Fear plays a large part in this book, as the faction that Tris opts to join, Dauntless, is based on conquering fear or becoming fearless -- depending on who you talk to.
Four learns about Tris’s status as Divergent and offers to help her pass as Dauntless by sharing his “Fear Landscape” with her. In this simulation, Four must face his deepest, darkest fears and conquer them.
In the movie, Four describes your final fear as the deepest and darkest you have. Four, who famously earned his nickname by having only four fears, is revealed to most deeply fear the violence and brutality of his father. Four, arguably one of the best in Dauntless (aka the most fearless), continues to grapple with the consequences and fear years after the fact.
“I look from Marcus, who walks slowly toward us, to Four, who inches slowly back, and everything comes together.” (Chapter 25)
As a culture, we often expect victims – particularly men & boys – to get past their fears or “over” the abuse (and quickly!) in order to succeed or “move on” in life. Four is an excellent example, for both men and women, that abuse isn’t something that can easily be forgotten, but it also needn’t define us.
What did you think about the depiction of fear and family violence in Divergent?
Do you think these scenes would have played differently if Four had been a woman and Tris had been a man? Culturally, do you think we have different expectations for women and men, girls and boys, when it comes to addressing and moving on from any form of abuse?
Four learns about Tris’s status as Divergent and offers to help her pass as Dauntless by sharing his “Fear Landscape” with her. In this simulation, Four must face his deepest, darkest fears and conquer them.
In the movie, Four describes your final fear as the deepest and darkest you have. Four, who famously earned his nickname by having only four fears, is revealed to most deeply fear the violence and brutality of his father. Four, arguably one of the best in Dauntless (aka the most fearless), continues to grapple with the consequences and fear years after the fact.
“I look from Marcus, who walks slowly toward us, to Four, who inches slowly back, and everything comes together.” (Chapter 25)
As a culture, we often expect victims – particularly men & boys – to get past their fears or “over” the abuse (and quickly!) in order to succeed or “move on” in life. Four is an excellent example, for both men and women, that abuse isn’t something that can easily be forgotten, but it also needn’t define us.
What did you think about the depiction of fear and family violence in Divergent?
Do you think these scenes would have played differently if Four had been a woman and Tris had been a man? Culturally, do you think we have different expectations for women and men, girls and boys, when it comes to addressing and moving on from any form of abuse?