A tough, ruthless Dauntless recruit. Peter is jealous and spiteful, and has a nasty habit of targeting anyone who outperforms him in the rankings: first Edward, whom he stabs in the eye, and later Beatrice Prior, whom he tries to throw into a chasm. Peter is exactly the kind of soldier Eric wants to create: insensitive and sadistic. As a result, he isn’t given the mind-control serum when Eric and Max stage their coup: he’s “perfect” as he is.
Peter Quotes in Divergent
The Divergent quotes below are all either spoken by Peter or refer to Peter. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 11
Quotes
“What rank were you?” Peter asks Four. I don’t expect Four to answer, but he looks levelly at Peter and says, “I was first.” “And you chose to do this?” Peter’s eyes are wide and round and dark green. They would look innocent to me if I didn’t know what a terrible person he is. “Why didn’t you get a government job?” “I didn’t want one,” Four says flatly. I remember what he said on the first day, about working in the control room, where the Dauntless monitor the city’s security. It is difficult for me to imagine him there, surrounded by computers. To me he belongs in the training room.
Related Characters:
Beatrice Prior / Tris (speaker), Tobias / Four (speaker), Peter (speaker)
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 21
Quotes
He pulls me forward a few inches and then slams me against the wall again. I clench my teeth to keep from crying out, though pain from the impact went all the way down my spine.
Will grabs Peter by his shirt collar and drags him away from me. “Leave her alone,” he says. “Only a coward bullies a little girl.”
“A little girl?” scoffs Peter, throwing off Will’s hand. “Are you blind, or just stupid? She’s going to edge you out of the rankings and out of Dauntless, and you’re going to get nothing, all because she knows how to manipulate people and you don’t. So when you realize that she’s out to ruin us all, you let me know.”
Related Characters:
Beatrice Prior / Tris (speaker), Peter (speaker), Will (speaker)
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire Divergent LitChart as a printable PDF.
Peter Character Timeline in Divergent
The timeline below shows where the character Peter appears in Divergent. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 9
Tris surveys her peers. There’s Peter, Drew, and Molly, already a trio of friends. Christina explains that Peter has “always been...
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Chapter 10
Tris has nightmares about Christina hanging over the railing. The next morning, she finds that Peter has spray-painted “Stiff”—a mean nickname for someone from Abnegation—on her mattress. Tris tries to reason...
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That day, Tris is assigned a fight against Peter, despite the fact that Peter is much bigger than she. Tris considers conceding early, but...
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...Tris makes sure to leave her hospital bed before night falls—she doesn’t want to give Peter the satisfaction of sending her to the hospital for a night.
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Chapter 11
...patrolling the fence. Will asks why the Dauntless patrol the fence, but Four doesn’t reply. Peter asks Four for his rank in the training program, and Four replies that he was...
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Chapter 12
It’s been two days since Tris’s fight with Peter, and Tris is sent into another fight—with Myra. Luckily, Tris does well against Myra.
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Chapter 14
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...
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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...
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Chapter 16
...they’ve just completed). In the new rankings, Tris is ranked 6 of 9, Edward and Peter are 1st and 2nd, and Al and Myra are 8th and 9th.
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...a nurse comes to the room and takes Edward away. Tris notices that Drew and Peter are nowhere to be seen in the room.
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Chapter 18
...Dauntless-raised recruits train alongside the transfers. Lynn, a Dauntless-raised recruit, asks who’s the highest-ranked transfer. Peter answers, and Lynn smirks. One by one, Four calls the recruits out to go through...
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Chapter 19
Tris returns to her dormitory, where she finds her fellow recruits reading a paper together. Peter reads the story aloud—it’s about Tris and Caleb’s father. The story argues that Andrew Prior...
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Chapter 21
...Tori. In that time, the Erudite community has published two more articles like the one Peter read—criticizing Abnegation in general and Tris’s father Andrew in particular.
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...the new rankings. She’s surprised to see that she’s been ranked first, just ahead of Peter. Tris notices Peter giving her a look of pure hatred. Peter shouts that Tris is...
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...exchange, she feels someone pull her to the ground and cover her eyes and mouth—it’s Peter, along with some other boys. Cackling wickedly, Peter carries Tris to the chasm. Tris, now...
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...shouts. A few moments later, Four pulls the blindfold off Tris’s face—he’s defended her from Peter and the others.
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Chapter 22
...wash the blood off her face. Four explains that he’s beaten up Drew and let Peter and Al return to their dormitory. Peter claimed that he was only trying to scare...
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Chapter 23
...Uriah eat their meal together, and discuss what happened the night before. Tris reveals that Peter, Drew, and Al tried to hurt her. Christina is especially shocked that Al tried to...
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...friends do something to avenge Tris’s attack. Uriah clarifies: he’s not talking about beating up Peter and his gang. Instead, they’ll have to defeat Peter in the most humiliating way: by...
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...with this challenge will determine their rankings for phase three of training. As Four explains, Peter asks if it’s “fair” for some recruits to have more fears than others. Four laughs...
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Chapter 28
...has just failed her fear landscape test. The silver lining, she realizes, is that now Peter and his followers won’t think of her as a legitimate threat.
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Chapter 29
...fear landscape. There are only six transfer recruits left in the program: Will, Christina, Drew, Peter, Molly, and Tris.
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Chapter 30
...this time, Tris finds herself in a dark place, surrounded by cackling enemies. Tris notices Peter carrying a torch. Peter jabs the flame at Tris, burning her flesh. Then Tris begins...
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Chapter 32
...to see that Uriah, Will, and Christina are also in the top ten, along with Peter. Numbers 11 and 12 are Molly and Drew, both of whom Tris despises. Molly and...
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Chapter 37
...voice, ordering them to surrender. Tris is surprised to find that the voice belongs to Peter—who’s clearly still “awake.” Tris manages to overpower Peter by kicking him in the groin. She...
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Peter takes Tris to the eighth floor of headquarters. They pass by the stores and meeting...
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Tris orders Marcus and Caleb to stay behind with Peter, who’s been seriously wounded in the arm, thanks to Tris. For a split second, Tris...
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Chapter 39
...room, amazed by Jeanine’s evil ingenuity. She notices one screen that shows soldiers gathering around Peter, Caleb, and Marcus. She yells for Tobias to do something, and Tobias types a complex...
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...that she’s “not safe, not yet.” As Abnegation medics run into the building and escort Peter to a hospital, Tris notes that Abnegation and Dauntless are now both “broken.” Tris, Tobias,...
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