The book Divergent, by Veronica Roth, approaches
the topic of social injustice and class systems by presenting the readers with
an almost-totalitarian society that is divided by different factions, or groups
of people, each with a specialized trait. The goal of the creation of the
factions was to eradicate harmful genes such as cruelty, selfishness, dishonesty,
cowardice, and ignorance. The reader later finds out that people with these
pure genes, known as the divergent, are being hunted down and killed by people
with damaged genes. Tris and Tobias, two of the main characters, are part of
the small amount of people with divergence. Throughout Divergent, Roth hints to social injustice in our world today and
describes what it means to be part of something and truly belong.
All the way
throughout Divergent, Roth, the
author, hints to social injustices in our world today by comparing contemporary
issues such as the current American class system, with the faction system in
the book. For example, in Divergent,
there are people known as the factionless, who live in poverty, don’t have
anything, work the jobs no one else wants to do, and there’s nothing they can
do at all to change their situations. While, on the other hand, there are
people who control the factions – the Faction Leaders – who live in
extraordinary wealth and can do just about anything they want. In the book Jeanine Matthews, the leader of
the faction that cures ignorance, tries to take over the city by controlling the
police force and the guards with a mind control serum – one that is only
allowed to her because of her special rank.
The book Divergent
is also about how Tris Prior finds her place in her world. In the beginning,
Tris feels like she’s out of place and doesn’t belong in her birth faction –
the one that cures selfishness. Whenever she does something that any other one
of her faction members would have done as second nature, for her at least, it
feels forced and unnatural. While she loves her family and her fellow
faction-members, she feels like she doesn’t belong among their selfless ranks.
For example, at the beginning of the book, Tris thinks while looking at her
brother, “He also fully inherited my mother’s talent for selflessness, while I barely
did. He gave his seat to a surly Candor man on the bus without a second of
thought.” That’s something that Tris would have to remind herself to do,
instead of it just happening, like breathing.
I believe Roth’s book, Divergent, was writing as an allegory about the negative effects of
class structure and to illustrate the social injustices that result. These injustices
exist in many cultures across the world, including the United States. There are valuable lessons in it for kids,
because, as the future of the world, kids will be the people who can bring change
to our society in the future. Roth wanted kids to become aware of the negative
effects of a societal class system. While the American economy can be extremely
proficient at what it’s designed to do, it also negatively affects many people,
offering some opportunities of a lifetime, and pushing others deeper and
deeper.
