I'm a little
confused with this plot line. Amanda Ritter was talking about Divergent
individuals being more flexible. She said that when they are "abundant
among you" THEN it would be time to seek out the rest of the world and
help them. however - we KNOW that divergent individuals have been pretty much
ritualistically weeded out of the population from the time of the originals.
Tris' mum specifically states that her mother (who it stands to reason was a
dauntless member) told her to leave dauntless and go to abnegation because she
was divergent and it was not safe for her to stay.
If divergent people
took so little time to appear within the society then it sounds less like a
case of 'we need people with flexible minds out here in the real world' and
more like they wanted to see how long it would take people to rebel against a
society of strict controls, even when those controls were considered normal and
entrenched in each individuals subjective perception of their world. It's as if
they're trying to ascertain what conditions would have to be present to provide
a catalyst for change.
Divergent people are
more prevalent within the oppressed group of the 'Factionless'. This does make
sense as having tendencies towards multiple factions means that to a certain
extent, in order to be able to function within one of the factions they have to
repress some other part of their personality or rebel against the faction -
both paths are hard to sustain and ultimately are likely to lead to either
their demise or ejection from their factions. What is interesting about this
situation however is that they don't rebel until their society has hit a crisis
point. YES - Evelyn was planning a rebellion. But what kind of a rebellion
takes an entire decade to plan with no attacks, or protests or any kind of
action taken until that final moment? It wasn't until someone was threatening
to change the way their society was structured that people were able to fight.
By attempting an evil take over, Jeannine showed each individual within their
society that they have power to affect the world around them and that unless
they're willing to fight for it, anyone can come in and take it away from them.
Finally, looking to
the actual structure of the society, Amanda Ritter stated that "We have
formed your society in a particular way in the hope that you will rediscover
the moral sense most of us have lost". This involved them splitting the
society into Five Factions - Amity, Dauntless, Erudite, Abnegation and Candor.
Each faction represents some essential element to humanity, but not as she
insinuates to do with human nature, but morality. Human nature and morality are
two completely different things. The sense of morals that our society bestows
on us is not necessarily what would have been our 'natural instinct'. Morality is a form of social control, which
is why its ok to cannabalise people in some parts of the world and not others.
Amity
|
Peace and bliss
|
Dauntless
|
Fearless and
Protectors.
|
Erudite
|
Intelligence and
Progress
|
Abnegation
|
Selfless and
Controlled
|
Candor
|
Honest and
Accepting
|
By splitting the
factions in this way they have divided people into different aspects of
morality, seeking peaceful solutions, protecting people, progress for the sake
of progress and the betterment of society, being charitable and putting others
needs before your own and the biggie, being honest and learning to accept
honesty from others. Each of these are valid, admirable morality traits.
However by dividing them, each faction is FORCED to become a twisted version of
what it would be otherwise. Without selflessness, Dauntless becomes a ruthless
machine that thinks nothing of eliminating 'weaker beings' rather than having
bravery, to protect the society that dwell within the walls of their compound.
By valuing peace, neutrality and bliss above all else, Amity rejects anyone
that would upset the balance and interrupt their happiness and hence have no
qualms about drugging their faction members. They become carictures - nothing
but brainless hippies because they are literally high, all the time - even if
that's not really a choice on their part.
Each faction becomes
fiercly loyal to their own people, to the point of the almost ritual rejection
of parents from other factions. And it is because of this loyalty that the non
divergent members of Dauntless are able to rise up, because they can see their
own faction being controlled against their will. And it is for this reason
that Candor is unable to fully
participate in the rebellion. They are loyal ONLY to their own faction, and because they do not
have the same level of vested interest, or bravery, that Dauntless does, the
only way they know how to approach the situation is through one that relies on
the old balances of power, not the new social order that Erudite is attempting
to strong arm on the people.
So. My question is
this. What really is the point of the social experiment that characters of the
Divergence trilogy find them in? Is it just a social experiment gone wrong or
is it something more sinister on the part of those who reside outside the world
we've seen so far?
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