Final Reading Response

       My book club has just recently finished the book Divergent by Veronica Roth.  This book is about a female protagonist, Beatrice, who grows up in a city, Chicago, where people are put into factions that make them think a certain way.  However Beatrice is “divergent”, so she has the power to think differently then the factions want you to.  When Beatrice finds out she is divergent, she starts to change from a good girl who follows everything her parents say, to a very independent person.
Beatrice finds out she is divergent through a serum that helps determine what faction a person is best fit for as an adult.  Before a person gets the serum, they live in the faction their parents chose after getting the serum.  Beatrice grows up in Abnegation where you aren’t expected to question anything your elders do.  For example: in the beginning of the book when Beatrice’s parents have to discuss something important, they send her and her brother up to their rooms.  Even though she is curious about what her parents have to discuss, Beatrice goes to her room without arguing.  The reason she goes to her room is because she convinces herself it is wrong to be curious, since that is not the Abnegation way.  At this point in the book she doesn’t know that since she is divergent, she doesn’t actually belong to any faction.  This means she isn’t suppose to act and think like any faction says you should.
When the serum results show that Beatrice is divergent, Beatrice doesn’t completely know what that means, but knows she was never really tied Abnegation rules.  During the choosing ceremony she doesn’t choose Abnegation, but instead chooses Dauntless where she feels more free.  During Dauntless initiation she fights willingly, “My mother and father would not approve of my kicking when she’s down.  I don’t care.” (Roth pg.155).  Before she found out about her “divergence”, violence wouldn’t even cross her mind.  When the fighting starts between factions, Beatrice ends up shooting some people.  Her father doesn’t approve of this action, but instead of feeling immediate guilt, Beatrice explains to her dad that she would have gotten killed herself if she didn’t shoot those people.  In the beginning of the story Beatrice would have just assumed that her father was right, and wouldn’t have tried to justify her reason.
Beatrice, the main character, is what made Divergent such a great read.  Her dramatic change from an innocent girl who always did what she was told, to an aggressive girl who made her own decisions was so interesting and exciting to read about.  Her finding out about her divergence, made her stand out from the other characters and helped complete her change.