Divergence discussion

***DO NOT READ if you haven't finished the books yet!***

I'm a little confused with this plot line. Amanda Ritter was talking about Divergent individuals being more flexible. She said that when they are "abundant among you" THEN it would be time to seek out the rest of the world and help them. however - we KNOW that divergent individuals have been pretty much ritualistically weeded out of the population from the time of the originals. Tris' mum specifically states that her mother (who it stands to reason was a dauntless member) told her to leave dauntless and go to abnegation because she was divergent and it was not safe for her to stay.

If divergent people took so little time to appear within the society then it sounds less like a case of 'we need people with flexible minds out here in the real world' and more like they wanted to see how long it would take people to rebel against a society of strict controls, even when those controls were considered normal and entrenched in each individuals subjective perception of their world. It's as if they're trying to ascertain what conditions would have to be present to provide a catalyst for change.

Divergent people are more prevalent within the oppressed group of the 'Factionless'. This does make sense as having tendencies towards multiple factions means that to a certain extent, in order to be able to function within one of the factions they have to repress some other part of their personality or rebel against the faction - both paths are hard to sustain and ultimately are likely to lead to either their demise or ejection from their factions. What is interesting about this situation however is that they don't rebel until their society has hit a crisis point. YES - Evelyn was planning a rebellion. But what kind of a rebellion takes an entire decade to plan with no attacks, or protests or any kind of action taken until that final moment? It wasn't until someone was threatening to change the way their society was structured that people were able to fight. By attempting an evil take over, Jeannine showed each individual within their society that they have power to affect the world around them and that unless they're willing to fight for it, anyone can come in and take it away from them.

Finally, looking to the actual structure of the society, Amanda Ritter stated that "We have formed your society in a particular way in the hope that you will rediscover the moral sense most of us have lost". This involved them splitting the society into Five Factions - Amity, Dauntless, Erudite, Abnegation and Candor. Each faction represents some essential element to humanity, but not as she insinuates to do with human nature, but morality. Human nature and morality are two completely different things. The sense of morals that our society bestows on us is not necessarily what would have been our 'natural instinct'. Morality is a form of social control, which is why its ok to cannabalise people in some parts of the world and not others.

Amity - Peace and bliss
Dauntless - Fearless and Protectors.
Erudite - Intelligence and Progress
Abnegation - Selfless and Controlled
Candor - Honest and Accepting


By splitting the factions in this way they have divided people into different aspects of morality, seeking peaceful solutions, protecting people, progress for the sake of progress and the betterment of society, being charitable and putting others needs before your own and the biggie, being honest and learning to accept honesty from others. Each of these are valid, admirable morality traits. However by dividing them, each faction is FORCED to become a twisted version of what it would be otherwise. Without selflessness, Dauntless becomes a ruthless machine that thinks nothing of eliminating 'weaker beings' rather than having bravery, to protect the society that dwell within the walls of their compound. By valuing peace, neutrality and bliss above all else, Amity rejects anyone that would upset the balance and interrupt their happiness and hence have no qualms about drugging their faction members. They become carictures - nothing but brainless hippies because they are literally high, all the time - even if that's not really a choice on their part.

Each faction becomes fiercly loyal to their own people, to the point of the almost ritual rejection of parents from other factions. And it is because of this loyalty that the non divergent members of Dauntless are able to rise up, because they can see their own faction being controlled against their will. And it is for this reason that Candor is unable to fully participate in the rebellion. They are loyal ONLY to their own faction, and because they do not have the same level of vested interest, or bravery, that Dauntless does, the only way they know how to approach the situation is through one that relies on the old balances of power, not the new social order that Erudite is attempting to strong arm on the people.

So. My question is this. What really is the point of the social experiment that characters of the Divergence trilogy find them in? Is it just a social experiment gone wrong or is it something more sinister on the part of those who reside outside the world we've seen so far?

I was thinkin (almost) the same thing. I guess we'll just have to wait for the third book to come out before anyone can actually answer this:/

who is amanda ritter? I forgot...

I don't think it was a social experiment--not really. I think the people on the outside world knew that separating a group of people would teach the new generations born into it to live without the evil that was ruining the rest of civilization. It was to "purify" them. And wasn't Abnegation just about to announce the whole story to all four factions in the beginning of Book 2, right before Tris' mom died? I think Abnegation waited too long though to send people back. I guess the Divergent were afraid though-- it's interesting they were being targeted, when divergence was supposed to be a good thing according to Amanda Ritter. *BTW, Kelsey, Amanda Ritter is the woman speaking in the video at the end of Book 3. She is also Tris' grandmother, and one of those responsible for creating the factions system and setting it up.

Basically, I think that too many people were left in the dark. Although, it does confuse me why Jeanine wants all of the Divergents killed. The Erudite don't want to go back to the real world right? I don't know why though. Caleb seemed really convinced Jeanine was right about her view of the issue.

I thought the end of book 2 was really good and thought provoking. And I can't wait to see how things resolve in book 3. :)