Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Divergent, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Identity, Choice, and Divergence
Strength, Selfishness, and Selflessness
Competition, Groups, and Rivalries
Fear, Bravery, and Maturity
Women and Sexuality
Summary
Analysis
Today is the day before Visiting Day, and Tris is worried that her parents might not show up.
Tris is still closely tied to her family, even though she hasn’t seen them in weeks. She feels guilty about leaving them behind.
Themes
Tris wakes up and showers before her training. As she’s walking from the shower, Peter pushes her, taunting that he doesn’t have to pay her any respect. A group of Peter’s friends, including Molly and Drew, tease Tris, and Peter rips off the towel Tris is wearing. Embarrassed, Tris runs away, and begins to cry. Then she tries to pretend that she’s not embarrassed about being naked. She puts on her dress, very slowly, and thinks about hurting Peter.
In this section, Tris proves that while she’s still Abnegation in many ways (her modesty, her ignorance of her own body), she’s also getting more in touch with her Dauntless side: she wants revenge on Peter for humiliating her in front of her peers.
Themes
Tris knows that today is the day of her last fight—she hopes it’s with Peter, and is disappointed to learn that it’s with Molly. Tris thinks about Molly’s strengths as a fighter: Tris knows that she has a good punch, but bad footwork. Tris also knows that Molly will make the first move. She always does, and it’s a weakness.
Tris is a clever tactician—instead of relying on her skill in a fight (as she’s physically smaller and weaker than most of her opponents), she thinks about her opponent’s weaknesses in advance, maximizing her own success.
Themes
Molly and Tris begin their fight. Molly teases Tris about being naked, but Tris remains calm. Molly launches toward Tris, and Tris is able to use her weight and aggressiveness against her, pushing her to the floor. Tris kicks Molly while she’s down—something Tris’s parents wouldn’t have approved of, Tris thinks—and kicks her again in the face and chest. Suddenly, Four pulls Tris away. Tris thinks that she should feel guilty for hurting Molly so badly—but she doesn’t.
Ironically, Tris goes from being the most timid and complacent member of the Dauntless to the most aggressive, even violent member. Tris is a skilled planner, but she’s also rash and uncontrollable at times, as in this fight. The fact that Tris can make this change so quickly points to her Divergence, but also to the fact that she’s a conflicted young woman, trying to work out her own identity (yet another suggestion that “Divergent” just means human).
Themes
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