By: Carly Church

CWID: DYSTOPIAN HERO 101-052W PROJECT 4 DIVERGENT BY VERONICA ROTH

• Born Beatrice Prior into the faction Abnegation.

• Choice faction: Dauntless.

• Divergent: one who does not conform to one specific faction or trait. Threat to the “balance specific” society. Free-thinking.

• Small and unintimidating she transforms throughout the book into a strong, authority questioning, relentless, respect demanding character.

• After joining Dauntless she embraces her fears and lets them fuel her in her quest for truth and the happiness of herself and the people she loves; embodying all the factions; showing what it means to be “divergent” or in other words, human.

PROFILE: TRIS

• The police force or army of the community. These people jump to and from moving high speed trains in order to travel around the city.

• Their home is located underground and is only entered by jumping from a tall building into a net below. Something only a fearless dauntless would do.

• Their purpose is to always be on guard to wipe out any threat that comes towards the society.

• Strong, fearless, never give up, reckless, adrenaline seeking, adventure hungry, war dogs they believe in a constant testing of limits.

DAUNTLESS BACKGROUND

• A hero in dystopian novels is someone who is portrayed as meek or unqualified to overthrow, question, or change a government or society.

• They usually have one specific trait or possession that dually forces them into harms way and can save their life if used correctly to their advantage.

• Being forced into threatening situations they find themselves in the middle of a conflict that they must solve for the sake of society and/or their own well-being.

• They are challenged to prove themselves and act on their questions rather than merely think to themselves.

• Faced with many trials they fight to overcome the forceful and broken society they have been born into and leave the world open to a change that allows for human nature and choice to once again thrive.

WHO IS THE NEW DYSTOPIAN HERO?

• The hero is challenged emotionally in all circumstances.

• They face trials that put them or their family, friends, loved ones, ect in jeopardy.

• Overcoming obstacles to protect those they love and either free them from oppression or take them out of harms way is a common character circumstance for these types of heroes.

• Choosing between love and their responsibilities or trying to mix the two together.

• “I volunteer!” – Katniss Everdeen

A HERO’S GRIT

• “Faction before blood!” The rule that Tris’ society lives by. Once a faction has been chosen they become your family and there is no going back. On more than one occasion Tris ignores this order and sees her brother Caleb in his faction: Erudite.

• Tris is showing obvious question for this rule and why it is so important to keep the society and families split apart.

• Tris has a love obstacle as well. She loves her family but she loves Four as well from her new faction. She struggles with choosing to whether or not to pursue him while trying to focus on pretending to fit in and hide the fact that she is Divergent.

• Her biggest trial is finding out where she belongs, and then deciding how to accept the fact that she doesn’t belong to any one faction and what to do about it.

TRIS AND TRIALS:

• Being divergent scares the government because the truth, test and fear serums don’t work on the divergents. Their minds don’t conform to the same rules and standards that the rest of the community have come to terms with.

• Tris has to train her mind to fake conforming during these tests so that the government does not figure out her secret and kill her.

DIVERGENT DANGERS

• In most dystopian literature a trial is faced with yet another trial but somewhere along the line this ends and the rewards or end goal is met.

• In the first book of the Divergent trilogy the main obstacle that Tris faces is trying to hide the fact that she is divergent and the governments tests do not work on her. This makes her uncontrollable and a threat to their system.

• When the Dauntless are controlled at the end by the Erudite’s test serum and forced to capture or kill the Abnegations, only the Divergent are left unaffected, leaving them easy to pick out and prey on. Tris has to make the choice to fight her own faction and her brothers faction in order to save her parents from her former faction while keeping herself alive.

TRIS AND TRIUMPHS

• After confirming that the Erudite leader Jeanine is behind the attacks Tris is free to infiltrate the Dauntless fortress and turn off the machine controlling the Dauntless.

• Confronting Jeanine she ends up forcing her to relinquish control over the Dauntless and stop the murder of Abnegation. After escaping, Tris is left with the reward of her life, the exposure of the Erudite corruption, her brother back and safe, and a new mission as a Divergent. Her journey continues through the rest of the books in the series as she tries to make being divergent not a crime.

REWARDS

• Having separate factions have complete control over certain aspects of the society is never going to work. By allowing Abnegation to be the only people deciding government issues it opened the door for an Erudite rebellion. There was no free choice or voices being heard from anyone else so the faction leader took it upon herself to try and force a new dysfunctional change based on controlling drugs. Tyrannical leadership causes oppression from all angles. By keeping everyone separated there is no unity and less likelihood of organized rebellion.

WHY DID THIS HAPPEN?

• Targeting divergents was necessary for the Erudite’s because divergents see reason and find new ways to solve problems rather than relying on only one skill. They aren’t easily persuaded to murder entire factions or conform to only one task. They see the inefficiencies in the system and will cause progress where leaders would rather keep control.

GENOCIDE OF DIVERGENTS

• Because a faction government forced conformity and single mindedness upon its citizens they rebelled in violent and manipulative ways in order to gain control and force their beliefs on the rest of the community. Therefor creating a vicious cycle.

• This caused Tris and the others to have to put their lives on the line to save human life and attempt to restore peace where power hungry individuals had chosen quick control and forced allegiance.

GOVERNMENT STRATEGY

• In our government system we have checks and balances. Because of the lack of communication and checking in the faction system it allowed dictator ideas to flourish.

• Keeping our judicial, executive, and legislative branches in check we don’t allow any one branch to have more power over the other to make corrupt laws or act unconstitutionally. This ensures that the people will not be forced into conformity and lose our rights to free will and choice. We will be allowed a voice in our government rather than just sitting idly by while they tell us what we want and need.

HOW CAN WE AVOID THIS?

• Government welfare and programs replacing family units and support systems.

• Elections happen but between two major parties without much change.

• Uneducated people vote for things they don’t understand.

• Communist countries tell their citizens what they can and cannot do with their lives. The things they can do usually keep the government in power and benefit them more than the actual people.

• The push to unarm people against their own government and other threats so that they can’t fight back.

• Factions replacing family units and support systems.

• Government is controlled by one group/faction.

• Only one faction is educated.

• Eradication of human will.

• Everyone must choose a faction based on one quality within themselves and cater to only that for the rest of their lives or be shunned(factionless) or put to death(divergents).

• Only one faction is armed, leaving all the others at risk when the Dauntless are forced to murder them.

THE PROBLEM

Divergent Real World

• Tris is deemed the new world dystopian hero because she questions the authority and corruption taking place in a society run by control and “order” for the sake of the people. She sees that this kind of rule benefits the leaders of the factions by allowing them to keep complete control over their communities by using the fear of becoming factionless or dying as a deterrent for rebellion. The communities do the work and allow the government bodies to give all the orders that keep them in debt to each other to survive. This way the people will always “need” the government and never step out of line.

SOCIETIES CONCLUSION

• Personally Tris faces the relatable challenges of finding where she belongs, how to balance a healthy love life, and be a good friend and family member.

• She is the hero this dystopia needs because she refuses to be controlled by serums and violence but instead finds pride in her differences and sees her unique ability to help those oppressed.

• She is the perfect person to eradicate threats as well as expose conspiracy and threats to her community.

• The trials she faced physically and mentally helping her become the hero prepared her for the imminent rebellion ahead.

NEW DYSTOPIAN HERO CONCLUDED