2.9 Response 2 - Divergent
Reading Response 2
Title: Divergent
Author: Veronica Roth
Text Type: Novel
The novel Divergent by Veronica Roth is a coming of age novel about a 16 year old girl named Beatrice who is faced with challenges with finding her identity. Beatrice lives in a society made up of five different factions that people live in based on their very different characteristics. Beatrice is born into the selfless faction Abnegation, then transfers to brave Dauntless after a choosing ceremony for all the 16 year olds. Before the ceremony, Beatrice discovers she belongs to a small group of Divergents, which means she fits into multiple factions because her identity is so separate from each individual one. Beatrice discovers being divergent is dangerous, and is warned not to share her information with others because the government won’t hesitate to harm her to keep the social order among the factions. The novel is about Beatrice’s struggles finding her identity, and keeping ahead in training for her new faction Dauntless, all while trying to keep her divergence a secret for her own safety.
My first impression from the novel was that Beatrice didn’t fit in to her faction, Abnegation. Abnegation is described as a selfless faction, and there a several moments in the beginning where she doesn’t show this characteristic. The first time I noticed this was when Beatrice’s mother was cutting her hair in front of the mirror. Beatrice, knowing it is against the rules, sneaks a look at her reflection. The people of Abnegation aren’t allowed to look at their reflection because it is marked as vain and selfish - the exact opposite of the characteristic used to identify Abnegation. I also realised in this moment that the book was going to be very different from the world we live in today, because of the boundaries the people of this society are expected to obey. I found the ‘no looking in the mirror for 3 months’ rule very strange and different, because most of us in the real world will see our appearance every day. Another time I felt Beatrice didn’t fit in with her birth faction was when her family is eating at the table the night before the choosing ceremony. After speaking out of line and being silenced by her mother, Beatrice’s following thoughts got me wondering if she was going to stay in Abnegation. “I stare at my peas. I am not sure I can live this life of obligation any longer. I am not good enough.” I took from this that Beatrice needs freedom from her family and birth faction, to find a place where she can start over new instead of struggling over every action of selflessness in Abnegation.
An idea that I found interesting was the connection between identity and society, and how society affects identity. Identity is a socially constructed concept, which means the way society treats a person has an effect on who they become. I thought this was an important idea in the novel because it shows the reader that society has an impact on young people of today, and it raises awareness towards the issue in support of future generations of teens/young people. An example of this idea in the text is when
-Beatrice is told at 16 to choose the faction she will live the rest of her life. this is identity because the factions are all different identities and have different morals. This is society because she has constant pressure to “do the right thing” whether it be for her faction or for herself, and she wants to please everyone with her decision (something i relate to). Pressure to choose abnegation because family, but she wants to be her own person and decides against her current society of selflessness and that this message the author is putting through might encourage society to be more accepting and encouraging of young people today.
In the novel Divergent I felt the protagonist Beatrice hadn’t found her true identity at the beginning of the novel. I thought this when Beatrice is looking in the mirror and sees her reflection, her first thought is “I still look like a little girl, though sometime in the last few months I turned sixteen”. This showed me that Beatrice is not very confident or comfortable in her own skin, which I think is important to the novel because it draws the readers attention to the real world where negative attitude young women today have towards their bodies is common, and it helps them to form opinions for this matter. I also think Beatrice not feeling comfortable with her body is a reflection of her opinion towards her faction, Abnegation, meaning she doesn’t feel like she fits in there either. When Beatrice leaves Abnegation to move to Dauntless, we can see another side of her awakening, the side that was shut off her entire childhood. Beatrice experiments with her identity when she moves to Dauntless which I thought was
The novel Divergent relates to year 12 because at 16 years old both us students and the characters make choices that affect the rest of our lives. In the novel, at 16 years old the characters participate in a choosing ceremony, where they decide which of the 5 factions they want to live in for the rest of their lives. The characters choose their futures by selecting the faction that best reflects their identities. At 16 in year 12 we need to be thinking about our futures and career choices, which we decide based on our interests and identities. A situation that is addressed in the novel that relates to year 12’s is the pressure/judgement parents have on a youths decisions. An example of this in Divergent is at the choosing ceremony when Beatrice chooses to transfer to Dauntless over staying in her birth faction, Abnegation. “My father’s eyes burn into mine with a look of accusation.” This example leads us to believe that her father is angry with her decision and he would have preferred to shape her future himself. I would say this relates directly to year 12’s at TGS because some of my friends aren’t allowed to take subjects because their parents don't want them to, and some even choose their subjects for them, which means they are wanting to shape my friends futures just like Beatrice’s father strongly disapproved of hers and probably would have chosen Abnegation for her if he could.
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