I thoroughly enjoyed the book Divergent. It had an interesting rising action where the author let you wonder about all of the loose ends. It kept me wondering, “Will Tris find her place in the faction system? Will she get caught? Will Divergence ever be acceptable? How will she cope with all of the death around her?” The climax tied up all of those loose ends and set me up for the next book. Veronica Roth did a brilliant job setting up the characters in the story line and descriptively describing them. I could picture in my head every detail of a scenario she described, anything from what color Beatrice’s hair was or if there was a scratching sound in the corner of the room; I knew every last detail and it gave me a great picture in my head of what was going on. I didn’t like how little information there was of a few of the characters’ past, though I assume Veronica is just saving details to make her next two books more secretive and exciting. Divergent related to everyday situations but in a more extreme way. Like Beatrice’s fight to figure out who she is, obviousoly in the real world no ones going to kill you or kick you out of society if you don’t know who you are or you don’t fit in but everyone has a point in their life when they cant figure out what they want to do in life and what their personality is. Veronica shows the Identity Crisis that everyone has in the book as Beatrice finding her path. The book was also left open ended so you would have to read the next books! Divergent left me wanting more of the story and it set me up for the next book. I would suggest reading this book and posting your own thoughts on it.
Turning point of the novel: The turning point of the novel or the Climax begins when Beatrice wakes up to find her friends being controlled. It ends when the remaining Abnegation members get to safety though some argue that the climax could have been over as soon as Tobias and Beatrice disabled the computer that were controlling the Dauntless soldiers. Internal: The Internal conflict of the novel is Beatrice’s fight against herself to decide what faction she belongs to, figuring who she is as a person, and what is right compared to what is wrong. By the end of the novel Beatrice decides she doesn’t belong to any faction or one single personality and she decides she is Divergent. Later she still has issues with her identity but not the same ones. She still hadn’t figured out what was right and what was wrong, in her definition, by the end of the book but she made some progress. For example she was forced to kill one of her best friends and she knew that was wrong but she also knew that it was okay because he was trying to kill her, but in her mind that still didn’t make it right. External:
The External conflict was the fight for power between the factions. The Erudite thought that Abnegation should give up their power of the government because Erudite thought they were improperly using the resources they had while some Dauntless agreed with them but only because they were greedy and the Erudite had spies in the Dauntless compound. At the end of the book the Erudite use mind controlling devices to take over the Dauntless soldiers so they can kill all of the Abnegation people so they can take over the government and rule the way they want to. The Verge
Robotic arm turns man into a cyborg drummer When Jason Barnes was electrocuted two years ago, he lost the lower half of his right arm, seemingly ending his dreams of being a drummer — but thanks to a new prosthetic he's able to finally achieve that goal. Barnes initially built his own makeshift device so that he could still drum, but eventually partnered with Georgia Institute of Technology professor Gil Weinberg to build a robotic version. He tried it out for the first time last week, telling New Scientist that "it was pretty awesome." The device utilizes a process called electromyography, where it's able to follow Barnes' direction through electrical signals produced by his upper arm muscles. To use the arm, Barnes tenses his muscles to control a small motor that handles the drumsticks. Much like fully robotic musicians, Barnes' prosthetic also gives him a slight advantage over normal human drummers — he can hold two sticks at once, a particularly useful skill for playing tricky jazz tunes. While the first stick follows his directions, the second improvises. An embedded chip allows the two sticks to play at different rhythms, and Barnes is also able to drum faster than any regular person. "The drummer essentially becomes a cyborg," says Weinberg. "It's interesting to see him playing and improvising with part of his arm that he doesn't totally control." Barnes will be performing for the first time on March 22nd, in a concert to help kick off the Atlanta Science Festival. "I'll bet a lot of metal drummers might be jealous of what I can do now," he says. “Robotic arm turns man into a cyborg drummer” relates to the theme of Divergent, “One choice can transform you” because it explains how the young man made a choice that transformed his life. Marcus Eaton is the father of Tobias "Four" Eaton, the leader of the Abnegation and the head of board for the whole city. The author did a brilliant job explaining the role Marcus plays in the book and she used him as an antagonist however for only a brief amount of time at the end to set up the next book. Marcus is very crucial to the story line because without him beating Tobias, Tobias would have never joined Dauntless therefore altering the story line. Marcus’s wife dies when Tobias is very young and Marcus takes it upon himself to raise Tobias correctly even if that meant physically punishing him by whipping him on the back. Marcus created a sense of terror for Tobias, forcing him to move to a different faction. Marcus uses his persuasive and deceptive skills to get people to believe and like him even though he isn’t the right person for the leadership roles in the government. It is later revealed that Marcus came from Erudite and that is where he learned to be so deceptive and how he knows so many things about how the factions work. Nearing the climax and at the end of the book Marcus becomes a main character in the book because of the information he knows. Tobias shares his memories and insecurities with Beatrice who takes on them and she becomes very weary of Marcus yet she still asks for his help. Overall, Marcus is a very well-rounded character, by well-rounded I mean she shows us all of his sides and uses his personalities to manipulate the story in a good direction, and the author did a great job describing and showing Marcus’s qualities in the book. Without Marcus the story would have taken a different direction or maybe not have happened at all. For example, without the many stories about abuse, as demonstrated in the above Newspaper clipping, the factions would have had no reason to doubt the Abnegation government and therefore the revolution wouldn’t have started.
In the first 20 pages of Divergent, the author introduces the
character Beatrice, a 16 year old girl who is about to go through the test that will help her decide what faction or group that she will join and live with for the rest of her life. The qualities of the different factions are represented by different symbols including a tree for Amity (peaceful), a small fire for Dauntless (brave), a balance scale for Candor (honest), an eye for Erudite (intelligent), and two hands holding each other for Abnegation (selfless) which is where the main character originates. The author continues on by introducing Beatrice's family which consists of her brother, Caleb, her mother and her father. The people who are 16 and below go to the school to learn about the faction history and all other subjects, this is the only time most of them ever see people from other factions. Beatrice shows a special interest in the Dauntless students; she loves how fearless and free they are and wants to be that way herself. After her test Beatrice finds out that she is Divergent and that she exhibits the qualities of Abnegation, Dauntless and Erudite instead of the normal one quality. Divergence means that she exhibits qualities from multiple factions. Beatrice is told that being Divergent is a bad thing and people will want to hurt her for it so she must not tell anyone. I believe the author rushed into the story line without fully developing the characters first. While she did rush, it was necessary to the story line to begin the events. Beatrice seems to be a caring girl but she tends to have bad opinions of others. She thinks she is nice but not nice or selfless enough to be in Abnegation because of her thoughts and actions towards others. For the rest of the book I hope she develops Beatrice’s personality more and the other characters. The first 20 pages show that the book will be a fast pace novel with incredible action with some character development in between as well as a great message. |
AuthorI'm Hannah one of the girls in the project. ArchivesCategories |