CONTENTS
Introduction
The Five Factions
Abnegation: The Selfless
Amity: The Peaceful
Candor: The Honest
Dauntless: The Brave
Erudite: The Intelligent
The Factionless
The Initiates
The Faction Members
The Choice
The Aptitude Test
Choosing Day
“Faction before Blood”
The Choosing Ceremony
Becoming Dauntless
The Trains
The Pit
The Chasm
The Dauntless Uniform
The Tattoo Parlor
The Dorms
The Dining Hall
Training
Knives and Guns
The Rankings
The Infirmary
The Fence
Visiting Day
The Fear Landscapes
Books by Veronica Roth
Divergent Movie Books
Back Ads
Credits
Copyright
About the Publisher
The once-great city and its landmarks—the Sears Tower, the Ferris wheel at Navy Pier, the El trains, and the Hancock building—have fallen into disrepair. What was formerly Lake Michigan is now a barren marshland. A fence wraps around the entire city, guarding its citizens.
But despite outward appearances, this futuristic city has emerged as something that the old Chicago never was: It is a utopia, a perfect society, a place free of conflict.
Unless, of course, you are discovered to be . . .
In this futuristic world, when a person turns sixteen, they must take an aptitude test to determine their personality type and their faction. However, there is one rare personality type: Divergent. Divergent means that a person has multiple aptitudes and cannot easily be defined. Their ingrained differences make Divergents far less predictable than other members of their society—and to some they are seen as a threat to the society. Divergents must protect their secret status carefully, because to reveal it could put them, and those they love, in terrible danger. In a society intended as a carefully constructed utopia, Divergents introduce an uncertainty that could challenge everything about the world they inhabit. . . .
The only world that Beatrice Prior has ever known was built on a simple understanding that her ancestors arrived at decades ago. After suffering greatly, they concluded that war and unrest were not the results of any of the causes commonly blamed—not religious beliefs, not racial tensions, and not political ideologies. Rather, it was humankind’s inclination toward evil, they decided, that was the source of their broken world. And so they divided into five factions, each seeking to eradicate the human qualities responsible for the world’s disarray while promoting a singular existence focused on virtues.
I WILL FORGET THE ONES I LOVE IF I DO NOT SERVE THEM.
—From the Abnegation Faction Manifesto
Abnegation
believes that selfishness is the root of evil. This faction embraces selflessness and rejects intellectual curiosity, personal reflection, and creativity—finding these behaviors self-centered and individualistic. Modest and self-effacing, they work to improve the collective, public good.
Abnegation members eschew both collective and personal thoughts of identity. Instead, they focus on the constant service of others, whose needs must always be valued above the self and its desires.
Family plays a key role in the daily life of this faction. The Abnegation neighborhood resembles military-style housing. Simple houses are identical to one another in size, design, and structure. All are painted in the same neutral tone, and personalization of the exterior is strictly prohibited. Inside, homes are configured simply yet effectively, to serve the needs of the family unit, so that they, in turn, can best serve others. Family members show their love for one another through daily acts of service and self-sacrifice.
Abnegation’s gray and neutral-toned clothing helps them to blend into the background in order to avoid calling attention to themselves. Their clothing is simply designed, and loose, to encourage modesty. Any watch or hair accessory worn provides functionality and is never intended to serve as a source of vanity or individual expression.
Abnegation members play a central role in government. If a person is devoid of self-interest, he or she has no capacity to be corrupted, and is therefore an ideal government leader. All political decisions for the society are made by a council of Abnegation members. Other members of this faction quietly and humbly serve under those with prominent roles in society.
CRUEL THOUGHTS LEAD TO CRUEL WORDS, AND HURT YOU AS MUCH AS THEY HURT THEIR TARGET.
—From the Amity Faction Manifesto
Amity
values peacefulness and harmony above all and believes that aggression is the source of all discord. Free-spirited, trusting, and often artistic, they believe in conflict resolution through peaceful dialogue.
Amity members celebrate the joys and gifts of nature, since a meaningful relationship with nature is closely linked to inner peace. They place a high value on creativity and the beauty that artistic persons can bring to the world. Competitiveness, worry, judgment, and feelings of inadequacy are foreign concepts to the Amity faction.
Communal living is at the heart of Amity life. Members live together and share meals in large groups where family relationships and friendships are valued equally. Amity’s work is chiefly devoted to food production for the entire city, so daily life means vigorous labor—in the fashion of a traditional farming community—and joyful celebration after work is done.
Amity members dress in red and yellow, the two colors they associate with joy. All styles of clothing are acceptable as long as shades of the faction colors are represented. Other aspects of appearance—hairstyles, accessories, and personal grooming—are up to individuals, the point being to express their personalities in ways that bring them joy.
Amity is one of the most essential factions because its farms, greenhouses, and other resources are responsible for the entire city’s food production and water purification. A minor segment of the Amity serves the other factions as mediators, counselors, and caretakers. Amity also produces a high proportion of the society’s artists, musicians, and writers.
LIKE A WILD ANIMAL, THE TRUTH IS TOO POWERFUL TO REMAIN CAGED. WE WILL RAISE OUR CHILDREN TO TELL THE TRUTH.
—From the Candor Faction Manifesto
Candor
believes in honesty and authenticity, at all costs. Lying, secret keeping, and dishonesty are seen as the direct cause of conflict in relationships and in communities. The people of Candor believe that truth makes them inextricable from one another, or impossible to separate. Truth is the “glue” that holds this faction together.
Members of Candor hold nothing back. They aspire to openness in all matters. Everything is public—the business of the entire community; therefore any individual’s flaws may be on display. But since transparency is demanded of all members of the faction, flaws are viewed with compassion. Being consistently and publicly honest leads to more authentic living for this faction and its members.
Families take a secondary role to peer groups in Candor, because private life is less important than the collective, authentic experience. The primary purpose of the family unit is to be instructive, rather than protective or intentionally individualistic. Young members spend most of their time—in and out of school—with their peer groups. And adults in Candor fill administrative roles in schools and hospitals because of their openness and honesty.
Truth and dishonesty are seen as black and white, so the members of Candor wear only those two colors—both in every out
fit. In terms of personal style, Candor are not as conservative as Abnegation, but they are not as bold as Dauntless, or as carefree as Amity—rather, they are similar to Erudite.
Candor’s role in society is to uphold the laws of the individual factions—and of the society as a whole. Members of Candor serve as judges, lawyers, religious leaders, and reporters. They play key roles in working with other factions as well, where they advise on matters of fairness, justice, and leadership.
WE BELIEVE IN FREEDOM FROM FEAR, IN DENYING FEAR THE POWER TO INFLUENCE OUR DECISIONS.
WE DO NOT BELIEVE IN LIVING COMFORTABLE LIVES.
—From the Dauntless Faction Manifesto
Courage
is the virtue of the Dauntless faction. For the Dauntless, a commitment to bravery is more critical than anything—than peace, the opinions of others, or even safety. Various Dauntless would define “courage” differently. Some perceive it as fearlessness, striving to eradicate fear in all forms from their lives. Others view it as the boldness that conjures up action in the face of fear. No matter which definition of courage they espouse, all Dauntless thrive on the freedom that comes with bravery.
The Dauntless are the guardians and protectors of the city and the society. Their strength and power comes both from personal behaviors and from the collective heroics of their faction. Other factions may perceive the Dauntless as loud, rowdy, reckless, or overly fixated on tattoos and body piercings, but even these detractors would admit that the Dauntless have an exceptional vitality and zeal for life.
In the Dauntless compound, feats of bravery are as important to the individuals performing them as they are to the members observing and taking inspiration from them. There is an emphasis on physicality, defense, and technology in most every aspect of Dauntless daily life. Diversity reigns in Dauntless, and a family unit can take on a wide variety of appearances and structures, some including both blood relatives and friends.
The Dauntless dress in tight-fitting black clothing, which aids in their very physical lifestyle. Radical clothing styles are common, as are bold hair colors and styles. Tattoos, piercings, and body modifications are so common that there is a tattoo shop in the compound.
Security is the chief role performed by Dauntless. Many guard the streets of the city or the perimeter of the fence, while others do surveillance monitoring. Dauntless members take pride in the independence of their faction. Many of them perform roles within the compound—as cooks, nurses, tattoo artists, and trainers—that increase the self-reliance of the faction.
INTELLIGENCE IS A GIFT, NOT A RIGHT. IT MUST BE WIELDED NOT AS A WEAPON BUT AS A TOOL FOR THE BETTERMENT OF OTHERS.
—From the Erudite Faction Manifesto
Erudite
places the highest value not only on intelligence but also on knowledge, understanding, innovation, and curiosity. They focus on putting their knowledge to use, in order to develop and discover newer and more advanced sources of information. Their hunger to learn is matched by an equal desire to share knowledge with others.
Like a university campus, the Erudite compound houses libraries, classrooms, and laboratories. Erudite families center around providing educational life lessons and teaching logic and reasoning skills to their children. As children approach adolescence and narrow their fields of study, apprentice-like mentor/mentee relationships often become as or more important than family bonds.
The Erudite dress in blue because it is scientifically proven to produce a sense of calm, and calm minds are more readily able to absorb knowledge and find clarity. Members of Erudite maintain a well-groomed and clean-cut appearance, and place little emphasis on personal style.
Erudite’s function in society is essential. Its members—the educators, scholars, researchers, technology developers, scientists of various disciplines, and medical workers—are considered critical to a growing and productive society. Erudite works with Amity to make food production more efficient, and with Dauntless to develop technology for security, surveillance, and simulation.
The factionless are not a true faction. The description is given to those who fail to complete initiation into their chosen faction, or who leave a faction for any reason. They do not have a manifesto, a symbol, or any collective or unifying principles, because they are discouraged from taking on faction-like behaviors.
Faction members pity the factionless, because they must live without the support and community at the heart of the faction-based system. The government offers “useful” work to the factionless, giving them responsibilities such as train and bus operation, delivery work, and serving on janitorial, maintenance, and construction crews. The hope of the society’s authorities is that meaningful, regular work will not only provide for the basic needs of the factionless but also instill some of the purpose and intention that the factionless lose by living without a sense of identity or belonging.
The factionless wear ragged clothes discarded or donated by other factions. There is no significance to the odd combinations of faction colors that they wear, and no attention given to personal style. When they are not working the jobs they’ve been assigned by the government, it is assumed, though not authorized, that they gather in de facto camps to share resources. These factionless groups are based on proximity and basic necessity, rather than being united by choice, virtue, or intention. Abnegation do-gooders often concern themselves with improving the quality of life for the factionless, but members of other factions largely ignore their existence.
BEATRICE “TRIS” PRIOR
Faction of Origin: Abnegation
Chosen Faction: Dauntless
“THE TEST WAS SUPPOSED TO TELL ME WHAT FACTION TO CHOOSE.”
The rules and dictates of the Abnegation faction are all Tris has ever known, but they still don’t come naturally to her. Secretly, she covets the chance to become something more than selfless. But she also deeply loves her family, and the idea of permanently leaving them tears at her heart. With conflicting desires weighing upon her, Choosing Day is already of monumental importance for Beatrice—and then she learns a secret about herself that both explains, and changes, everything.
CALEB PRIOR
Faction of Origin: Abnegation
Chosen Faction: Erudite
“YOU HAVE TO THINK OF THE FAMILY. . . BUT YOU ALSO HAVE TO THINK OF YOURSELF.”
Caleb is endlessly thoughtful, humble, helpful, and observant of others, and he genuinely seems happiest when he is putting someone else’s needs above his own. But there is a silent curiosity brewing under his calm demeanor. And though his decision to join Erudite shocks his family, and his entire faction of origin, Caleb is decisive. Once he has made his choice, he does not look back.
PETER
Faction of Origin: Candor
Chosen Faction: Dauntless
“YOU LOOK LIKE YOU’RE ABOUT TO CRY. I MIGHT GO EASY ON YOU IF YOU CRY.”
Raised with Candor’s tendency toward brutal honesty, Peter also developed a physical brutality, and a mercilessly cruel personality streak. Throughout Dauntless initiation, he torments the other initiates physically and emotionally: mocking their fears, belittling their weaknesses, and attacking at moments when they are unprotected. Like most tyrants, Peter has built alliances with a few similarly intense peers, but it’s clear that he’ll think little of ultimately betraying these so-called friends if necessary.
CHRISTINA
Faction of Origin: Candor
Chosen Faction: Dauntless
“YOU THINK THIS IS HARD, TRY TELLING THE TRUTH ALL THE TIME. . .”
Christina never tells less than the truth, even if it means accidentally insulting her peers or disrespecting authority. Bold and brash by nature, but craving privacy, Christina chose a life devoted to external action, rather than the constant, critical self-analysis demanded of her original faction. Perhaps opposite upbringings attract, because she and Tris rapidly develop a close bond amidst the crazy pressures of Dauntless initiation.
WILL
&nb
sp; Faction of Origin: Erudite
Chosen Faction: Dauntless
“SEE? THE STATS DON’T LIE.”
Will knows bits of information about every topic imaginable and is never shy about offering them or about launching into scholarly explanations that interest no one. He’s jovial and good-natured, though as willing as anyone to poke fun at his own over-intelligent tendencies. This vivacious warmth, unlike the coldly factual nature of most Erudite, led him to Dauntless. Like Tris, while Will loved some things about his former life, he yearned for something more, beyond the faction he’d always known.
MOLLY
Faction of Origin: Candor
Chosen Faction: Dauntless
“HOW LONG DO WE FIGHT FOR?”
Molly lacks the wicked charisma of her ally Peter and is more of a follower than a leader, but like him, an unpleasant mean streak and an intimidating physicality are Molly’s primary personality traits. To the other initiates, Molly is daunting: She is unfriendly and she fights dirty. Tanklike in a fight, she rejoices in easily defeating her competitors in sparring matches, making her a favorite of the also-brutal Dauntless coach, Eric.
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