Hey, people from Earth and other people who are not from here, for the next 13 weeks we will be giving you the awesomeness that is DIVERGENT by Veronica Roth.  Be sure to show up, because we are giving away some goodies, check it out HERE. Just a side note, I will be asking a question after each discussion post.  Be sure to follow the discussion and don’t be scared to join in on our discussion/ questions. Those who entered the contest will receive extra entries for answering a question.  Every week on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, we will discuss three chapters per week: tell you about the plot, and other random bits of spicy goodness that you should definitely know about (all relating to Divergent).    Just for your curiosity: helping me out with this discussion is Jackie, one of my best friends (please say hello to her).  Basically these posts will be categorized by person.  Jackie hasn't read the book so be sure to read her first impressions while she reads along and if you have read Divergent, be sure to read my input (this will be the my second read through).  If you missed a post and want to check out the schedule, go HERE.  Come and join us in our quest of discussing DIVERGENT.

CHAPTER 3

The test results for Beatrice are in and we learn that she is divergent, a mix of three factions in one.  Interesting.  Tori tells her to go home early.  On her walk home, Beatrice encounters a strange factionless man who warns her about choices.

Today's Topics:




From the way Beatrice describes it, being factionless sounds dreadful. …And kind of remind me of people in our own society who became absolute failures….or hobos (no offense factionless). So I guess to become factionless they failed at becoming whatever faction they were supposed to become in the first place. That would be hard to do, wouldn’t it? Or maybe not…perhaps all it takes to become factionless is one big screw-up. Ugh…that would suck…a lot. Even the weird guy at the end of the chapter (who I thought was going to rape Beatrice) seems to not have any of the dominant qualities of any factions, so being factionless makes sense I guess. But, he also reminded me of criminals; so would our society’s criminals be deemed as factionless? Then again, aren’t criminals brave? How are the faction values (like bravery) evaluated (or measured) and to what extent?

In the end, Beatrice is said to be Abnegation, Erudite, and Dauntless. So she is…what shall not be named (yes that is a Harry Potter reference for all the Pottermores out there). Why is it so dangerous to fit into more than one faction? Is it because these people are more likely to rebel against those in charge? I think it’s funny that the novel plays around with this idea of it being dangerous to have multiple dominant personality traits. In the real world, having diverse characteristics is praised. This book is going to be fun.







The factionless get way more involved in book two and I still don't have a firm grasp on them yet.  They creep me out so much and this first encounter just sealed the deal with how I feel about them.  You can't trust them because you don't know what they'll do.  I understand that probably all factionless are not like this but this guy was and he was creepy.  Jackie thought he was going to rape Beatrice, which is a little extreme because I think if he lunged at her, Beatrice could definitely hold her own.  If I was factionless, I would take to stealing from the Abnegation.  Now that I put it out there like that, it does sound horrible but maybe jail would be better than living on the sewage-smelling streets.

As Jackie points out, everyone is divergent.  If we were only one faction, we would be one dimensional.  Caleb has that 1-D air about him which is about to change.  I think the whole book would be boring if there wasn't any divergent out there.  After having that weird encounter with the factionless guy, I feel that he might have known something was off with Beatrice.  Well, at least, Beatrice and I are both paranoid about this guy.    He seemed to know something that he wasn't tell her.  Or maybe the entire scene was just a reflection of how paranoid Beatrice really is about her divergence and her choice tomorrow.




Why is it so dangerous to fit into more than one faction?