Divergent Factions Explained: What Does Divergent Mean?
Five virtues, one test at sixteen and the people who do not fit
The five factions at a glance
| Faction | Value | Ceremony symbol | Role in the city |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abnegation | Selflessness | Stones | Runs the government; serves others |
| Amity | Peace and kindness | Soil | Farms and grows the food |
| Candor | Honesty | Glass | Lawyers and judges; say what they think |
| Dauntless | Bravery | Burning coals | Soldiers and guards of the fence |
| Erudite | Knowledge | Water | Scientists, teachers and doctors |
Why is the city split into factions?
The story takes place in a ruined future Chicago surrounded by a fence. Its founders believed that past wars came from a flaw in human nature, and each faction was built to remove a different flaw: selfishness, aggression, dishonesty, cowardice or ignorance. Its motto is faction before blood, which means your faction comes before your own family.
↑ Back to the topThe aptitude test and the Choosing Ceremony
At sixteen, every young person takes an aptitude test, a simulation run with a serum that shows which faction suits them. The next day, at the Choosing Ceremony, they cut their hand and let a drop of blood fall into one of five bowls. They may follow the test or ignore it, but the choice is for life.
Choosing a new faction often means leaving your family for good. That is why Tris's choice, and her brother Caleb's choice of Erudite moments before, are such a shock to their Abnegation parents.
↑ Back to the topWhat happens after you choose?
New members go through an initiation set by their faction. In Dauntless it is brutal: fighting, jumping from moving trains and facing fears in simulations. Those who fail become factionless, living in poverty outside the system, doing the work nobody else wants. In Insurgent the factionless turn out to be far more organized than anyone thought.
↑ Back to the topWhat does it mean to be Divergent?
A Divergent mind does not settle into one way of thinking. In practice that means a Divergent can tell when they are inside a simulation and can sometimes change it, and serums meant to control people do not work on them. To Jeanine Matthews and Erudite, who plan to use those serums on Dauntless, that makes Divergents a threat to be found and removed.
Tris spends the first book hiding what she is, and learns that Four shares her secret.
↑ Back to the topThe truth behind the factions
The final book reveals what lies beyond the fence. Chicago turns out to be an experiment run by an outside agency, which believes Divergence is a sign of healthy, repaired genes rather than a flaw. The faction system was a way to produce more of them. The twist changes the meaning of everything the city taught, and it is one reason the series still sparks argument among readers.
↑ Back to the topWhich faction would you be in?
Most readers start the book sure they are Dauntless and finish it wondering whether the point is that nobody belongs in just one box. That is the question Roth leaves you with: whether a person can be kind, brave, honest, clever and selfless at once, and why a society would be afraid of anyone who is.
↑ Back to the topBeing Divergent means your aptitude test points to more than one faction. Tris's result shows Abnegation, Dauntless and Erudite, so the system cannot sort her, and she is warned to tell no one.
Divergents are feared because they think in more than one way, which makes them hard to control.
More about Divergent
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