Thursday, October 18, 2012
Divergent (Some Spoilers)
I've recently read a book called, Divergent, written by Veronica Roth. Beatrice Prior (Later changes her name to Tris), lives in a dystopian society that's separated into 5 factions. Candor, Amity, Erudite, Dauntless and Abnegation. On a chosen day of every year, 16 year olds must select the faction they want to belong to for the rest of their lives. This a hard decision for Beatrice because she has choose between staying with her family or selecting a faction she truly belongs in. The mentor of this book is Tobias and Tris is the hero, in my opinion
The mentor in this book would be Tobias because he mentored Tris (Beatrice) through the whole initiation process. And no, I don't think he's the mentor just because he's Tris' mentor and love interest. I believe he's the mentor because he did help Tris through this whole initiation process when she didn't ask for it. Since he's gone through this process before, he has some sort of knowledge of what the leaders want. Therefore, he would be able to help Tris succeed in the fear landscape, and the simulation(even though Tris didn't need help since she was 'divergent'). He has also been through the same thing, Tris is going through. He left his faction, Abnegation, leaving his family behind, to join the Dauntless. Tris did the same thing and has to deal with not being with her family.
The hero in this book would be Tris because she is the protagonist (even though the protagonist isn't always the hero) and because she saves the Dauntless from being under Erudite control. She displays courage by shooting Eric in the leg so he doesn't kill Tobias, ultimately breaking her cover. Therefore her life is in danger because the enemy would now know that she is 'Divergent" because she is awake in the simulation. She's also a hero because she cares more about the Dauntless people's safety more than her own safety. For example; She took a great risk by trying to take down the attack simulation, knowing that she'd be risking her life since the Dauntless people are under Erudite control and would be going after her.
Overall, the mentor would be Tobias and the hero would be Tris. For the following reasons; 1) Tobias helped her throughout the whole book by helping her succeed in the simulation and the fear landscape, and also by being there for her and understanding what she's going through. 2) Tris displayed courage by blowing her cover and shooting Eric in leg(therefore saving Tobias), knowing that she could possibly be killed by the Dauntless people that are under Erudite control 3) Tris exposed what she really is. She's 'divergent' and it's very dangerous to be 'divergent'. She could've pretended to be under Erudite control but instead of thinking of her own safety, she though about the ones that she cared for. She thought about how her parents could be killed, she thought about how many Abnegation people would be killed, and also thought about how many Dauntless people would be held accountable for it because they killed these people when they were under Erudite control. So she blew her cover to save the ones she loved. These are the reasons why I think Tobias is the mentor and Tris is the hero.
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I enjoyed reading this take on Divergent, Jen! But I do think that there could have been some other points brought up. This, being a favorite book of mine, is a book I love thinking about and relating to. When you began to mention who was the hero and who was the mentor, I began to think about how the hero and mentor are, in many other texts, on very different levels of comprehension of the world. Whereas, in this book, I think that you could have gone on to prove how Tris is also Four's (Tobias) mentor, in the way that she has to help him through the fear landscape, just like he did with her.
ReplyDeleteThe points you brought up are true, and you also explained the book as you went along without divulging into unnecessary detail very well. I loved reading it for that! But I feel that if you had gone deeper into the story, then it would have been something to keep in the back of my mind the next time I read Divergent.
~Moira
This is a great book and I like the way you went into detail about Tobias and Tris' Relationship as mentor and hero, other than the more obvious "Lovers." It was also very interesting how you went into detail to prove the two thoughts true. Although I do agree with Moira that some other points could have been raised for the sake of clarity. An example would be going a little more into the confusion and problems of the characters as well as the true meaning of Divergence. Also, for people who have not read the book, it might be hard to decipher "Eric" or "Attack Simulation." It also makes me think of the interesting point of Tris' stupidity or bravery problem from the second book.
ReplyDeleteGreat blog post for an awesome book. Am I the only guy that's read it though? Meh, their loss :)