Divergent Thinking (3 page)

At Hogwarts, I would be a Gryffindor, though that might just be because I know what answers to tick on the online quiz. In
Divergent
's world I would choose Amity, no question. I'm too much of a wimp to be Dauntless, too selfish to be Abnegation, and too nice to be Candor. I was a science major in college (
What's your major?
is the college version of
What's your sign?
), so I could easily choose Erudite . . . except that they seem like such arrogant jerks. And that's
before
they used the Dauntless as their mind-controlled soldiers.

I know who my Star Wars twin is, which captain of the Enterprise I'm most like, and with which incarnation of Doctor Who I would most enjoy traveling.
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I also know my friends' answers because they post them on Tumblr. Sorting allows us to declare who we are, and if we're not quite sure yet, turning the lens inward can give us insight into that question.

In real (that is, non-Doctor-Who-related) psychological terms, I am an Introverted Intuitive type, according to Carl Jung. My highest ratings on the Holland Career Code are Creative, Investigation, and Organization. When I take a test based on the Myers-Briggs Type Indicators, I bounce between an INFJ and an INTP, depending on how I'm feeling that day.

The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator is probably the most popular of these, to the point of being trendy. The MBTI is a matrix of four traits with two options: Extrovert/Introvert, iNtution/Sensing, Thinking/Feeling, Judging/Perceiving.
⁶
Four traits squared means sixteen possible combinations of these type indicators, which gives you sixteen personality types.

The internet has taken the Myers-Briggs types and run with them. You can find self-tests of every variety, and examples of the sixteen personality types as animals, famous people, Star Wars characters, Star
Trek
characters, anime characters, Harry Potter characters . . . This latest pop psychology oversimplification has basically turned the MBTI into the new zodiac.
⁷

What you begin to notice, once you've done a lot of this kind of thing, is that the “sorts” have much in common. There aren't many one-to-one correlations, but there is a definite tendency for types to fall into groups that you can map onto each other. It's like human nature can be divided into only so many building blocks, and our psychological variety comes from how you stack them.

IT'S ELEMENTAL

At Tris' Choosing Ceremony are five bowls, each holding an element that represents a faction's core philosophy—Stone (Abnegation), Earth (Amity), Glass (Candor), Coals/Fire(Dauntless), and Water (Erudite). In a dramatic declaration of intent, each future initiate cuts his or her hand and literally adds his or her blood to their new family.

Natural elements have been used by philosophers as part of sorting systems for ages—the Classical Age, the Renaissance, the New Age . . . The idea is that certain elements have certain properties, which are reflected in certain personality types. Long before the Myers-Briggs personality types were being compared to animals, melancholy people were classified as “Earth” and sanguine daredevils were “Fire.”

Different cultures have used different elements, but what's interesting is how much overlap there is between them. The four classical (Western) elements are Earth, Air, Water, and Fire, with a fifth, Aether, sometimes included as the perfect sum of the others. The five Chinese elements (Earth, Water, Fire, Metal, and Wood) may be different, but the personality traits fall into similar clusters. More to the point, the factions in Divergent line up reasonably well, too—especially when compared to Eastern philosophy.

       
Earth

       
In Chinese philosophy (as in Western philosophy), earth types are steadfast and dependable. They have a strong sense of duty and they make good administrators. They trust their own senses and they like concrete evidence they can put their hands on. Even though Abnegation uses stone to represent their faction in the Choosing Ceremony and Amity uses earth, Abnegation definitely fits the earth type when it comes to the classical elements—rock steady, dependable, selfless. And stone is, after all, part of the earth.

           
Earth types can sometimes become stagnant rather than just steady, or dull more than dependable. Taken to the extreme, Abnegation can come off as joyless and colorless—as “stiff” as their nickname implies. On the other hand, the faction's capacity for self-sacrifice for the greater good—like the sacrifices made by many Abnegation leaders, including Tris' parents, to protect the Edith Prior video—shows the strength of this “grounded” element.

       
Fire

       
In Chinese astrology, fire types are all about adventure and excitement. Fire is confident, often competitive. (The Western concept of this elemental type emphasizes creativity and innovation, but there's a similar feeling of “action” to this type.)

           
Dauntless is the obvious faction match here—since they use fire as their elemental symbol, it's sort of a no-brainer. Plus, a form of confidence—courage—is Dauntless' core value. There's also an impulsiveness associated with fire types, and as Tris' interactions with the other initiates make pretty clear, the Dauntless always seem to be spoiling for a fight.

           
Most of all, Dauntless exhibits the two-sided nature of this element. Fire can keep you alive or it can kill you. Dauntless' initiation and training are physically dangerous, brutal even, with fire's potential to injure or destroy. Like fire, fear must be controlled, but ignoring fear so totally that you no longer exercise reasonable caution can burn you. In other words, the flip side of courage is recklessness. Even the philosophical division within the faction over whether courage means an absence of fear or overcoming it illustrates the dual nature of the fire type.

       
Metal

       
Metal is a Chinese elemental sign without a Western equivalent. Those of this type are tenacious and self-reliant, self-confident, and ordered. Metal types have high expectations, which makes me think of Candor's scorn for anyone who doesn't share their determined adherence to the truth. Candor's specialty is the law, which requires both ordered, logical thinking and confidence in one's own judgment. Plus, well, Law and Order. Self-reliance must be a necessity when you're Candor, too, especially since your fellow Candors will not support you if they don't agree with you. “To thine own self be true” can be a lonely philosophy.

           
But I think the best reason Candor fits here has to do with Candor's Choosing Ceremony element. Candor is represented by glass because they say that honesty is transparent. Metal is opaque, obviously, but both are hard, and both, when their edges are honed, can cut. Candor rejects the idea that absolute honesty can sometimes do more harm than good. They even see tact as a lie. (Glass and metal can also both be reflective. I wonder if the Candor would be such tactless jerks if they had to look honestly at themselves all day?
⁸
)

       
Wood

       
Wood types, which also have no Western corollary, are generous, ethical, selfless, and loyal. Their nature is nurturing and peaceful. One traditional symbol of peace is even a piece of wood—an olive branch. Amity uses earth to represent them in the Choosing Ceremony, but their symbol is the tree. They are farmers, and growing things—nurturing them—is their business.

           
Wood types can become inhibited and passive if they're not careful. Think about it: wood can be so brittle it breaks or so pliant it won't support any weight. Amity shelters Tris, Four, and other faction refugees, but when push comes to shove, they choose to stay impartial rather than help fight Erudite. You could view this as strength of principle regarding their commitment to peace, or you could see it as being weak. The Candor say about the Amity faction that “those who seek peace above all else will always deceive to keep the water calm.” Leaving aside the Candor bias, it is true that throughout history people have, in the name of peace, let terrible things happen.
⁹

       
Water

       
Water is a sign of creativity and intelligence, and water types are philosophers and thinkers. “Deep” thinkers, you might even say. So maybe it's not a coincidence that Erudite picked that symbol to represent their faction in the Choosing Ceremony. To the Erudite, water represents the clarity of knowledge, but water is also changeable, and can be deceptive. Water is (literally) fluid, changing shape depending on its context. And water is not transparent if it's deep enough. Anything could be hiding there in its depths: jellyfish, plankton . . . Jaws.

           
In both Eastern and Western philosophy, water types are sensitive and emotional. That doesn't sound much like an Erudite principle, but in order to control people (which they definitely know how to do), you have to be sensitive to others' emotions and how to manipulate them.

You may have noticed that each of these elemental types is like the Force: it has a dark side and a light side. The Eastern philosophy of Taoism says (in essence) that everything exists in balance. Each of the five elements has a yin and a yang: dark and light, male and female, productive and destructive.

More than that, each element exists—or should exist—in balance with the others, generating and overcoming. Water nourishes Wood; Wood feeds Fire; Fire creates Earth (ash); Earth yields Metal; Metal enriches Water. Each needs the others to exist. Take out one, and the whole system collapses. Without earth, you cannot grow wood; without metal, you cannot plow the earth to plant crops; without water, you cannot water your plants; and without wood, you can't make a fire and then you'll freeze to death.

The factions work this way on the societal level: each has a role to play to keep Chicago running. Abnegation administrates. Amity produces food. Candor works in law and arbitrates, mediates, and advises the other factions. Dauntless keeps everyone safe and secure and takes on the high-risk jobs. Erudite are the doctors and scientists that improve life for everyone.

But internally, the factions aren't balanced at all; they prize one quality at the expense of all others. And an unbalanced system is an unhealthy one, allowing corruption (*ahem*Jeanine*ahem*) to set in.

Any quality, no matter how admirable, becomes a negative when taken to the extreme.

Courage becomes recklessness.

Pushing someone to their limits becomes bullying.

Honesty becomes rudeness and self-absorption (i.e., my truth is more important than your feelings).

Peace becomes passivity (or passive-aggressiveness).

Self-sacrificing austerity becomes martyrdom and/or a joyless existence.

Erudition becomes valuing knowledge over people.

FATAL FICTIONAL FLAWS

In fiction, a character's imbalance of temperament often shows up as a fatal or tragic flaw. In Shakespeare's
Romeo and Juliet
, Romeo is definitely a Dauntless, judging by his quick-fire changes of affection, his slaying of Juliet's cousin Tybalt without thinking about her reaction, his taking poison without wondering why Juliet's body is still warm after two days in a tomb. He fears nothing, even when he should, and he dies pretty much of an excess of emotional impetuosity.

For an example of a tragic flaw that doesn't end in death and disaster, there's Prospero, from another Shakespeare play,
The Tempest.
Even banished to a deserted island, he is an obvious Erudite, arrogant about his books and spells and how learned and artistic he is. If he had been paying more attention to running his country and less to his studies, his brother wouldn't have been able to steal his kingdom, and Prospero wouldn't have ended up stranded on that island in the first place (and then there would be no play).

Then there's Batman. He's not so bad off as Romeo or Prospero, but he's not the poster child for self-actualized balance, either. Batman is, in a word, broody. He is melancholic like earth types, weighed down by his sense of duty and the obligation of vengeance. Abnegation seems like an odd faction for a billionaire playboy, but Batman . . . he's got a tendency toward martyrdom. Bruce Wayne may have a luxurious manor, but that's just for show. The bat has a
cave.
If that's not self-denial, I don't know what is.

Contrast that with Superman, who has a much more balanced temperament. He's got the sense of justice and duty of the Abnegation, the honesty of a Candor, the courage of the Dauntless (I'm sure it helps to be invulnerable to almost everything), the brains of the Erudite (with a little alien technology to help), and even though he's action oriented, he's got Amity's love of peace. Superman doesn't pick fights, though he certainly will finish them.

Of course, Superman can be all the factions in one. He's, you know, Superman. He's the ultimate Divergent.

REAL HEROES ARE DIVERGENT

Let's now swing back around to our earlier question: “Why do we like books that sort people?” The answer comes down, I think, to a paradox:

           
1.
  
Humans like to sort things.

           
2.
  
Humans like heroes who defy sorting.

Basically, we like books that put our heroes into boxes so that we can enjoy watching them break out.

I am a complete sucker for the girl-has-to-dress-as-a-boy trope. It doesn't matter if she's saving the family farm or avenging her father or rescuing the family's honor. Disney's
Mulan
is a ready example of this. We even get a song early in the movie about how Mulan doesn't fit the mold of the perfect Chinese daughter. She takes her aged father's place when one male from each family is drafted into the army, so you know she's self-sacrificing (Abnegation) and brave (Dauntless). When she gets to training, she's outclassed—like Tris, she's had the wrong sort of training for the situation and has to catch up with her peers—so she has to work smarter, not harder (Erudite). Mulan is Divergent.