Divergent
I am reading a book called Divergent it is pretty good from what I heard...
\In a post-apocalyptic Chicago, survivors divide into five
factions based on their dispositions:
Abnegation, for the selfless;
Amity, for the peaceful;
Candor, for the honest;
Dauntless, for the brave; and
Erudite,
for the intellectual. Each year, all sixteen-year-olds must take an
aptitude test that describes the one faction for which they are best
suited. After receiving the results, they can decide whether to remain
with their family's faction or transfer to a new faction. Those who do
not complete initiation into their new faction become "Factionless", and
are forced to live in poverty on the streets of the city.
Sixteen-year-old Beatrice Prior is born into an Abnegation family.
She doesn't feel like she belongs in Abnegation, because she doesn't see
herself as naturally selfless. Her aptitude test also supports this,
inconclusively indicating aptitude for three factions: Abnegation,
Erudite, and Dauntless. The tester warns her to never share this fact,
as it makes her a Divergent. Before the Choosing Day, she agonizes over
whether to stay in Abnegation to satisfy her parents, or whether she
should change to another faction. On Choosing Day, Beatrice decides to
leave Abnegation and join Dauntless, while her brother Caleb chooses
Erudite. Their Dauntless instructor, Four, explains that not all the
dauntless initiates will enter the Dauntless faction; only the top ten
will stay while the rest will be dismissed and become factionless. This
is unusual as most factions allow everyone who completes initiation to
enter the faction. During her initiation into the new faction, Beatrice
renames herself Tris. During the initiation, she befriends some transfer
initiates — Christina, Al, and Will — while coming into conflict with
others — Peter, Drew and Molly.
The
Willis (or Sears) Tower, one of the several landmarks Roth describes within the post-apocalyptic Chicago that is the setting within the novel.
Initiation is broken into three stages. The first involves learning
how to handle guns and knives as well as engaging in hand-to-hand combat
with the other initiates. Despite being physically weaker than most of
her fellow initiates, Tris finishes the stage in sixth place by beating
Molly, who is ranked fairly high. Once the rankings are announced, Peter
(who came second) is jealous of the first-place finisher, Edward, and,
under cover of night, Peter stabs Edward in the eye with a butter knife.
During the parent visiting day, Tris realizes that her mother
originally grew up in Dauntless. Meanwhile, Erudite stirs dissent
against Abnegation leadership in the city government. The Erudite's
reports accuse Abnegation's leader, Marcus, of abusing his son, who
joined Dauntless two years before. Reports vilify Tris' parents because
both their children switched factions, and falsely claim Abnegation is
hoarding supplies. During the same period, Tris befriends some
Dauntless-born initiates, including Uriah, Lynn, and Marlene.
Stage two involves simulations, similar to the aptitude tests, which
force the initiates to face scenarios symbolic of their fears. Because
Tris is Divergent, she recognizes that she is under a simulation while
others do not, and can work the simulations to her advantage. Tris was
ranked first. Peter, Drew, and Al attack Tris, threaten sexual assault,
and attempt to throw her into the chasm at Dauntless headquarters, but
Four intervenes. Later, Al begs Tris's forgiveness, but she rebuffs him,
and he later commits suicide.
The final stage of their initiation is a fear landscape, which
gathers all of their fears in a single simulation. In the fear
landscape, all of them, Divergent or not, will be aware that they are
under a simulation and must use the skills they learned in the previous
stages to overcome each fear. While preparing for this stage, Tris's
relationship with Four continues to grow, and he lets her into his own
fear landscape. Tris learns that Four only has four fears in his
landscape, a record, hence his nickname. She also learns his real name,
Tobias, and that his father is Marcus, the very Abnegation leader who
Erudites accuse of physically abusing him during his childhood. Four
later shares with Tris information he has discovered about the Erudite's
plans to use the Dauntless to stage an attack on the Abnegation.
Tris successfully overcomes six fears in her fear landscape. After
her test, Tris, along with all other Dauntless members, is injected with
a new "tracking" serum that is supposedly only activated if someone
goes missing. Before the official initiation ceremony, Four invites Tris
back to his private apartment, and Tris expresses her feelings for him.
Soon, the ceremony begins, the final rankings are posted, and Tris
discovers she has been ranked first. In the midst of celebrating,
though, she suddenly realizes that the Erudite will use the "tracking"
serum to force Dauntless members to carry out their plans of invading
the Abnegation.
A junction on the
Chicago 'L',
one of the train systems operating in modern Chicago. Throughout the
novel, the Dauntless demonstrate their fearlessness by jumping on and
off trains traveling throughout the city.
During the night following the ceremony, the serum induces a
simulation and all of the Dauntless become sleep-walking soldiers
ordered to attack the Abnegation compound. The serum does not work on
Tris or Tobias (Four) because they are both Divergent. After arriving at
the Abnegation compound, Tris and Tobias try to break away from the
pack to escape. However, Tris is shot, but not mortally wounded, and
when Tobias refuses to leave her behind, they are captured and brought
before Jeanine, the Erudite leader. She injects Four with an
experimental serum, which counteracts the Divergent effect by
controlling what he can see and hear. Jeanine directs Tobias to be sent
back to the Dauntless control room to oversee the attack, and sentences
Tris to death. Tris wakes up sealed inside a real-life glass tank that
fills up with water, but her mother breaks the tank and rescues her. As
they escape, her mother reveals that she is also Divergent, but while
helping Tris escape, she is killed. Tris escapes but is forced to kill
Will, who attacks her while under the influence of the simulation.
She finds her father, Caleb, and Marcus in the safe house, and they
resolve go to the Dauntless compound to find the source of the
simulation. Fighting their way through Dauntless headquarters, Tris'
father sacrifices himself to clear the way for Tris to reach the control
room. When she confronts the mind-controlled Tobias, he attacks Tris.
In the fight, Tris realizes she cannot bring herself to kill him, and
surrenders, causing Tobias to break through the special
sight-and-sound-only simulation. Freed, Tobias helps Tris shut down the
Erudite simulation and free the remaining Dauntless from their mind
control. They rejoin Caleb and Marcus, as well as Peter, who had helped
Tris find the control room in exchange for his safety. The group then
boards a train to the Amity sector to find the rest of the Abnegation
survivors, leading to the events described in
Insurgent.
