Divergent: A Popular Young Adult Dystopian

Coincidentally, I discussed an affordance I made with literature in the previous homework assignment. “When I was a freshman in high school I read Divergent—a popular young adult dystopian novel—and I used the book’s concept of characteristic-based factions to remind myself of all the traits I should embody. In the novel, there are five factions: dauntless, erudite, amity, candor, and abnegation. The overall lesson is that one should try to be “divergent,” meaning that they should not only embody one trait (one faction). (Although, in the book divergent individuals are deemed dangerous because they have diverse ideas that could overthrow the authoritarian government.) In particular, I would constantly remind myself to be more dauntless and

She was brave, smart, kind, truthful, amd selfless all at once: I wanted to be embody those traits as well. One of my favorite quotes from the book is, “Fear doesn't shut you down; it wakes you up.” After reading that, I started stepping out of my comfort zone more often. I had a solo in acapella, I started to participate in class more, and (most surprisingly) I actually tried a little in gym class. Furthermore, I started to look at the world differently: what if modern society is actually fractioned off just like the faction in Divergent, but we just ignore the rigid barriers that separate us? I looked at the jocks in my school they were dauntless. The kids who studied every night and never missed a homework assignment were obviously erudite. The people who never really found a cliché, but somehow were friendly to everyone were amity. The reserved people who didn’t speak up for themselves or question the teacher were abnegation. And lastly, the people who reminded the teachers that the quiz was supposed to be today were of course candor. I started ranking what factions I would belong to most likely: erudite, amity, candor, abnegation, dauntless. I didn’t like that my two least defining traits were dauntlessness and abnegation, so I gradually worked at improving myself. I even joked around with my friend that read Divergent as well by saying, “I’m going to go be dauntless,” when I did something more