Moving forward to the overview of the Divergent and to give you a glimpse, the story is all about a world where the
population is divided into factions by personality types; Dauntless, Erudite, Amity, Candor and Abnegation. These
factions will be thoroughly explain later on. The protagonist, Tris Prior is classified as Divergent. When she uncovers a
conspiracy to eliminate all Divergents, she teams with the mysterious man named Four to find out what makes the
powers-that-be so frightened of them.

The explanation on why the author come up with this kind of story is actually based from her experience. Veronica Roth
was enrolled in psychology classes when she conceived the idea for Divergent. In these courses, she learned about
exposure therapy, a phobia treatment that requires repeatedly confronting one’s fears, and the infamous 1961 Milgram
experiment that tested people’s obedience to authority figures. The influence of these studies is evident in Divergent’s
emphasis on personality traits, phobias, and rankings and hierarchies. The author’s own personality also affected her
decision to make Tris, the book’s protagonist, into something of a daredevil.

When Veronica Roth first started Divergent, she intended to write about her idea of a utopia. However, she soon
realized a world in which everyone strives to be perfect could actually be a troubling, even horrible place. The book thus
turned into a dystopian novel, a popular genre in contemporary young adult literature.

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Utopia means a place of ideal perfection especially in laws, government, and social conditions while-

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Dystopian is an imagined state or society where there is great suffering or injustice, so it is quite ironic. Dystopian fiction
engages with themes like self-discovery and the struggle against authority, making it a compelling format for many
young readers like me.

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Let us now discuss the terms that are inclusive to the book and I chose the factions' names because, anyone who are
already familiar with the book, we thought the names are just newly invented by the author but they are actually the
terms that have a correlation or relevance to its essence.

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First is the Erudite which is an adjective term meaning, having or showing great knowledge or learning. The Erudite
faction is for the smartest and most logical-thinking people.

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Next is Amity, it is a noun meaning, a friendly relationship. If you're wondering how are you going to use it in a sentence,
a possible example is "an international amity and goodwill", since it is all about a formed connection or relationship. The
Amity faction is meant for the kind and peaceful. They grow crops and provide for other factions.

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Dauntless, is an adjective term, meaning showing fearlessness and determination. This faction is the protectors of the
nation, and they are known for their bravery as much as they are known for their crazy behavior.

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Next is the noun, Abnegation, meaning self-denial. The meaning is quite simple but complex but to make it easy for you
to understand, it is a quality of not being selfis. That's why people who belong to this faction are selfless and do not
value power, giving them the nickname "Stiffs." They provide for the factionless, those who have no place to call home

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Lastly, is the faction that values honesty, the Candor. From the meaning itself, it is the quality of being open and honest
in expression as well as being frank.
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Upon knowing the terms and essence of each faction, where do you think you belong? Or, are you not sure enough that
probably, you embody two or more qualities that will make you a Divergent, as well as, dangerous?

For me, this kind of coping skills or strategy to survive in a society doesn't really guarantee to have an utopia kind of
government because our natural human instinct or how we are programmed as a living organism does not limit us to
have only one characteristic. We are not only born to be intelligent, only to be honest, and a lot more, and that's what
make us different to other living things. It's because we could attain a diverse personalities and attitudes and having
those qualities does not necessarily make us dangerous. An individual is only dangerous if he or she is a threat to
someone who wanted to control or to be superior to them.

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Let us now move forward to the skills we need in today's 21st century that we could acquire from the book. I have 3
themes as well as how we could apply them or examples in real life.

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The first theme is the complexity of identity. The increasing tension suggests that the roles created by the founders were
too simplistic and not responsive to the changing needs of a dynamic society. By forcing every person into factions
focused on a single personality trait, the government discourages the personal growth that normally takes place
throughout a person’s life. For everyone in Tris’s society, identity is locked in at age sixteen and never allowed to change.
Tris thinks she has to choose whether to be brave or selfless, because neither the Choosing Ceremony nor faction
system acknowledges the possibility that she may be both. Although she initially thinks everyone else is happy to choose,
and her discontent makes her an outlier, she soon learns that others around her are also conflicted, suggesting that the
government’s attempts to quash individuality haven’t entirely succeeded.

But identity isn't just about what's inside Tris— it's also about her relationships with family and friends and society in
general. A big part of identity here is figuring out where you fit in which is pretty hard for most young people. Instead of
being able to be happy in one of the factions, Tris's main identity is that she's Divergent. That means that no matter
how hard she tries, she's never going to fit into her world.

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So let me ask or somehow, ask yourself these questions. Is there anything in our lives that matches up with the Choosing
Ceremony? and how do people change their outward identity?

For me, in the first question, I think the most accurate example for this is the elections that we have here as a
democratic country. We cannot deny that we are somehow politically separated by the colors, just how the story are
divided by factions- the yellow, pinks, red and green, and others. But also, we cannot deny that what color you support,
also defines who you are. Like if you are from Erudite, then you are an intelligent person. If you support the red and
green, well, reality check. See what's happening around you and compare how people are living their life right after
being dominated by that color. Aside from that, how do people change their outward identity? Just like how Tris, born
being Abnegation, and chose to be Dauntless. If we are going to connect this on the example I gave earlier, you could be
blind from the political propaganda before and now, you chose to support the basic human rights that are being
exploited by the government and how their selfishness could make us suffer.

Another example that we could have is when we choose a college course. If your family is a blood of engineers and you
wanted to be a doctor, but of course, your family will insist you to be an engineer because that is like the established
tradition that your family have, will you choose what you wanted to be or how people wanted you to be? Will you
decide based on how you act with the people around you or how people think of you?

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Next theme is the relationship between selflessness and bravery. If Tris’s father made her think selflessness and bravery
were incompatible, her mother’s actions have the opposite effect. On Visiting Day, Tris realizes that her mother grew up
in Dauntless, making her exactly the kind of person Tris wants to be: responsible, loving, and generous, but intelligent
and brave when necessary. Her mother becomes the perfect embodiment of selfless courage.

Do you think true courage is to leave your fear behind or you have to overcome every time?

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So, how are we going to apply this in our current generation? Eventually Tris comes to realize that bravery isn't about
getting tattoos—it's about standing up for what she believes in: "ordinary acts of bravery" (16.136). Going back to the
question I had earlier, Do you think true courage is to leave your fear behind or you have to overcome every time? Are
fears more useful than dangerous?

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Last theme we have is about Choices. Here are some statement that I want to focus on. The tagline of the book says,
One Choice Can Transform You while the slogan of the film, What Makes You Different, Makes You Dangerous.
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It's okay to make a wrong choice in Divergent because every mistake is a learning experience that will help the character
the next time. The only characters who succeed in this book are those who contemplate all the options and choose
among them. Anyone doing things by habit or without thought, ends up making a mess. That is why, being impulsive is
not really a great thing at all times, even impulsive shopping. I also believe that we are only one choice away from a
different life that we could have. We also have to consider the external factors that could affect the choices in our life,
even our very own family. So relating to the prior theme, selflessness and bravery, are you brave enough to get away
from your family who are no good to you or does not really nourish your capabilities as a person?

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This kind of question will lead us to more complex questions. Are families more positive or negative in our life? Are they
the least people who would support our choices? and how we deal with the dilemma that we have when we are not
sure on the choices that we make?

The way I do things is I tend to measure the prons and cons of a certain scenario. I am selfless to people who are close to
me but I am also selfish enough to prioritize my well-being over other people. Families might not provide the overall
support that we need, such as the emotional, mental, psychological, due to generational mindset that they can't seem
to overcome with, but we all know that we could get those kind of support to non-blood people, like our friends.

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Now that we discussed the skills we could acquire from the book, I will now share my opinions or insights about it by
comparing to the one of the best selling book, quite similar with the Divergent, which is the Hunger Games.

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To have a general comparison between these two, Divergent has more freedom of choice rather than Hunger Games.
Hunger Games is a fight for resources to survive while Divergent is a conflict on finding out who you really are with the
fear of being exposed as being different. The similarity that they have is they both have terrible government and the
citizens are being used to be controlled. We really couldn't compare these two because despite of their similarities, they
have their own way of expressing their motive and intention behind the plot. But for me, Divergent is quite closer to
reality. We really don't have the freedom to be what we wanted to be. There will be always a stereotype and
discrimination for being different. The gender, color of your skin, your social status- being different is difficult. We
always have this urge to blend in to prevent any conflict but we also find ways on how are we going to show our true
colors.

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For the last part of our discussion, Divergent is a failed Utopia where each person has to choose which faction they want
to be a part of for the rest of their life. Being different could lead to being disowned by the society. This could lead to
some people to rebel against the government that is controlling people. All of that saying, we will always come to an end
with a moral, make decisions for yourself. But I also would like to add that we also have to be considerate because your
own decisions could affect other people. No man is an island. How you act and think will always have an impact to
people around you. Therefore, make decisions for yourself respecting to the common good. That's all for my part for the
book parade.