Elie Wiesel's Divergent Themes

Divergent covers the important theme of power. In the novel the participants during the initiation to become apart of the Dauntless faction, are competing for the highest ranking this is good because it's “the order in which you select a job” there are “only a few good positions.” The characters are taught the better they do the better the outcome will be. Students are taught the same thing, we have to work hard and do the best and achieve “good positions” “There is power in controlling something that can do so much damage. Maybe I do belong here” This shows that Beatrice wants power, and that power can be abused, this book showed me that even the people that were trusted to be leaders could be persuaded to betray the trust all for a selfish reason. This relates to Hitler and how he abused his power and this led the genocide of the Jewish people. Everybody wants some power in their life it's just how they go upon getting it, you have to earn power not take it.
What i learned from the novel Divergent is the importance of selflessness. In the book Beatrice, has to do many selfless things for the people around her. She put herself in risk to protect the people she loves and her society. She taught me that being selfless and brave aren't that different because it take bravery to be selfless. lt takes so much to put people around you before yourself. ln the choosing ceremony there are possibilities that Beatrice could leave her family to go to another faction Beatrice's mother said "l love you. No matter what." This is a good example of selflessness Al knew that she would choose another faction even though she didn't want her to leave she knew it was better for her to go. When you care about you relationship with someone, you have to understand that you sometimes have to make sacrifices those that you care about. For example, many teenagers have to move there mum or dad found a new job somewhere else. Most teenagers wouldn't be happy with this news since people generally don't like big changes, especially when they reach their later teen years because it becomes harder to start over somewhere new. But, sometimes we have to make sacrifices and be selfless. lf moving means your family would be better off somewhere else, then you should be willing to do anything for the wellbeing of your family.

In my life I need to stop being scared of failing.
Sometimes I doubt myself with my school work, and just end up not doing it because I think what's the point if i'm going to fail? Beatrice taught me that failure is essential to succeed. Failure allows us to learn from our mistakes and discover ourselves in the process. Many people would be overwhelmed with fear when faced with a task of jumping down from a rooftop especially when you don't know where you would fall or how deep the fall is. However, we can overcome our many fears as proven to us by Beatrice, when she took that step to jump into the unknown. "But becoming fearless isn't the point. That's impossible. it's learning how to control your fear, and how to be free from it, that's the point." What I learnt from this quote is that I need to start taking that step and trying new things and challenging myself (or overcome my fear) because it's the only way I'm going to be successful. Beatrice is a good example of taking that one step to overcome our
fears.

Divergent is relevant to today's society because it shows segregation. ln the novel everybody is split into factions, Dauntless the brave, Abnegation the selfless, Amity the peaceful, Candor the honest and Erudite the intelligent. This relates to our society because we categorize people the same way. At school there are the popular kids, smart kids, athletic kids and creative kids. We also see this out of school within New Zealand's society, people are often categorized by race, religion an occupation. As a society we know we shouldn't categorize people but it's still very common.