Brave, and selfless, and smart, and kind, and honest...

Discuss the June 2014 book of the month Divergent by Veronica Roth. While only Divergent--the first book of the series--is the book of the month, feel free to use this subforum to discuss the rest of the series or to talk about the movies, but make sure not to post spoilers unless noted in the topic title.
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RussetDivinity
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Re: Brave, and selfless, and smart, and kind, and honest...

Post by RussetDivinity »

It may not be realistic for his world, given the breaks between the factions, but that only makes him braver to want to do that. In a way, all of the traits tie together. It can take a great deal of bravery to be honest, as well as to be selfless and kind in the face of danger. As for intelligence, a large part of learning is to confront your own ignorance, which is a very brave thing to do, as you can be forced to change your own mind.
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Post by sherlock_holmes »

Veronica Roth captures the bane of human thinking and habits in this book: you cannot be all, so choose one. Why should I choose one when I can strive to be all? Even when I know I am bound to fail, I can still try, knowing this is the right thing to do.
Unfortunately, it's unrealistic. In our world today, one can try to be these things, but they will be hindered noticeably by the tyrants in this world. The author of Divergent brings out these things immediately for you to contemplate on, for you to dig in and never let go. What do these things all represent? Morality. And what is the standard for morality? God. Who else? Tris Prior is a Christian in these books, or at least her parents were... Gives you something to think about in your free time.
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Post by sflaherty42 »

Everyone as the ability to have these traits and they do. In four's faction, he can't show all these traits because the government won't allow it. They want to label their citizens and tell them they can only have one trait in order to keep them from thinking and being expressive.
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Post by SidnayC »

I think it would be very difficult considering his faction. In the real world people are faced with that dilemma and must overcome many adversities to have such positive qualities. It is easier to be bad than good.
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Post by toshilou »

For that society, no. He's forced to pick just one faction and can't show traits from any other. He could be seen as a faction traitor for simply showing a desire to learn something new or putting others before himself. If he lived in our society, it would be ideal.
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Post by Apogea »

As he is divergent, I think he should have made a new faction with all of those traits for the divergent people.
Could be a decent idea, since the system cannot really control divergents, I think it would be possible
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Post by MidnightAngel16 »

In this book the reality is no he can't be all those qualities. With the motto of the government being 'Faction Before Blood' and the fact that they kill divergents, they don't want one person to have all those qualities.
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Post by MatthewAlexander »

Four's desire to be all five of those things is not realistic in his society. His society is purposefully split so that each person lives out one of those traits. Being more than one, or all five, is seen as dangerous in his society. It's the same way in our society, but not as taboo. People of different cultures are expected to act a certain way. Stereotypes control the way a lot of people think and act. Being anything other than how, stereo-typically, you are meant to be, often brings criticism. It's unfortunate, but true.
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Post by Bookworm girl »

For the society he lives in as dauntless makes his dream a bit unrealistic. But his desire for this shows his divergent side. Because he is divergent he won't fit into any certain class and he is a little bit of everything.
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Post by authorlauratree »

I find the concept of factions based on characteristics to be interesting, but not very realistic. If you look at each individual person, not just one characteristic will shine through.

The way I understood the book, the test would determine which characteristic you exhibited most out of all of them. You are considered Divergent if more than one characteristic is dominant.

I would consider the people in my life to be Divergent, I believe that is what makes up their personalities, and makes each person unique. I also think that a persons experiences help build there character, which in the book would help decide their faction.

Overall, I feel like Veronica Roth stripped away pieces of the human personality to form the factions, and it isn't really displayed in the books.

Does this bother me? No I LOVE Fiction novels, and found that it was still very easy to immerse myself in this story line.
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Post by cyndiha11 »

I think the desire to be all of these things is entirely realistic for Four in the society that he lives in. Especially so because of the factions and the separation between different 'types' of people. It's also incredibly dangerous, but isn't anything that defies the norm?
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Post by Adurna101 »

I think one has to understand the symbolism of this. See, Four desired to be everything. To be every single one of the 'classes' of society. Is it realistic? Not if he's the only one. But could it start a movement that would be realistic? Definitely.
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Post by hollirm »

In the world that Four lives in, this goal isn't very realistic or rational or that matter. But I love that he wants to be all those things regardless of what society thinks or will actually do to him if they find out. In our society, I wish that there were more people out there that want to be brave, and selfless, and smart, and king, and honest. To be all of them, because then maybe our world wouldn't be in the predicament that it is in.
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Post by lindac1_98 »

I believe in Four's world and time, that it is very unrealistic to be able to have all those characteristics. Due to the fact that when faction acts somewhat like another faction that is frowned upon. And then that person will be discriminated by his original faction and look at with skepticism from the other factions. He would also loose the trust and loyalty of each faction. I, however, believe in our world and time that it is possible to have all these characteristics and still be able to be a productive member of society.
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Post by Meg_Sage »

I do not believe it is realistic to have all of these qualities in the faction society. This is made very clear throughout all of the books. The rulers of the society are very controlling and do not want their citizens to have any qualities to really make them actual individuals or stand out from other members of society. Although these qualities are not wanted in the Divergent universe, a person who possesses all of these characteristics in our society would be considered a wonderful human being. All of these qualities are very admirable. I don't know if I can think of a specific example of a person from our world who possesses these... If anything, Tris & Four teach us to fight for what you believe in and to break free from the constraints that are put around you.
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