Divergent: A Mostly Faithful Adaptation Of The Book

Divergent

I just watched Divergent, the film adaptation of the first book in Veronica Roth’s Divergent trilogy. Divergent stars Shailene Woodley as Tris Prior and Theo James as Four.

Divergent

Divergent takes place in a futuristic Chicago. When a person reaches the age of sixteen, they must decide what faction they belong in. Beatrice and her brother Caleb (Ansel Elgort) were born into Abnegation; Beatrice decides to leave Abnegation so that she can join Dauntless, while Caleb decides to leave Abnegation in favor of Erudite.

In the book, Beatrice and Caleb’s parents did not introduce them to Jeanine Matthews, the leader of Erudite. In the film, though, Beatrice and Caleb’s mom and dad (Ashley Judd and Tony Goldwyn) introduce their children to Jeanine Matthews (a very evil Kate Winslet). Much like the book, the film adaptation is violent. However, the knife stabbing scene in the book was not in the film adaptation, thus causing Edward to stay in Dauntless instead of becoming one of the Factionless.

Beatrice changes her name to Tris when she joins Dauntless; she begins training and must fight with the other transfers. She is not the best fighter. Tris becomes friends with Christina (Zoe Kravitz), a transfer from Candor. Christina says whatever is on her mind because she is honest; honesty is one of the traits of someone from Candor. 

Tris and Four in Divergent

When Beatrice took the test to determine which faction she belongs to, she found out that she could be in three different factions. She found out that this means her brain works differently; she is Divergent. Divergence is very dangerous, and if the wrong people find out about someone being Divergent, they will kill that person. When Beatrice joins Dauntless, she must hide her Divergence from everyone. However, her instructor, Four, finds out that Tris is Divergent when Tris goes through a simulation of fears. He decides to protect her because he is also Divergent and knows how dangerous that is.

Tris must deal with a bully named Peter (Miles Teller) who dislikes her because she is a “Stiff.” “Stiff” is a derogatory word for someone who’s from Abnegation. Tris is attacked by Peter, Drew, and Al, but Four saves her from being thrown into the chasm. Al apologizes to Tris, but Tris won’t accept his apology. Al jumps to his death. He was not going to make it in Dauntless.  Tris feels that Al’s suicide was her fault because she was mean to him before he died.

Tris finds out that Four’s real name is Tobias Eaton. His father is Marcus Eaton, one of Abnegation’s leaders. There were rumors that Marcus abused Tobias; those rumors were true.  Tris finds out why Four is called Four—-she sees in his fear landscape that he has only four fears.  Four is afraid of his father. One of Four’s fears is heights, which we see when Tris and Four climb the ferris wheel to search for Eric’s (Jai Courtney) team’s flag. 

Pretty soon, the members of Dauntless become victims to a simulation. They are supposed to go to Abnegation and kill the members of Abnegation. Most people are asleep, but Tris is awake. Tris is reunited with her mom, who dies trying to save her. She is later reunited with her brother and father. Her father also dies trying to protect her.  Tris, Caleb, and Marcus go to Dauntless, where they meet up with Four. Tris makes Four see that it’s really her (Four had a gun pointed at Tris). Tris makes Jeanine stop what she was doing and tells her to end the simulation. Jeanine does what Tris tells her to do, even though she doesn’t want to. 

There is a lot of action in Divergent. I liked Divergent a lot. It was a little different from the book, but it was a mostly faithful adaptation. I would recommend Divergent to fans of the book series, fans of dystopian /post apocalyptic book and movies, and fans of action/adventure movies. I would give Divergent a A-.