The Rise of Post-Modernism: Divergent by Veronica Roth

Being Divergent was not her choice, it was her fate. In the book Divergent by Veronica Roth, Beatrice “Tris” Prior has to go on an intriguing adventure to find herself. She is torn between finding herself through who she is, and who everyone else wants her to be. The book’s setting takes place in a dystopian version of present-day Chicago, where the people must be placed into factions based on who they are supposedly supposed to “be”. This shows how government control comes into terms with a Utopian-type society. The factions also exert the struggle with one’s own identity, self-versus social. These themes are constantly exposed throughout the book. Veronica Roth wanted to uncover through literature how post-modernism is beginning to become more and more common. The distrust level in the government is rising as they create more power for themselves to render upon us and our civil liberties. In this present day, it is extremely hard to find oneself, but what if the government controlled every aspect of this process? How difficult might it become then? Roth uses Tris as an example to utilize this throughout the intensifying Divergent. All of these pieces of the puzzle play a key role in helping Tris overcome her journey of discovering where she truly belongs.

Divergent does not exactly take place in a faraway kingdom with fairy tale like endings. The book is set in a dystopian version of present-day Chicago. The government controls absolutely everything: the home, the workplace, and the people. Veronica Roth wanted it to be completely clear that the city was meant to be a Utopia, but it was not exactly anyone’s “perfect” society. According to Alistair Fox, “a Literary Utopia may be defined as the representation of an idea, nonexist...

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