Divergent Critical Lens Essay

501 Words2 Pages

According to E.M. Forster, "A work of literature must provide more than factual accuracy or vivid physical reality... it must tell us more than we already know." Forster is stating that there are still lessons to be found in fictional literature. The critical lens is accurate because many pieces of fictional literature can be applied to real life. Veronica Roth’s “Divergent” and Lois Lowry’s “The Giver” both prove that literature does not have to be realistic to send a meaningful message.

Divergent is a fictional story about a restricted society.Although it is not a true story, Divergent still teaches us that when a society is forced to be a certain way, there will always be someone that doesn’t fit in or rebels against the government. Although everyone is supposed to fit into one faction, Tris fit into multiple factions; therefore, not meeting the government’s standards. When Erudite plans to overthrow the Abnegation government, society goes along with it and Dauntless is mind-controlled in order to help them do it. Due to Tris being Divergent, she cannot be mind-controlled and she begins to rebel against Erudite’s plan. She helps save Abnegation against the government’s regulations. Divergent’s theme applies to real …show more content…

After disaster struck their community, the government created a society with no pain or discrimination; therefore taking away memories from before the disaster: color, books, weather, the elderly, and weak babies. Although eliminating these factors may seem to be eliminating sadness as well, that is not the case. In order to learn life lessons, you need to be able to feel emotions - both positive and negative - and be able to let life take its natural course. You cannot achieve true happiness until you have experienced sadness. The Giver proves that in real life and in fictional literature, complete utopia can never be

Show More
Related

  • How Does Tris Change

    287 Words  | 1 Pages

    Tris changes from being unsure and weak to a strong, brave, and determined in the book, Divergent. In the beginning of the story, Tris thinks she is not selfless enough to be in Abnegation. She is even more confused as her aptitude test determines she is divergent, a person who has more than one personality type who is suited for more than one faction. As she transfers to Dauntless, Tris realizes that she is at a disadvantage in Stage One, which involved physical activity. She is short and scrawny, and she doesn’t excel in an of the exercises alongside losing the fights. This threatens her chance of passing initiation. As a result of this sudden change, Tris misses her caring family. However, Tris doesn’t mourn and drown in self-pity. Instead,

    Read More

  • Analysis Of The Divergent, By Veronica Roth

    747 Words  | 2 Pages

    Divergent was officially released in October 2013- as well as the other books. The plot is about a 16-year-old girl named Beatrice in which the story takes place in a post-apocalyptic version of Chicago- where Veronica currently lives- that is separated into 5 groups called factions ( Abnegation, Amity, Erudite, Candor, and Dauntless). Tris is Abnegation-born but takes an aptitude test where she chooses to become Dauntless. Because she is Divergent (consisting of Abnegation, Dauntless, and Erudite), she must keep it a secret from her Dauntless leaders to protect herself from being hunted down...to her death. Between the pages, she begins to explore her true identity within a society that defines its citizens by social and personality. It also contains a romantic subplot between herself and

    Read More

  • Comparing Lois Lowry’s The Giver and Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451

    2199 Words  | 5 Pages

    The conflict between the power of the individual and the power structures of both communities in The Giver and Fahrenheit 451 result in endings that are undeniably hopeful. Works Cited Bradbury, Ray. A. A. Fahrenheit - 451 degrees Fahrenheit. New York: Ballantine Books, 1953. Print.

    Read More

  • Dystopian Book 'Divergent' By Veronica Roth

    972 Words  | 2 Pages

    It you are Divergent the serum doesn’t work on you. Tris has to be very careful to act just like the others so no dauntless trainer notices. All of the dauntless initiates are made to kill the Abnegation. Abnegation is Tris’s born faction. She has trouble making the choice to shot them. One of Tris’s biggest fears is killing her family; Abnegation. This is showed in the book as “I can’t wage wage war against Abnegation, against my family. I would rather die. My fear landscape proved that. My list of options narrows, and I see the path I must take. I will pretend long enough to get the Abnegation sector of the city. I will save my family. And whatever happens after that doesn’t matter.” The author wrote this part to show that Tris truly cares about her family. She will do whatever it takes to make sure her family is safe. An initie Will was running towards Tris with his gun pointed to her. Tris has to make a choice and she needs to make one fast. Victoria writes “In an instant, I see his finger poised over the trigger and hear the bullet slide into the chamber, and I fire. My eyes squeezed shut. Can’t breath.” This shows that Tris wasn’t sure what to do and her first move was to shot him. If she wouldn’t have made that decision then she would risk her life by Will killing her. Will was under the serum and was to kill anyone he saw or whoever he was directed to

    Read More

  • Brave New World Essays

    2074 Words  | 5 Pages

    Brave New World Essay Test Q: How does life in the Brave New World change John? A: Life in The Brave New World changes John in an unusual way. Being a child of the savage reservation, John was taught that morality, rather than conditioned by the Controller. John learned his rights and wrongs from his mother, and his own experiences. John knew a personal relationship was valued, and everyone loved one another.

    Read More

  • An Analysis Of Amy Tan's The Joy Luck Club

    1319 Words  | 3 Pages

    One function of a novel is to allow readers to gain insight on new perspectives. We expect that reading a novel will provide us with various perspectives and ideas to relate to our own realities. Throughout history, postmodernists have used literature to prove that an objective reality does not exist. Fictional books allow readers to connect to the characters more easily and therefore understand the various perspectives of characters. In her novel The Joy Luck Club, Amy Tan uses defamiliarization to show the reader perspectives on America that they may be unaware of. Tan proves that there is no absolute reality of America and its culture. Ultimately, Tan successfully utilizes this technique to insight her audience of readers with new

    Read More

  • Choice Of Allegiance In The Divergent By Veronica Roth

    710 Words  | 2 Pages

    She is successful and ranks first. She slowly realizes that in the excitement of the day, the Dauntless leaders have again exercised their power by injecting a serum in members to fight Abnegation for them. This again shows the corruption of total power in society leaders. Realizing the control over fellow Dauntless members tris gets Four and they set out to reverse the serum and fight the simulation. The story continues in Roth’s second book of the Divergent Trilogy Insurgent. Divergent has been well received and in a review given by The New York Times, Susan Dominus wrote that it was, “rich in plot.” Common Sense Media commented on the book’s “deep message about identity and controlling societies” and on its unstoppable

    Read More

  • The Divergent Series by Veronica Roth

    902 Words  | 2 Pages

    The novel starts out with Tris and her brother Caleb preparing for their aptitude tests. This test shows them (or at least is supposed to show them) which faction they belong in or where they fit in. Tris’s results come back inconclusive, therefore she is divergent, and her results are manually recorded as Abnegation. Divergent, according to Merriam-Webster dictionary can be defined as “differing from each other or from a standard.” In the novel, when someone is “divergent” they fit into multiple of the five factions. They do not conform to only one of the five standards. This forcing of choice causes them to conform to the patterns of a specific lifestyle even when if it means not being completely true to whom they are. Specifically in Tris’s case, she fit into Dauntless (the brave), Erudite (the intelligent), and Abnegation (the selfless). By choosing Dauntless she had to suppress her intelligence and ignore the intuition to help others, which in the end proved to be a difficult task.

    Read More

  • Divergent By Veronica Roth Thesis Statement

    982 Words  | 2 Pages

    How did you first discover the book: I first encountered this book when my older sister introduced it to me. She had already read it and instantly knew it was a book for me. I finished the book in a

    Read More

  • The Giver Should Not Be Censored

    1121 Words  | 3 Pages

    Parents in modern society routinely attempt to shield their children from what they view as evils of the world. Adults censor television they watch, conversations they have, and books they read. In so doing, parents feel that they are guarding their children from knowledge that they may not be emotionally capable of handling. However, it also is imperative in the highly competitive atmosphere of modern society for youth to become prepared for the pressures of adulthood. Ironically, the dangerous knowledge parents believe they are hiding from their children inevitably is learned through exposure. In the domain of literature, a parent may feel that a particular book attracts attention to inappropriate or taboo issues, neglecting the positive aspects of that same work. This is the situation that has developed with Lois Lowry's The Giver, a book opposed by parents across the nation. Throughout the novel, despite challenges that have emerged based in her use of euphemistic expressions for euthanasia within a utopian society, the author nonetheless demonstrates the importance of experiential learning and the valuable lessons to be learned by working through the negative aspects of life.

    Read More

  • Divergent is Cool

    521 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Erudite injected serums into Dauntless faction members, using them for their own wicked desires for power. The Erudite had good intentions, as well as all the other factions, to work together relying on each other’s strengths for support in running their world that they live in. As Tris’s mother say, Human beings can only be good for so long before the bad creeps back in, the bad crept into the hearts of the Erudite corrupting their faction. The Erudite eliminated the innocent one by one fo...

    Read More

  • Atticus And Alexander Hamilton Essay

    1158 Words  | 3 Pages

    Literature is an outlet for imagination without restrictions, a platform for expression, and a form of art that outlives its author. Most importantly, it can be a way to help one truly discover themselves. As audiences are exposed to more literature throughout their lives, they not only learn about their true potential, but are also made aware of their flaws and faults in character. Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird and Alexander Hamilton in Hamilton are both remarkable characters, but from various events that reveal their shortcomings, the audience receives the opportunity to learn from their mistakes. By appreciating literature, one not only receives a wonderful story, but is also given the chance to grow with the characters and learn lessons from the character’s experiences.

    Read More

  • The Book 'Divergent' By Veronica Roth

    299 Words  | 1 Pages

    Tris Prior, the main character, is a grave girl who is in the faction or social group of dauntless. Dauntless is a brave faction that is one of five. Tris is divergent which means she can fit into any faction but chooses dauntless. Her friend Four is also in the faction of dauntless and helps Tris get through intense training and what is yet to come. A major conflict in the story is that Tris is divergent and she doesn't fit in with all the other dauntless. Also she doesn't react to serums, medical tests, the same as everyone else.

    Read More

  • Literature and Society

    1269 Words  | 3 Pages

    Often times, literature has enough power for the reader to generate their own reality through the writer’s beliefs although most of the times the reality generated by the readers are not correct. In a TED talk called “the Danger of a Single Story,” Chimannda Adichie discussed about how literature affected her views on people, and then through life experience she had figured out that the reality she was creating was all false. She had grown up in Nigeria where at young age she was able to come across western literature. She was an inspired writer, and had realized all her inspirations came from British and American literature because most of her pieces were based of British and American literature such as having her characters...

    Read More

  • Critical Theory

    1069 Words  | 3 Pages

    In this essay, a problem or issue will be identified from future work environment, which is gender, race and inequality discrimination that might be solved by relying on knowledge of critical theory and other philosophical perspective of choice that can help solve this specific problem/issue better. Furthermore in the essay the issue or problem will be outlined and possible solutions to the problem or issue will be discussed. WHAT IS CRITICAL THEORY?

    Read More

More about Divergent Critical Lens Essay

Open Document