Divergent: A Dystopian Society

When looking at a Utopia against a Dystopia, some people often confuse the two. A utopia is described as a perfect society where everything is perfect. A dystopia is the opposite. It is filled with misery and despair and not a desirable living condition. When looking at Veronica Roth’s Divergent, it is evident that she was influenced somewhat but Thomas Moore’s Utopia when writing her series. Although Divergent eventually morphed into a dystopia, it starts off as a utopian society loosely based on Thomas Moore’s.

Some of the biggest similarities between the worlds were based on small, everyday things we take for granted in today's modern society. Jobs, education, living situations are all determined by the society in which you live in in these worlds. In Divergent, the members of society are

Gender does not matter when picking a faction. This is similar to Utopia, as men and women are expected to do the same jobs. Agriculture is one of the most important jobs in Utopia so everyone is required to work for two years farming the land. Besides farming, land is treated as open to all people in both societies. In Divergent, a lot of young people live in dorm style housing, away from their families. Tris, the lead character, lives in the Dauntless dorm style housing during the course of the book. This is a common source of housing in the story. In Utopia, there are no locks on doors and private property does not exist. Another interesting thing about property is everyone switches housing every ten years. Between both worlds, it is clear that owning land is not as big of a deal as it is in our society