Biocultural and Social Class Analysis: Divergent Series

Introduction

The setting of the Divergent Series is the future and is a Chicago anti-utopian version that has been divided into five factions, namely Abnegation, Candor, Amity, Dauntless, and Erudite. Candor refers to the honest, Abnegation refers to the selfless, Dauntless refers to the brave, Amity refers to the peaceful and lastly, Erudite refers to the intelligent. Beatrice Prior is sixteen years old, and she is the narrator and also a protagonist from Abnegation. In this paper, we shall write about the summary of the Divergent Series by Veronica Roth, explore the bio-cultural components in the series, and find out the real-world implications of the story to the human condition. Summary of Divergent Series by Veronica Roth Beatrice Prior with her brother, Caleb, who is less than a year older than Beatrice, decides to test themselves to find out which faction they truly belong to. They do this by simulating the vicious dog's confrontation, and from their conclusion, Beatrice depicts three factions, namely Erudite, Abnegation, and Dauntless, meaning that she is more of a Divergent. She was therefore instructed never to mention the fact that she was Divergent because it is dangerous to be so. Through contemplation, Caleb chooses to be an Erudite while Beatrice chooses to go for Dauntless.

While in Dauntless, she adopts a name Tris with a hope that she will begin everything once again and become someone different. She makes a lot of friends there, where they underwent three sections of initiation into a new faction. The first stage involves getting to learn how to confront their initiation instructor; Four and Eric. Even though Tris is small, she manages to achieve the test, which made her earn the respect of many, and she, therefore, climbs up the ferris wheel to glance at the location of the other team. Four accompanies Tris, and through this, Tris notices the feeling she receives while with him. Moreso, she earns Eric's respect when she takes up Al's punishment voluntarily. During the visiting day, Tris' mother visits her while in her new faction, and from the interaction, Tris concludes that her mother might have also been Dauntless. During the ranking, Tris becomes number six; therefore, she is not cut; Peter is ranked second, and he is unsatisfied, and during that night, he stabs Edward in his eye because he took the first place; this forced Edward to leave the initiation. During stage two and three, Tris tries to be her own identity in Dauntless by going for zip lining with other initiates and becomes closer to Four and Four begins to open up to Tris. Even though the initiation is too worrying, Tris is shocked at last when she is ranked number one. Peter, Drew, and Al attack her as a threat, and Four comes to her rescue before they kill her.

Since Al was initially Tris' friend, he kills himself because he is ravaged at his actions against Tris. Four and Tris begins a secret relationship when he reveals his true identity to Tris, that he is Eaton Tobian, the son of the representative of the abusive Abnegation. After the final assessment, Tris is made a Dauntless official member when she conquers all the initiations one after the other. During that night, when they were injected with a simulation serum, everyone woke up in a sleepwalking mode, save Tris and Tobias because they were both Divergent; thus, they pretended to be sleepwalking just like the rest. As Eric tries to kill Tobias mistakenly, Tris and Tobias fight back, and therefore Tobias is taken to be part of Erudite as Tris is to be executed because she is useless after being shot on her shoulder. Tris escapes the killing with the help of Peter; even though her father is shot dead along the struggle to escape death. At the end, Tobias, Caleb, Tris, Peter, and Marcus flee out of the city with a hope that they will find peace and safety in the Amity compound. Biocultural components Veronica Roth depicts identity and choices by writing the story Divergent, such that the way one chooses faction will define who the person is. Tris is faced with a variety of options; whether she should remain with the faction, she was born with in her family or switch to another faction and begin afresh. At last, she decided to be part of Dauntless.

Throughout the novel, Tris struggles to accept the fact that her Divergent nature will not give a chance to any of the factions to define her true identity. At last, Divergence becomes a major struggle, and she finds her true identity by creating positive relationships with friends and family. She accepts the fact that there is nowhere she is capable of fitting perfectly, and thus she has to define her own way by choice and take a step at a time. One's faction determines one's social class and the way they will live their entire life. One is only limited to choose on the type of faction he or she wants, and even so, the faction that one was born with and grew up with influences their decisions greatly. Therefore, social mobility is limited, such that leisure, social relationships, achievements, and even marriage depends greatly on the faction. Values are also a major focus within any society. The five factions are determined by five values of virtues, namely honesty, intelligence, selflessness, peacefulness, and bravery. Even if a person has many factions, one of the factions will stand out compared to the rest and will work towards achieving the respective value.

The norm that faction comes before the blood has filled the minds of most children such that even during the Choosing Day, they choose faction as the priority to other aspects such as their life and their family. Nevertheless, from time to time, Tris keeps tracing out to her familial lineage, and this is a decision that is hard to find even in the current world and generation. The power within the society can cause one to do dangerous acts, and this is depicted when the characters strive hard to achieve power by use of faction. For example, Peter comes to stab Edward in his eye for him to be the leading in position. Therefore, it is sad that one's search for biological identity drives him or her to perform dangerous actions. The cultural aspect of society is against the Divergent human beings, and this instills fear, anxiety, and consequently keeping of secrets and lies. Upon Tris realizing that she is Divergent, she hides her identity for fear of persecution in the society. Real-world implications of Divergent Series In the real world situation, we can link the different factions to some careers that people hold within the community. Abnegation are the selfless people, and these can include the monks and nuns. Even more realistic, they can be the humanitarians like the Red Cross workers, doctors, nurses, and any other person who can sacrifice their life to assist others.

The Dauntless are those who are courageous and brave, like the police officers, soldiers, and the firefighters. This also includes those people who can place their lives at risk and put themselves in danger for the good and wellbeing of others. Amity are those who like promoting peace and advocate for it. For example, the workers of the United Nations work hard to uphold and keep the peace. The diplomats and the peacekeepers will uphold peace in their day to day lives. The Erudite are those people who value knowledge and put it in practice; for example, people like scientists and surgeons who thrive on knowledge basis during their job practice. The Candor are those who have jobs that prompt honesty from them; for example, the judges have no other choice than to be honest since dishonesty will lead to the compromise of others. This book can, therefore, link many aspects of life like classroom settings, history, choices in life, and many others. Thus, it is essential to embrace the way of thinking by bringing different aspects into our lives for a bigger and clearer picture, a different angle of how things are viewed. Talk of divergence, one needs to consider different points of thinking so that the end result is a more in-depth conclusion and result that prompts further thinking.

Conclusion

In summary, the book Divergent by Veronica Roth is a factual and modern book that can be linked to real-world happenings and situations. Tris is a significant character in the story who is divergent, meaning she has more than one faction. This is dangerous in the society as she might get killed, and therefore she begins a journey of finding her own true identity because she has not accepted the fact that she is a Divergent. One’s faction will determine their actions and behavior. Moreso, some careers can only accommodate particular factions and not others.