In the following, I will show and analyze the system of the factions in The Divergent by Verona Roth and its abuse ruled by the government as well as the system of the factions. I will consider how the factions interact. The relationships between and within the factions are important aspects, too. My term paper should prove that the social construct of society is abused by the government.
Veronica Roth has written a trilogy of this dystopian novel. They are called firstly The Divergent (2011), secondly The Insurgent (2012) and thirdly The Allegiant (2013).
My primary source for this paper will be the first edition The Divergent so that I can get more into depth while analyzing. Involving all books would exceed the frame of the paper.
Moreover, I will use public journals, newspaper, and secondary literature to underline the relevance of the topic for society in recent years. I will also use the novel The Hunger Games (2012) written by Suzanne Collins in some cases to find similarities and differences in dystopian, young adult fiction literature.
The government abuses its power to control the majority of the population in the fictional future city Chicago. Protagonist in the novel is Beatrice Prior who will take the main space for my citations and arguments in this paper. Her thoughts and actions represent the power and discipline that young adults can show, in this case in literature.
Table of contents (ToC):
1. Introduction
2. Governmental power in The Divergent
3. System of the factions
4. Tris' power
5. Conclusion
6. Bibliography
1. Introduction
'' There is no such thing as society: there are individual men and women, and there are families.''
- Margaret Thatcher
''Society exists only as a mental concept; in the real world there are only individuals.''
- Oscar Wilde1
Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde was an Irish playwright and poet throughout the 1880s. Margaret Thatcher was a British stateswoman who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990. These quotes from Margaret Thatcher and Oscar Wilde show that people always thought about the purpose of society in such a philosophical way. Both quotes contradict each other. When Thatcher says there does not exist ''such a thing as society'', Wilde would say that it only ''exists as a mental concept.'' In The Divergent, society is not only a mental concept but a fundamental element that creates the feeling of a perfectly working state.
In the following, I will show and analyze the system of the factions in The Divergent and its abuse ruled by the government as well as the system of the factions. I will consider how the factions interact. The relationships between and within the factions are important aspects, too. My term paper should prove that the social construct of society is abused by the government. Veronica Roth has written a trilogy of this dystopian novel. They are called firstly The Divergent (2011), secondly The Insurgent (2012) and thirdly The Allegiant (2013).
My primary source for this paper will be the first edition The Divergent so that I can get more into depth while analyzing. Involving all books would exceed the frame of the paper. Moreover, I will use public journals, newspaper, and secondary literature to underline the relevance of the topic for society in recent years. I will also use the novel The Hunger Games (2012) written by Suzanne Collins in some cases to find similarities and differences in dystopian, young adult fiction literature.
The government abuses its power to control the majority of the population in the fictional future city Chicago. Protagonist in the novel is Beatrice Prior who will take the main space for my citations and arguments in this paper. Her thoughts and actions represent the power and discipline that young adults can show, in this case in literature.
2. Governmental power in The Divergent
Briefly, I want to explain how the government in The Divergent controls the population with simple, but efficient strategies.
The government built the five factions to prevent war and force peace in the country. In comparison to The Hunger Games (2012) written by Suzanne Collins where people live in twelve districts, it is obvious that governmental power comes along with putting people into groups where they cannot escape from.
I want to analyze how the government works. It is ruled by representatives from the faction Abnegation. This is the faction where Beatrice Prior (later Tris) comes from.
''The city is ruled by a council of fifty people, composed entirely of representatives from Abnegation, because our faction is regarded as incorruptible, due to our commitment to selflessness.'' (Chapter 4) As shown in the quote above from Chapter four, Tris explains why the committee contains members from Abnegation only. They tend to be more dependable because of their characteristics to be selfless, caring and kind.
Furthermore, a fence around the city prohibits all inhabitants to go beyond the city. Tris mentions that she wonders what is behind these fences. In this case, it is not a selfless act to be that curious and think about an escape from the city.
To prevent the citizens from escaping the city, they built a great fence around the city. Furthermore, they (governmental employees) use and abuse psychological tests and serums to control the minds and view to life of the inhabitants. All these strategies are used to keep the people under control.
The arguments from the government to prevent wars and conflicts with help of the factions is also just an instrument to keep the people quiet and stop them from becoming too curious or asking questions. Tris knows this exactly and does not open her mouth in public asking her critical questions. But in her mind she has many unanswered questions criticizing the system. In addition to that, to take away the possibility for people to evolve their whole potential of characteristics by decreasing them through the faction system, is another strategy of the government. Members from Abnegation are told to always be selfless and restrained. Whereas members from Candor are told to behave honest all the time.
But Tris discovers in the development of the plot that more people have diverse types of personalities and characteristics as she needs to cope with other faction members from Candor, Erudite and the Dauntless after the faction transfer. She seeks out that people from Candor need to be brave to be honest all the time and that it takes much more characteristics to be brave than to 'just' jump on and off a train while it is driving.
Hence, the powerful government uses psychological methods of creating an illusionary fence in the minds of the people. It is a restricted system that says that all inhabitants are protected from potential dangers from the world beyond the fences. In that regard, this argument emphasizes the picture in people's minds that the government cares about them as a dependable authority. Therefore, they can trust them. Even though, it is a fact that they get abused and do not even know what is behind these fences.
In Chapter twenty, four (the leader of the Dauntless faction) discovers that Tris is divergent. He experiences it as he puts her into the test simulation with the serum. Tris is able to manipulate the serum and get out of the simulation faster than all the other participants. As he realizes that Tris is divergent, he recommends her to feign the behavior of a Dauntless. Otherwise, she would be killed (Chapter twenty, p. 255).
In comparison with The Hunger Games from Suzanne Collins where the government is shown in its full extent, the government in The Divergent is nearly invisible. In the Hunger Games the supreme head of the government is Snow (who is cold as ice, already shown in his name). In The Divergent the government is ruling society only through the techniques of building factions and focusing on their morals. The faction Abnegation rules the biggest part, while other factions, like Erudite with the leader Jeanine, partly have their own chiefs.
3. System of the factions
Each of the five factions must follow distinct rules for the behavior and life of the people in those factions. The society is based on this construct of dividing people into specific groups. The factions are Abnegation (selflessness), Amity (understanding), Candor (honesty), Dauntless (bravery) and Erudite (intelligence). Each faction represents a different sector and task within society, as mentioned in the Choosing Ceremony in the fifth Chapter of the book:
''Working together, these five factions have lived in peace for many years, each contributing to a different sector of society. Abnegation has fulfilled our need for selfless leaders in government. (...) In our factions, we find meaning, we find purpose, we find life. ” (Chapter 5)
In that regard, we can see that the factions are a strong structure to hold society together, prevent conflicts and establish a state where all citizens live together peacefully. On the one hand, they determine the lives for each of the citizens. For many people this is an advantage because they have a special purpose in life. They do not have to decide on their own which job they want to do or how they behave in community. It is a pre-determined life. From the day onwards they are born they must live in their community ruled by mechanisms such as surveillance, discipline, and control. The government prescribes the behavior for all members of the factions. For example, members from Abnegation have to be selfless, cautious and caring all the time. Whereas members from the Dauntless faction have a wild, brave, and savage attitude.
With the help of a concept of hope and fear, the government rules the life of all factions. Moreover, there is a clear distinction between people in a specific faction and factionless people. They have the fear to get into the factionless life where you do not have family, food, or a home. All basic livelihood privileges are taken away. This is just one punishment in the social construct of the factions.
Tris says in chapter five:
''It is heavy with our worst fear, greater even than the fear of death: to be factionless.''
According to this statement, it shows that the people have more fear to not fit into the system than being dead. Nevertheless, the fear of being dead or losing someone by death is the biggest fear of humanity and all generations. This emphasizes the power of the government and the power of thoughts as well as a trained behavior.
''To live factionless is not just to live in poverty and discomfort; it is to live divorced from society, separated from the most important thing in life: community.'' (Chapter 3)
And of course, I do think it is true that a community is the most important thing in life. Just as family, friends, and connections to other people. It is important to be surrounded by people. Being alone is not healthy for the human being. But it is also unhealthy to not stay alone with oneself for a long time. We need time to recover, rethink our actions and behavior. This is the point where the system of the factions' steps in. The factions control each other, and they know if one faction would be missing, this would cause issues. The five factions interact and if one faction would not be there the whole construct would possibly get worse and collapse.
[...]
1 Quote by Oscar Wilde: p. 3 of Elliott, Anthony, Turner, Bryan, et. al. On Society. Cambridge: Polity Press, 2012. Google Books.
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