Divergent

By Chapter 21, some time has passed and Tris summarizes the latest events. Erudite have released two more articles inciting revolt against Abnegation, and the initiates have undergone further simulations. Although theses simulations are not pleasant for her, Tris notes that they do not seem to cause her the same level of distress as other initiates. She wonders if this is because of her Divergent status and whether or not Four is Divergent. However, she admits that her interest in him is not entirely professional, and she wishes that she could concentrate on the initiation itself rather than her instructor.

Stage two rankings are also posted at this juncture, and Tris’s first-place ranking confirms that she has excelled in the simulation exercises. That Peter is second inevitably causes discord and he storms out in a rage. He and his cohorts now have yet another reason to target Tris.

Al, meanwhile, is morose again, and Tris wants to help; however, Al says that initiation is easy for her and there is no point pretending otherwise. It is true that there is little that she can do to help him in a practical sense, and he is not likely to feel any better about his own ranking by talking to the person who is top of the class. At this point, it does not seem that there is any way forward for Al, and his initial plan of keeping his head down after winning his first fight is not working out in the competitive initiation process.

Tris later joins some other initiates for out-of-hours target practice and get talking to another initiate about the contrast between Four and Eric. It is obvious that Four does not agree with Eric’s vision for Dauntless, but what is Four’s own vision? Tris is curious by nature and cannot help but wonder.

The group disperses when Four walks in, but he says that he wants to talk with Tris privately. He lets his guard down momentarily when he tells Tris that she belongs in Dauntless and that initiation will soon be over. He then seems embarrassed at having made this admission, as he knows that it is out of character, but Tris takes his hand and they look into each other’s eyes in a tender moment before Tris rejoins the other initiates. Though the novel is narrated by Tris, it is becoming increasingly apparent that her attraction to Four is not one-sided.

That night, a suspicious-sounding exchange takes place between two individuals outside the dormitory. One voice is Eric’s while the other is that of an unknown woman. Eric is assuring the woman that, so far, there have been no signs of “it,” but she says that combat training would not reveal anything—the simulations reveal the Divergents. Now, the advice and warnings that Tris has been given prove well-founded, as she discovers that the Dauntless leaders are actively checking for Divergents. Moreover, the woman reminds Eric that he has been appointed for this very reason. Despite all the power that Eric wields in Dauntless, it is clear that this woman is the chief overseer of the operation.

As seen in the preceding chapters, Peter and his cohorts have become increasingly angry about Tris’s rankings in initiation, and their taunting has been relentless. This reaches a new level here when Tris is suddenly ambushed in the dormitory and carried to the Pit. She cannot see her attackers, but the scent of Al’s soap causes a sinking feeling in her gut. Her attackers start to launch her over the railing of the chasm but Al cannot go through with it and tells them to stop. A fight then breaks out, which only stops when Four arrives on the scene.

At the start of Chapter 22, Tris is physically and emotionally hurt by the attack, though she does not want to report it and make people think that she is scared. Here, Four gives her a pertinent piece of advice: her strength and success during initiation have increased her competitors’ envy, and this is what prompted them to attack her. To display some weakness and vulnerability would make her seem less threatening and would therefore be a more prudent tactic. Tris is not inclined to act in this way but, as Four advises, she needs to think about her safety at the moment. This is certainly sage advice, but Four has no qualms about admitting his feelings about such individuals—he tells her to “‘Ruin them’” (287) when the time comes.

In Chapter 23, Four lets Tris sleep in his bed as she recuperates, while he sleeps on the floor. Looking at Four as he sleeps, Tris again notices how young he looks. Her inquisitiveness likewise rears its head, as she wonders who he is. In any case, she knows that she likes him.

Seeing Peter in the dining hall, Tris wants to hurt him but knows that she must bide her time. She has retaliated against him and Molly on previous occasions but now knows that she has to be careful. It is not just her fellow initiates that she is worried about either, as she has taken on board the warnings from her mother, Tori, and Four. If the initiates are willing to attempt murder, then what is to say that the leaders would not do likewise should they find out that she is Divergent? As for Al, he is notably absent from the dining hall.

Four then leads the initiates to a room in which they are to undertake their next exercise: the fear landscape. The initiates will face their worst fears in this simulation, the difference being that they will constantly be aware that they are in a simulation and therefore need to have their wits around them. Upon hearing this, Tris observes that everyone is effectively Divergent in this exercise, which has both good and bad points for her: she cannot be singled out as Divergent but she does not have an edge over her competitors.

The fear landscape constitutes the third and final stage of training, and requires the initiates to control both their bodies and their minds. Four further explains this exercise, stating that initiates can work through it in two ways: they can calm themselves sufficiently that they register a regular heartbeat, or they can face their fears and move the simulation along. When Peter says that this is not fair—that some people have more fears than others—Four takes this as an opportunity to deride Peter for his actions the previous day, referring to him as a coward who is afraid of a skinny Abnegation girl. The other initiates laugh at this, and Four thus successfully humiliates Peter and shows him up as a bully.

When Tris returns to the dormitory, she finds Al sobbing. Unlike Peter, he is apologetic and begs for forgiveness, but Tris finds it impossible to get in touch with the merciful person that she knows exists somewhere inside her. She has made an effort to be kind and empathetic towards Al throughout initiation, so for him to join in with Peter and his friends constitutes an act of betrayal and ingratitude. Certainly, we get the sense that Al was acting in desperation and has been unraveling throughout the initiation period—he is not vindictive or gleeful like Peter and his gang. Nevertheless, it is understandable that Tris feels angry, and this prompts her to warn Al never to come near her again.

When Christina wakes Tris in Chapter 24 with the words “‘It’s Al’” (301), we know that something terrible has happened; if anything, this is something that we have been expecting and that the novel has foreshadowed. Sure enough, the initiates crowd round the chasm in the Pit and see Al’s lifeless body being lifted up. Tris and Christina are highly distressed by this sight; so much so that Tris has to run away from the scene.

We are informed that funerals happen shortly after death in Dauntless and are far more raucous affairs than funerals in Abnegation. Revelers crowd into the Pit and Molly takes the opportunity to refer to another article that she has read about Tris’s family. Yet again, Tris punches Molly, and Will has to pry them apart. Eric then makes a speech, toasting Al’s bravery. Tris, however, does not feel that what Al did was courageous; rather, he took the coward’s way out instead of admitting his weakness and accepting the consequences of leaving Dauntless.

Here, then, the novel broaches the subject of suicide and the question of whether it can be construed as brave or cowardly. Tris views Al’s suicide as the latter and she maintains this opinion throughout the rest of the novel. Still, whether suicide can be brave and selfless is a topic that Tris is given cause to address in the later chapters.

When Tris hears Four call her name, the two start talking, and Tris voices her opinion that Al’s suicide was cowardly. Four asks her what she expects people to say in a eulogy, but she tells him that this is not just about Al. What if people see suicide as a valid option since it results in heroic status? She even feels the urge to say that such a thing would never happen in Abnegation, and that Dauntless is responsible for what has happened to Al.

Despite her love for Dauntless, Tris realizes that it is not perfect and that she does relate to her native faction in some ways. She is angered that Dauntless has become such a brutal, ruthless place that it has driven someone to suicide. Indeed, this raises the question of whether Al’s fate would have been different if the original Dauntless values had not become corrupted. Of course, it is likely that Tris’s own horror and grief over what has happened have rendered her emotionally raw at this point. However, it appears that she lays part of the blame for Al’s suicide with Dauntless rather than merely condemning Al as a coward.

Tris is speaking her mind but Four is wary of them being monitored, and he says that he keeps trying to help Tris but she refuses. She then points to the knife-throwing exercise, arguing that he was hardly helping her then, but he now explains what he had not articulated at the time. That is, he was appealing to her Abnegation trait of selflessness, which he had identified as the source of her strength. She is at her strongest when she is acting selflessly (as demonstrated when she stepped in for Al in that task), so he was tapping into this as a way of motivating her.

Though Four appreciates Tris’s selfless impulse, he warns her that she will be in trouble if the wrong people discover it. So, in the same way that he has previously advised her to feign weakness, he does not want her selflessness to get her into trouble. As he further explains, Dauntless leaders want people who are predictable and pose no threat. Even if she is behaving in a way that the leaders approve of, she needs to keep her Abnegation qualities in check if she is to avoid drawing attention to herself. At this point, Tris becomes confused and pensive: is she Abnegation or Dauntless—or Divergent? This question of identity is something that she struggles with throughout the course of the book.

Harking back to her earlier references to her small frame and young appearance, Tris feels that Four treats her like a little sister he has to protect. He says that she has the wrong idea: his instinct is to push her until she breaks, just to see how much it takes. This may seem sadistic and controlling, but Four argues that fear does not shut a person down but wakes them up—he has witnessed this before and wants to see Tris similarly alive.

This ties in with the simulations that form a major part of the Dauntless initiation, which involve facing fear head on rather than shrinking away from it or giving up. It also brings to mind some of the field trips and extracurricular activities in which Tris has taken part: She had done things that would typically be seen as frightening, such as jumping from roofs, climbing a Ferris wheel, and zip lining down a building. In doing so, she has experienced not only fear but excitement and, as she herself has said, a sense of being alive.

Tris’s decision to get a tattoo of the Abnegation symbol in Chapter 25 makes it clear that she has not rejected her old faction. Getting such a tattoo is certainly a risk, and Tris still does not see herself as an ideal match for Abnegation; however, she accepts her former faction as an aspect of her identity.

Tris has also been proactive in gathering all the Erudite reports about Abnegation and throwing them into the chasm in the Pit, which could be seen as a cathartic act. She is accompanied by Christiana and Will, who are her two closest friends, though she is conscious that Will is a former Erudite. Sure enough, a conversation between the two regarding the tension between Erudite and Abnegation raises some valid issues.

While Will agrees that the comments about Tris’s family are unwarranted, he wonders whether the Erudite are right in saying that other factions should be part of the city’s governing body. He suggests that some people regard Abnegation as too modest and frugal, as the faction members do not seem to seek comfort and prosperity. Tris’s counterargument is that giving food to the factionless is more important than giving an Erudite boy a car, and she and Will thus reveal telltale signs of their respective upbringings. The factions clearly do not share the same priorities, but Will’s suggestion that other factions should be involved in government poses a relevant point for readers to consider.

Tris then spots Four and plans to follow him in secret, but he has already noticed her and invites her to join him as he experiences his own fear landscape. When the simulation begins, Tris accompanies Four and tries to reassure him as he experiences his fear of heights and claustrophobia, which stems from being locked in a closet as a child. Despite her efforts to help him calm down, Four notices that Tris’s own heart is racing. She replies that this is not due to claustrophobia, but she winces at this admission—as with her experience on the Ferris wheel, it is her proximity to Four that is having this effect, and she has just confirmed this indirectly.

The next simulation involves a woman pointing a gun at Four, at which point a table materializes containing a gun and a single bullet. Four has to shoot this woman and does so with relative ease. In fact, compared to the number and intensity of fears that other people have, it seems as though the simulation is clutching at straws when it comes to digging up Four’s major fears. However, the final scenario is especially telling, as it finally gives some substantial background information on the man hitherto known as Four.

In this simulation, Tris recognizes Marcus wearing the gray clothes of Abnegation and remembers that Marcus had a son. The simulated version of Marcus wraps a leather belt around his fist and a dozen other Marcuses then emerge, poised to strike. Instinctively, Tris throws herself in front of Four to protect him, feeling the belt lash against her skin. At that moment, Four steps in front of Tris and the simulation ends.

Both Tris and the reader now know that Four is really Tobias, who took on his nickname because he has four fears. The simulation also confirms that not all of the Erudite’s claims are lies: Marcus was a cruel father and Tobias left Abnegation to get away from him. Lastly, we get further confirmation of Tris’s selflessness and how much she cares for Tobias. Echoing her instinct to protect the child in the aptitude test, Tris has shown that she possesses the capacity for selflessness and bravery.

Tris and Tobias embrace after this intense bonding experience, and Tobias tells Tris that she is the one who got him through it.