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-.

Allegiant: A Weak Ending To The Divergent Trilogy

 

Allegiant by Veronica Roth

Allegiant is the third book in Veronica Roth’s popular Divergent trilogy. Allegiant takes place immediately after the events of Insurgent. Jeanine Matthews is dead, but now there is a new tyrant in place: Evelyn, Tobias’s mom. Evelyn is the leader of the Factionless. Years ago, she was kicked out of Abnegation for having an affair. Marcus, Evelyn’s husband and Tobias’s father, had abused them.

Tris has released a video in which it is discovered that there is an outside world that has been watching the people in the city. The woman in the video, Amanda Ritter, takes the name Edith Prior, and states that all people who are Divergent need to leave the city. She says the outside world needs the help of those who are Divergent. It turns out that the city of Chicago is one of many experiments done by the outside world.

Tris and Tobias are tried for opposing Evelyn’s orders. They are found not guilty. Marcus, however, is not so lucky. He is not sentenced to death, but is given a worse punishment: he must leave the city and never return.

Tris, Tobias, Caleb, Christina, Uriah, Zeke, Peter, and Tori join forces with the Allegiant. The Allegiant are a group of rebels who are against what Evelyn is doing. Johanna and Cara are the leaders of the Allegiant. Zeke decides to stay behind to be with Shauna, who was paralyzed in the previous book. Uriah takes his place.

Tobias finds out that his mentor, Amar, who he thought was dead, is very much alive. Likewise, Tori’s brother George, who was also thought to be dead, also had faked his death. Amar and George are both Divergent.

Before Tori is reunited with her brother, she is killed in a shootout on the way out of the city. She dies not knowing that her brother is actually alive. I thought this death was so sudden and unnecessary. I like Tori and thought she should not have died. The scene where George finds out that his sister is dead is very heartbreaking. Throughout the novel, we see George grieving for his sister. I like the relationship between George and Amar; Amar is a good friend to George and comforts him when he finds out about Tori’s death.

Quote from Allegiant

Things are very different in the outside world. Tris, Tobias, Caleb, Christina, Uriah, and Peter are confused by a lot of what they see and hear. For example, they have never seen an airplane before, nor have they been in one. They also don’t know about geography. They don’t know that they’re from Chicago. They don’t know what the United States of America is.

Tris and Tobias agree to be studied by Matthew, who works in the lab. Matthew wants to study them because he wants to compare their Divergence. It turns out that Tris is what’s known as GP, or genetically pure. Her genes have been healed. Tobias, however, thought he was Divergent, but finds out that he’s GD, or genetically damaged. Matthew explains that Tobias’s genes mimic Divergence. Tris’s Divergence is stronger than Tobias’s.   Tobias is very angry; he feels that everything he’s ever known of himself is a lie.

Tobias doesn’t like that his people were the subjects of experiments. The people studying them let them kill each other. There were Purity Wars before Tobias and Tris were born, which left Chicago in ruins. Tobias thinks that when Divergents were being killed, the experiment should have stopped or the people running the experiments should have saved the Divergents.

Tobias, who had agreed to never lie to Tris again, breaks his promise to her. He joins forces with people who want to bring down David’s experiment. These people claim that David was in cahoots with Jeanine Matthews and gave her the attack simulation. A bomb goes off and the bomb hits Uriah. Uriah goes into a coma and never wakes up. I like Uriah and I was very unhappy that he died. Uriah was one of my favorite characters in the books. He had a great sense of humor and provided much of the comic relief in the books.

Tobias is filled with remorse and regret for his part in what happened. He was supposed to keep an eye on Uriah for Zeke, and he failed to do so. Tobias is arrested, as is one of his co-conspirators. He is released, while she is not.

David gives Tris a diary, which was written by Tris’s mother. Tris reads it and gets to learn what her mother was like before she was married. Tris’s mother ran away from home and was taken in. She decided to volunteer for the experiment in Chicago. Because she already had tattoos, she was placed in Dauntless. David wanted her to switch to Erudite so she could keep an eye on the leader of Erudite, who was just as bad as Jeanine Matthews. Instead, Tris’s mother fell in love with Andrew Prior, and went with him to Abnegation. Tris wants to keep the diary to herself, but knows it should be shown to her brother Caleb. Tris doesn’t like her brother much because he was a traitor and would have let her get killed. Tris does not want to acknowledge her brother because she’s still mad at him.

David appears to be a nice man, but he is not. He wants to use death serum to kill GD’s as well as memory serum to erase the memories of GD’s, people like Tobias, Christina, Caleb, Peter, and Zeke. Tris, Tobias, Caleb, and Matthew decide to stop David from what he’s planning on doing. Caleb agrees to sacrifice himself for everyone else by unleashing the death serum. However, Tris does not want her brother to die for her. She feels that he is just trying to make up for the bad things he did. She would prefer it if he sacrificed himself out of love for her. Tris decides to unleash the death serum instead. She releases the death serum and survives it, but is shot by David. She dies of her wound. Tris is the main character! She did not have to die! She shouldn’t have died! I hate when the main character is killed off. Tris has been shot before, why was this time any different?

Tobias and friends have to deal with the death of Tris. At first, Tobias is really angry that Tris is gone. Before she unleashed the death serum, Tris told Caleb to tell Tobias she was sorry for leaving him. This makes it sound like she knew she was going to die. Tris did not know for sure if she would survive the death serum, but her Divergence was so strong that she did.

I liked how the chapters alternated between Tris and Tobias telling the story. This was different from the previous books. The epilogue takes place two years after Tris died. However, there has not been a funeral for Tris yet. What took them so long? I liked how everyone was together. I liked how they participated in a zip line, which was something Tris and some of her friends did in Divergent.

Divergent, Insurgent, and Allegiant

I did not think Allegiant was as good as Divergent or Insurgent. I did not like that Tori, Uriah, and Tris died. Tori, Uriah, and Tris were a few of my favorite characters. They should not have died. Is Tobias going to move on? I don’t think so. Tris was the only person he was with whom he truly loved. I feel that Tobias and everyone else who knew Tris will get some sort of closure, but will never forget Tris.

I would recommend Allegiant to fans of Divergent and Insurgent, fans of YA / post apocalyptic / dystopian literature, and fans of action/ adventure novels. I would give Allegiant a B- because it was good, but it was not as good as its predecessors.

Insurgent: Just As Good As Divergent

Insurgent, by Veronica Roth

 

Insurgent is the second book in Veronica Roth’s Divergent trilogy. Insurgent takes place right after the events of Divergent. Tris’s parents have been killed and Tris was forced to shoot and kill her friend Will. Will was under the simulation and had a gun pointed at her; he was going to shoot her. Tris has been having recurring nightmares in which she kills Will over and over again. Tris and Tobias are staying at Amity’s compound, but know that they can’t stay there long.

Abnegation, Amity, Candor, Dauntless, & Erudite

When Tris and Tobias go to Candor headquarters, they are arrested and interrogated.  Tobias must state his real name and talk about his life prior to being in Dauntless; he must talk about his father Marcus. He also admits that he’s Divergent. Tris is forced to admit that she’s Divergent. She also admits that she killed Will, much to the dismay of Christina, Tris’s friend and Will’s girlfriend. Now everyone in Candor headquarters knows that Tobias and Tris are Divergent.

Throughout the book, Tris and Tobias argue with each other. Tris cries a lot because she has not handled her grief well. She is messed up. Tris shows that she is reckless when she goes to Erudite to speak with Jeanine Matthews, Erudite’s leader. She agrees to be experimented on. Tobias shows up to rescue her.

Many characters are killed, some of which I thought did not deserve to die. It could be that Veronica Roth killed these characters so that Tris could realize her true potential in Allegiant. Some characters, like Eric, deserved to die. Eric was really evil. I like how Peter is being reformed. Peter does not like being in anyone’s debt; this is why he helps Tris. Tris has saved his life a few times.

Book Cover of Insurgent

Insurgent is really violent. This is nothing new from the previous book. There is occasional humor in the book, but mostly the content is serious. There is a lot of action in Insurgent.

I liked Insurgent as much as I liked Divergent. I recommend Insurgent to fans of the Divergent trilogy. I also recommend it to fans of dystopian /post apocalyptic literature, as well as fans of action/adventure novels. I would give Insurgent an A-. I look forward to reading Allegiant, the third and final book in the Divergent trilogy.

 

 

Divergent: Welcome to Veronica Roth’s Post-Apocalyptic World

“One choice decides your friends. One choice defines your beliefs. One choice determines your loyalties— Forever. One choice can transform you.”

 

Divergent by Veronica Roth

When I first heard about Veronica Roth’s Divergent, I thought it was similar to Susanne Collins’ The Hunger Games. Both books are part of a series. Divergent is the first book in Veronica Roth’s series, and is followed by Insurgent and Allegiant. The Hunger Games is the first book in Susanne Collins’ series, and is followed by Catching Fire and Mockingjay. Both of these trilogies have been made into movies. Divergent comes out in theaters on March 21, 2014. Divergent and The Hunger Games belong to the genre known as dystopian literature, or post-apocalyptic literature. They both have lots of violence in them. Unlike The Hunger Games, though, in Divergent there is not a love triangle. Despite all these similarities, Divergent is a great book. It stands on its own in the dystopian genre. Veronica Roth has a promising career as a writer.

Dauntless the Brave

Divergent is about a sixteen- year-old girl named Beatrice Prior, who must decide on Initiation Day which faction she will belong to for the rest of her life. Beatrice was born into Abnegation but doesn’t really feel like she belongs there. Not feeling like you fit in is a common feeling of most teenagers. Choosing what you want to do for the rest of your life is a very difficult decision to make for anyone. Choosing to leave one’s family forever is another decision, which is tough to make by oneself. After her aptitude tests, Beatrice is told that she is Divergent, but is not told what that means. Being Divergent is dangerous, but Beatrice does not know why. Tori, Beatrice’s test administrator explains, “Beatrice,” […] “under no circumstances should you share that information with anyone. This is very important.” Tris decides to switch factions and join Dauntless.

When Beatrice joins Dauntless, she changes her name to Tris. Tris must go through a series of tests, along with the other Dauntless initiates and transfers. She makes friends with Christina, Will, Al, Uriah, Marlene, and Lynn. Tris has never had any friends before. She also makes enemies with Peter, Drew, and Molly. Everyone has met someone who is or was a bully, and knows how difficult it is to deal with them. Tris is attracted to one of her teachers, a mysterious eighteen-year-old man named Four. Who is Four? What are his secrets? Why is he called Four? Why is he trying to protect Tris from the Dauntless leaders finding out about her being Divergent? Tris learns more about being Divergent when she has another conversation with Tori in Tori’s tattoo parlor, “Among other things, you… you are someone who is aware, when they are in a simulation, that what they are experiencing is not real,” […] “Someone who can then manipulate the simulation or even shut it down. And also…” She leans forward and looks into my eyes. “Someone who, because you are also Dauntless… tends to die.” Being Divergent does not just mean that you are someone who can cheat on a test. It means that you think differently than everyone else.

Divergent has a lot of violence in it. The students at Dauntless learn how to fight, and they must fight against each other whether they want to or not. They fight against their friends and their foes. One of the students, Edward, is stabbed in the eye by Peter and Drew, after Edward is ranked first and Peter is ranked second. Peter saw Edward as his rival and wanted to eliminate him. I liked how Tris dealt with the bullies. She is a strong female character because she not only stands up for herself, but she also stands up for her friends. She is not afraid to speak her mind.

Overall, I liked Divergent a lot. The one thing I had a problem with is that later in the book, Tris and Four cannot stop kissing. They kiss even though people are dying around them. They should be trying to stop more people from dying instead of kissing each other. There could have been someone who told them that now is not the time for you to do that, but there wasn’t. If there had been, it would have been cliché because you see that all the time in movies. I get that Tris and Four like each other and maybe even love each other. I also understand that both Tris and Four have trouble with intimacy. If they have so much trouble with intimacy, then why are they always kissing, holding hands, and hugging each other?

Shailene Woodley as Beatrice Prior

I look forward to reading Insurgent and Allegiant. I also look forward to seeing Divergent, which stars Shailene Woodley as Tris and Theo James as Four. I recommend Divergent for those of you who are fans of The Hunger Games or other dystopian literature.