Divergent Thinking (12 page)

That is why I told you that there is no wrong choice when it comes to picking a career or college. I remember you looked at me like I was crazy. And now's your chance to tell me why.

The whole applications process with college is a big deal and to pick a college that doesn't fit you after going through all that would be horrible. If you choose a terrible college that has bad classes where you don't learn, it could prevent you from getting a good job. Your career is a big part of your life—you do it every day—and it's important to get it right.

Teenagers go through a lot of stress and work hard to get good grades while still having a social life and enough sleep (which we never get). We don't want all our hard work to be lost to a bad college or career because we feel like once we are on the path, it's a done deal.

Even if that isn't true, I still don't want to choose the wrong job for me and have to go through the process of changing everything—starting all over again, maybe even going back to school. It's a scary thing.

Change always has mystery to it. Tris didn't know what she'd be entering into when she chose Dauntless. She hoped it would be a good change. But it also could have been a very bad one.

I understand and remember experiencing that worry and stress. There is nothing I can say that will alter your need to find the perfect college and career. And that's fine. Time and experience are wonderful teachers.

But I loved what you said about change.
Change always has mystery to it.
You're right. It invokes a whole laundry list of feelings—anxiety, fear, anticipation, and excitement. And it's our choices that create change. You can see this happen throughout the Divergent trilogy, but especially in
Allegiant
: Tobias choosing to give his mother a second chance and ending the impending war as a result; Tris choosing to sacrifice herself to erase the memories of the people living in the Bureau of Genetic Welfare in an attempt to rid the world of prejudice, and through that, freeing her city to live differently. Their choices allow many others to choose where and how to live their own lives.

So here's to making choices. I've no doubt you'll make the right one, Jenna (even if I may not agree with you!).

       
Meteorologist turned novelist
Maria V. Snyder
has been writing since 1995. Eighteen years, twelve published novels, a dozen short stories, and a half-dozen awards later, Maria's learned a thing or three about writing. Her Study series (
Poison Study, Magic Study,
and
Fire Study
) has been on the
New
York Times
bestseller list. Maria earned her Master of Arts degree from Seton Hill University where she's been teaching in their MFA program, which is why she would choose Erudite: she loves learning about new things and doing research for her novels.

       
Jenna Snyder
is currently a sophomore in high school. She is on the school soccer team and is involved in the ski club. She plays the flute and violin in her school's band and orchestra. Reading and writing are two of the things Jenna enjoys most, and she has published book reviews in
MIZZ
magazine and an article, “Why Hurricanes Have Names,” in the appendix of Maria V. Snyder's
Storm Watcher.
She is also on the staff of her school newspaper as an editor. She would choose Erudite because she enjoys learning about new topics and having intellectual conversation and discussions.

       
During the scene in
Divergent
where Tris takes Al's place in front of the target, Eric and Tobias argue about what it means to be Dauntless
—
what it means to be brave. Tobias says that “a brave man acknowledges the strength of others.” Eric insists that “a brave man never surrenders.” But Tris serves as a silent example of yet another understanding of bravery: a brave man (or woman) stands up for those who cannot do so for themselves.

           
It's this third definition that the Divergent trilogy appears to take as its primary one; by its end, Tris has sacrificed herself to defend the rights (and memories) of her city's people, and Tobias has found meaning in similar sacrifice, as a politician working for change in the freer city that takes the Chicago experiment's place. But Elizabeth Norris suggests there is even more to bravery, and that Dauntless is not the only place to find it.

E
LIZABETH
N
ORRIS

When I first read
Divergent,
it was a Saturday. I had a day of data entry in front of me and planned to reward myself with a chapter every few hours. As you might imagine, I didn't manage to stop after a chapter—or even a few chapters. I read
Divergent
in its entirety, only stopping once to send a quick DM to Veronica Roth, who I'd met on her recent trip to New York.

I told her that I desperately wanted to run outside, scream, “Dauntless!”, and perhaps punch someone in the face. (Someone who deserved it, of course.) It was probably the highest form of flattery I could offer her, and thankfully, she took it as such. I loved the book so much that I felt inspired to turn into some kind of Dauntless superhero. That reckless feeling only lasted briefly (I'd be a terrible vigilante), but long after I had finished the novel, something else still lingered in the back of my mind.

I felt inspired to be brave.

Not that the book made me want to run into a burning building and save someone or enlist in the military (both of which require incredible courage and dedication), but I took a look at my own life, at the everyday normalcy of it, and wanted to find my own ordinary acts of bravery. Which is fitting, considering that when Veronica signs copies of
Divergent,
she writes, “Be brave.”

It's clearly a theme that comes up a lot throughout the book. From the very first page, Tris is forced to act outside of her comfort zone; to face uncertainty, fear, and danger; and to make decisions that will change her life. But Tris isn't brave just because of the decision she makes at the Choosing Ceremony; it isn't because Tris chooses Dauntless that she becomes brave. As a true Divergent, she has personality traits that can be attributed to each of the five factions. Each of them, in their own right, make her brave.

ACTING IN SPITE OF FEAR

It's easy to see how Dauntless embodies bravery. It's what their faction stands for, part of their manifesto. They believe in bravery, in taking action, and in freedom from fear. However, it's the latter—the idea of acting in spite of fear—that their faction uses to define bravery.

We see that from the moment Tris chooses Dauntless. When the Choosing Ceremony is over, Tris and the other Dauntless initiates must run out of the building and to the train tracks. Their first test as part of their initiation is to jump onto the moving train, then jump from the train to the roof of Dauntless headquarters upon their arrival. The train is moving just fast enough that jumping onto it is possible, but requires a certain amount of physical strength and agility. Anyone who is out of shape or sick or even suffering from a physical disability would have a hard time passing this test. In effect, it's designed to weed out initiates who are physically weak right from the beginning. But there's more to it than just that. Jumping on and off the train leaves no room for hesitation. There is a specific window of time, as the train passes the roof, when the initiates must jump. Then, from their train car, they can see people in front of them jumping off when their turn comes. They can see the consequence if they fail, and all of them are afraid. The test, however, doesn't allow for that fear to control them. Even the slightest hesitation—
from fear
—could delay their jump, and anyone who jumps too late risks falling to his or her death.

The tests, of course, don't end once Tris and the other initiates arrive at Dauntless. On the roof they're immediately faced with another test: they're asked to jump down a hole without being able to see the bottom. Tris can tell it's at least several stories high, but that's all she knows. While this test is different from the train jump, it has one striking similarity. Again, its purpose is to see that the initiates are capable of freeing themselves from fear or at least acting in spite of it. This time, the fear stems partly from the unknown. The initiates, especially Tris, who volunteers to go first, must trust the Dauntless leaders and jump into this dark hole and fall despite the fact that they don't know where they will land. It is essentially a blind leap of faith where the initiates must banish all fear from their minds and trust that they will be okay. That this comes immediately after a Dauntless-born initiate misses the jump from the train to the roof and falls to her death, proving that no one is safe, only amplifies the potential consequences of this test, as well as the others they will face.

While the initiates are tested physically (physical training), they are tested emotionally (simulations) and mentally (fear landscapes), as well. As Tris mentions, in Dauntless they teach you to be completely self-reliant, to be prepared for anything, in order to minimize the fear in any given situation, which often means doing things the hard way. “There's nothing especially brave about wandering dark streets with no flashlight, but [Dauntless] are not supposed to need help, even from light” (
Divergent
). That preparation makes sense, especially given their role in the government—to protect the city. Similar to our own military preparations, Dauntless life is designed to make them capable of anything, so that when they're in a situation where there is no light, and they can only rely on themselves, there will also be no fear.

It also can make them foolhardy at times. Beating each other senseless in physical training, as the initiates are encouraged to do, and hanging over the chasm to prove one isn't a coward, as Christina is forced to do, are not actions that stem from bravery. In fact, they're more for cruelty's sake than bravery's.

Similarly, after Al's suicide, Eric praises him, and instead of a somber funeral, the Dauntless celebrate his “bravery” for going to a place unknown. We know that Al wasn't brave. He didn't choose to jump into the chasm in order to face the unknown. He wasn't cut out for Dauntless life. In fact, he was weak. Not because he kept missing the target in knife throwing and not because he needed Tris to take his place at the target. He was weak because he felt threatened by Tris' strength and allowed Peter to threaten her. Rather than stand up for her, like she did for him, he even helped Peter and Drew assault her and dangle her over the edge of the chasm.