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
Tris finds herself sitting in an empty room, surrounded by Eric, Tobias, and a man whom Tris recognizes as Max (the leader of the Dauntless). Eric congratulates Tris—she’s successfully completed her final test. Eric also gives Tris an injection of black liquid. This, he explains, will allow the Dauntless to track her location at all times; the Erudite have just invented it.
Tris has completed her test, and yet her only “reward” is a new liquid injected into her bloodstream. The Dauntless governments’ tests and controls never end—there’s always another serum, representing another form of government control.
Themes
Back in the initiation room, Tris meets up with her other friends. Tobias tells Tris that he’d be surprised if she weren’t ranked first: she only faced seven fears, a remarkably low number. Tris, remembering her fear landscape, asks Tobias if he was watching the simulation. He tells her that only the top Dauntless leaders are allowed to do so.
It’s telling that Tobias gives Tris some privacy—or at least pretends to have done so. While the government of Dauntless insists upon controlling every aspect of its recruits’ minds, Tobias respects Tris’s inner life.
Themes
Tris and Tobias decide to leave the room and find a more private place. In his bedroom, Tobias kisses Tris, and touches her body. Tris suggests that Tobias is only using Tris for sex, but Tobias vigorously denies this. Tobias also notices that Tris has a new tattoo—the Abnegation sign, on her back. Tobias smiles and says that he has the same tattoo. Tobias removes his shirt. Tris likes this, but says, “I’m afraid of what I want.”
Tris’s experiences with Tobias are an excellent example of how to deal with fear: confronting it. Tris is both frightened of and attracted to the thought of having sex with Tobias. The only way to rid herself of her compulsion is to give in to it. It’s also reassuring to Tris that Tobias shares her past at Abnegation, and even has a tattoo to make this immediately apparent.
Themes
Tobias touches Tris very gently, and tells her that she need not be afraid. Now that they’re getting to know each other better, he explains, Tris will only have six fears instead of seven: together, they’ll be Four and Six.
Tris and Tobias are closer than ever—and tellingly, they’re united by what they fear, not what they love (i.e., Four and Six). Fear is such an important basis for behavior in the Dauntless culture that even Tris and Tobias—two reluctant Dauntless soldiers—allow it to control their behavior. At the same time, this allows Tobias to deliver a romantic line about the two overcoming their fears together, and it’s implied that Tris loses her virginity here.
Themes
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