Divergent (Divergent Series 1)
Veronica Roth, 2011
HarperCollins
576 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780062024039
Summary
In Beatrice Prior's dystopian Chicago, society is divided into five factions, each dedicated to the cultivation of a particular virtue—
♦ Candor (the honest)
♦ Abnegation (the selfless)
♦ Dauntless (the brave)
♦ Amity (the peaceful)
♦ Erudite (the intelligent)
On an appointed day of every year, all sixteen-year-olds must select the faction to which they will devote the rest of their lives. For Beatrice, the decision is between staying with her family and being who she really is—she can't have both. So she makes a choice that surprises everyone, including herself.
During the highly competitive initiation that follows, Beatrice renames herself Tris and struggles to determine who her friends really are. But Tris also has a secret, one she's kept hidden from everyone because she's been warned it can mean death.
And as she discovers a growing conflict that threatens to unravel her seemingly perfect society, she also learns that her secret might help her save those she loves… or it might destroy her. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—August 19, 1988
• Where—New York City, New York, USA
• Raised—Barrington, Illinois
• Education—B.A., Northwest University
• Currently—lives in Chicago, Illinois
Veronica Roth (born ) is an American novelist and short story writer known for her debut New York Times bestselling Divergent trilogy.
Roth, the youngest of three children, was born in New York City and raised primarily in Barrington, Illinois. Her parents divorced when she was five years old. Roth's maternal grandparents were Polish concentration camp survivors during World War II. Their religious convictions pushed Roth's mother away from religion, but Veronica attended a Christian Bible study during her high school years, and has remained a Christain.
Roth graduated from Barrington High School. After attending a year of college at Carleton College, she transferred to Northwestern University for its creative writing program and wrote her first book, Divergent, while on winter break in her senior year. She married photographer Nelson Fitch in 2011. They reside in the Chicago area.
Career
Roth is best known for her trilogy of novels: Divergent (2011), Insurgent (2012), and Allegiant (2013).
She is the recipient of the Goodreads 2011 Choice Award and the Best of 2012 in the category Young Adult Fantasy & Science Fiction and also Best Goodreads Author in 2012. Her career took off rapidly with the success of her first novel, with the movie rights sold before she graduated from college. (Adapted from Wikipedia. Retrieved 7/5/2014.)
Book Reviews
(Starred review.) [An] edgy debut (definitely not for the fainthearted).... [T]he riveting and complex story of a teenage girl forced to choose, at age 16, between her routinized, selfless family and the adventurous, unrestrained future she longs for.... [A] memorable, unpredictable journey from which it is nearly impossible to turn away (Ages 14 & up).
Publishers Weekly
In a future Chicago, the population is divided into five factions...each of which believes its opposite is the root of human evil. Sixteen-year-olds are tested for aptitude and must choose whether to remain in their birth faction or select another.... The plot, scenes, and characters are different [than Susan Collins' series] but the colors are the same and just as rich (Grades 9 & up). —Eric Norton, McMillan Memorial Library, Wisconsin Rapids, WI
School Library Journal
The plot clips along at an addictive pace, with steady jolts of brutal violence and swoony romance. Despite the constant assurance that Tris is courageous, clever and kind, her own first-person narration displays a blank personality. No matter.... Fans snared by the ratcheting suspense will be unable to resist speculating on their own factional allegiance.... (Ages 14 & up)
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
1. What purpose does each of the five factions serve in society? What personality types are drawn toward each faction? Do you think these factions represent every basic personality type and fulfill all the basic needs of people? If not, what faction(s) would you create to fill in any gaps?
2. What was the reason behind the creation of the factions? Do you think the factions are working “toward a better society and a better world” (p. 44) as they say they are? What about the structure seems to be working for Tris’s society? What doesn’t seem to be working at all?
3. What faction do you think you would have been born into, given your family and its values? Which faction would you select at your Choosing Ceremony? Why? How would you feel about making a decision that would determine your life’s course at the age of sixteen?
4. What choices have you made that have changed you? What future choices will you also make, and how do you think that they will change you?
5. How does the idea of “faction before blood” come into play throughout the book? Do you think this idea has a place in today’s society, or is it contrary to what most people believe? In our society, what ideas and beliefs are people loyal to in the way Tris’s society is loyal to the conceptof the factions?
6. Why is Tris’s government run only by members of Abnegation? Do you think this is a good idea? Do you agree with her father’s statement that “valuing knowledge above all else results in a lust for power, and that leads men into dark and empty places” (p. 35)? Why or why not?
7. What does it mean to be factionless in Tris’s society? How does a person become factionless?
8. Tris says about Candor, “It must require bravery to be honest all the time” (p. 62). Do you agree? Which do you think is a braver faction, Dauntless or Candor? Would you like to live in a society like Candor, where everyone tells the truth no matter how hard it is to hear?
9. During initiation, is it selfish of Tris to crave victory, or is it brave? Do Tris’s friends have a right to be jealous when she’s ranked above them? If you were Tris, would you forgive them for their reactions?
10. How does initiation change and transform Tris? Do you think she made the right faction choice? How do you think she might have changed if she had chosen one of the other factions?
11. What is the difference between being fearless and learning to control your fears? Do you believe anyone can be truly fearless? What does Tris mean when she says that “half of bravery is perspective” (p. 458)?
12. Is Four’s desire to be “brave, and selfless, and smart, and kind, and honest” (p. 405) realistic in the society in which he lives? Think of examples of people in our own world who successfully bridge different cultures, perspectives, or ways of living.
13. Tris’s mom says, “Human beings as a whole cannot be good for long before the bad creeps back in and poisons us again” (p. 441). Do you agree or disagree? Why?
14. At the beginning of the book, Tris does not understand what it means to be Divergent. How do you think she would explain it by the end of the book?
(Questions issued by the publisher.)
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