‘Divergent’ just like any other sci-fi movie is set in the near future. Beatrice prior lives in a futuristic world where all the countries have been destroyed and replaced with 5 distinctive groups called factions. Abnegations believed in selflessness, Amity was all about keeping the peace, Candor spoke the truth, Erudites loved knowledge and the Dauntless were fearless. Everyone belonged to one faction, and you choose that faction once you reach the age of sixteen. But of course, not before taking the aptitude test that will help determine where you belong.
Beatrice receives inconclusive results from her aptitude test that suggests she might belong to more than one of the factions. Having these kinds of results could only mean one thing, Beatrice is ‘Divergent’, but she has to keep it a secret or she could risk being caught. Without knowing what it truly means to be a Divergent yet, Beatrice chooses dauntless. On her journey to become a true dauntless, Beatrice comes to find out that being a Divergent comes with a lot of danger. While trying to fly under the radar she slowly begins to figure out who she really is, what her purpose is, and What truly makes her a Divergent.
There’s a famous quote by Albert Einstein that states: “Unthinking respect for authority, is the greatest enemy of truth”. There have been many experiments and research that show, people would blindly follow others that they perceive to be an authority figure. Take for example the ‘Milgram shock experiment’. Although the participant in the experiment made the man in the other room beg for mercy, he still flipped the switch to 165 volts. When asked why he did it, his words were that he was told to and that he was just following orders.
What relevance does this have to the film? The main antagonist Jeanine Mathews is the leader of the Erudite faction and the ringleader behind the Erudite/Dauntless alliance against Abnegation. Jeanine had her own evil plans of her own but once she fed people lies about Divergents, stating that they were a threat to the faction system, people automatically started to fall in line. They saw her as a person in power, so they did whatever she said. Even if it meant capturing Divergents, all they knew was that they were a threat and Jeanine said that they must get rid of them, no questions asked.
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In Jeanine's perspective, the brilliance of the faction system was that conformity to the faction removes the threat of anyone exercising their independent will. That's how they were able to maintain a stable and peaceful society, but Divergents threatened that system. Quite frankly she was right to be scared. Divergents do not conform, their minds work in a million different ways. There's beauty in their resistance and defiance of categorization, and she couldn't afford that.
Jeanine was also hiding information from the public. She knew that Divergents could potentially be the missing link to discovering the rest of the world that was damaged in the war, and that's why she fought so hard to get rid of Divergents. This reminds me of my own society today and how so much information is withheld from us, and if we were to ever get caught lurking for information, the government would be on us like white on rice. I mean after all they do track our every single move. They only let us know what they want us to know.
The truth is that we are all Divergents, the problem is that we are being programmed. We allow ourselves to be easily manipulated. Humanity has its flaws but beneath the skin we all have honesty, peace, bravery, intelligence and selflessness and the government would do anything to control and program our brain by means of false history, constant surveillance, and population control. Ultimately our world is being divided by fear.
I feel as though the author of the film Veronica Roth may have written this on purpose to give us a glimpse of what is currently happening in our own society today. We must be more aware of these issues and take action. We need to think more independently and freely, because we were born to be brave, fearless, and courageous. Especially in the face of danger or difficulty. We are all born selfless, willing, and dedicated to helping others. Even the ones who don't deserve our help. We are born brilliant, creative, smart, intelligent, knowledgeable and can develop ideas that could possibly help our society.
We are all born dedicated to peacefulness, kindness, forgiveness, and trust. We are all born trustworthy and to value honesty. We are capable of detecting body language to discover lies and deception. We are all Divergents. I know that there may be a plot in this world to enslave every man, woman and child, but we must always remember to use our intuition and think independently because a thinking society cannot be ruled. That's why we must strive to be more than what they say we are.
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