I have always been drawn to dystopian novels. Something about the way society crumbles, capturing people in its grip, is both fascinating and terrifying. The sense of self-preservation and survival that overcomes the character inspires me. But Divergent is something more. It does not just explore a potential future, but it reaches deeply into what makes us humans. It explores the one thing that separates us from others: our choices. Recently, I was in a bit of a home sick mood (but for books) and was drawn to a reread of this great novel. I had to share with you some of the things that grabbed me this time as I was reading the book. Here are some quotes that really caught my attention.
#1 “A chasm reminds us that there is a fine line between bravery and idiocy.”
The world that the main character, Tris, lives in is post a great war that completely tore it apart. To try to keep this war from ever happening again, the city broke into five “factions.” Each one had something specific that they blamed for the war and they tried to remove from their natures. Amity blamed aggression, Candor blamed dishonesty, Abnegation blamed selfishness, Erudite blamed ignorance, and Dauntless blamed fear. At age 16, each child would choose which faction they were to join and live in for the rest of their life. They would then be initiated into that faction using whatever method was required to help them remove their “evil.”
When Tris comes of age, she chooses the Dauntless. They try to eradicate the danger of fear. Since you can never truly remove fear from human minds, their strategy was to have you fully prepared to act in spite of fear. Despite this noble intention, a lot of others viewed the Dauntless as thrill seekers and reckless. They had a tendency to take risks simply for the fun of it. However, many of the seemingly pointless risks actually served an important purpose for them in keeping their mindset and body in the right place. This quote is a great reminder that there is a fine line between brave and stupid. The Dauntless often appeared to play with this line.
#2 “We believe in ordinary acts of bravery, in the courage that drives one person to stand up for another.”
This is a statement from the Dauntless’ Faction Manifesto. I absolutely love the phrase “ordinary acts of bravery.” In the story, Tris is surprised by the incredibly harsh and cruel environment the initiation is given in. She is saddened by the fact that people sabotaging each other to get better ranks, bullying, and other acts of cruelty are tolerated and even encouraged. She muses after watching one of her fellow competitors get stabbed in the eye while he was sleeping, saying that the truly brave thing to do would be to tell the instructors who did it. However, they would see this as a sign of weakness, her struggling to accept the challenges of being Dauntless.
The faction began as one focused on standing up for others. Its goal was to encourage action in the face of evil, not to commit evil. It had slowly lost this and transformed into a factory for heartless fighters. Remembering that sometimes the smallest parts of our lives are the ones that require the most bravery was such a powerful thing for me. Cruelty and toughness do not mean courage. They are a shell for something much darker. This is shown so clearly throughout the story as Tris is pulled between cruelty and bravery.
#3 “Becoming fearless isn’t the point. That’s impossible. It’s learning how to control your fear, and how to be free from it.”
The Dauntless training has three stages. First, there is a physical stage where the initiates are trained for hand to hand combat, using weapons, and becoming physically fit. Second, they are taught to control their emotions. They are put into simulations that mirror their greatest fears. The only way they can escape the simulation is to get their heart rate to come down to a normal level. Finally, the first two stages are put together for mental preparation. They are put back into simulations, but this time required to come up with a solution. They are required to act.
The whole point of the faction is for people to be prepared to act in spite of fear. This is such a beautiful concept to me. We cannot control our fears. They like to jump out from behind the corners and surprise us. New ones can arise that we never imagined before. The important thing is that we can control the fear, not the other way around. We have to be able to make choices separate from it. Preparation is so important and often not thought about ahead of time.
#4 “Human beings as a whole cannot be good for long before the bad creeps back in and poisons us again.”
This one I definitely agree with and have seen play out in our world time and time again. In Tris’ world, each faction sought to eradicate evil by taking out what they considered to be its ultimate vice. Each one, however, has gone far to the extreme by Tris’ time and corrupted over. Erudite is using their knowledge to take over the entire city secretly by controlling Dauntless soldiers. No one in any faction can be trusted. The city is divided in Civil War by the end of the book, many of the Abnegation and Dauntless mass murdered.
We seem incapable of keeping evil from slipping in. Every new country starts out proud and dreamy-eyed, thinking that they will be the nation that is different. Everyone makes changes for the better thinking that they have re-wired our world. But it never takes long for sin to slip in and twist things. It can destroy the best intentions, intensify every extreme, and turn us against each other. That is pretty much all we see in politics now and it is sad but very very true.
#5 “I have a theory that selflessness and bravery aren’t all that different.”
This is my favorite line from the entire book. In the beginning of the book, Tris finds out that she is something called Divergent. This means that she is equally suited for multiple factions: Abnegation, Dauntless, and Erudite. To the government, this means that she is very dangerous because her mind works in unpredictable ways. She has to keep it a carefully guarded secret to avoid being found and killed by the government.
Because of the factions, everyone thinks that you can only try for one thing. They do not think that you can be brave and smart, or kind and honest, etc. Tris, in a beautiful part of the story, realizes that she is most brave when she is acting selflessly, in someone else’s defense. This is coupled with her hearing her future love interest reveal to her that he wants to be all of the virtues. He wants to be kind, honest, brave, knowledgeable, and selfless. She discovers that maybe, just maybe, you need all of these pieces to make a complete picture.
Divergent is a true thriller that keeps you highly engaged. But more than that, I find so much subtle wisdom slipped in about human nature, good and evil, and society. It makes me think hard about my own choices and priorities. It is a must-read for anybody. I also found the references to God really interesting and would love to hear anyone’s thoughts on those. “Learning how to think in the midst of fear is a lesson that everyone needs to learn.” This book is a great place to start learning.