Divergent

Author: Veronica Roth

Title: Divergent

Genre: Dystopian

Roth, Veronica. Divergent (Divergent Trilogy, Book 1). HarperCollins UK, 2013.

 

 

Grade Level: 9th

Pages: 487 pages

Divergent is a book set in a dystopian world and told from sixteen-year-old Beatrice Prior's perspective. In this world, their society is divided into five groups: Dauntless; the fearless, Candor; the honest, Amity; the kind, Abnegation; the selfless, Erudite; the intelligent. These groups are known as factions and everyone in this society takes an aptitude test to help decide where they will chose to go when they are sixteen-years-old. Beatrice, also known as Tris, gets Abnegation, Dauntless, and Abnegation, in her aptitude test making her Divergent. In order to survive, Tris must choose a faction and hide her Divergent qualities.

Possible Teaching Concerns: 

For the most part this book is relatively clean. It can be violent at times, as Dauntless requires many of the characters to fight in order to make in into the Dauntless faction. Several characters dies, some more brutally than others. There is also an instance when Tris is sexually assaulted by one of the characters in the story. Again, it is important to know your classroom before teach triggering content.

Personal Reactions:

Again, this was a series I dearly loved growing up. I think this would be another great novel to use in a literature circle for students who enjoy dystopian novels. There are a lot of great themes to explore through this novel, and there is a series for students who want to enjoy more of Tris and Four. This is one of those stories where they're is a great balance between the action and the romance of the story. For the most part, the novel is pretty clean making a great choice for students. 

Canonical Work:

The Giver by Lois Lowry is a Speculative Fiction novel that depicts a society that has made itself into a Utopia. It follows the perspective of 12-year-old Jonas who has been selected to become the communities next Receiver. As Jonas fulfills his new role as Receiver by receiving memories for the community from the Giver, he begins to realize the dark side of this Utopian society. I chose this book as a canonical pairing because both books depict a utopian system that has failed its people and turned into a dystopian society. Both Tris and Jonas are outliers in their society and forces them to pick and choose the path that was given to them in order to survive. Divergent offers a modern twist to The Giver's plot line and would be a great novels to put in conversations with one another. 

Divergent Trailer 

Giver Trailer

Veronica Roth Interview