Divergent: Challenged

       The novel Divergent, by Veronica Roth, should be a challenged book because moral values of the book are obscured by excessive romantic/sexual content and mass genocide, but is valuable because it whisks the readers away from their normal way of thinking so they may re-evaluate their thoughts.

       Despite being challenged for obscuring moral values, intellectual value is present in the book’s ability to diverge from a typical way of thinking in everyday life. One night, Tobias brings Tris Prior to a train car. They talk for a short time, and then Tris realizes how close she is to him. After realizing that, she was about to move away, but decided against it. The author says through Tris’ thoughts that “[Tobias] told [Tris] once to be brave, and though [she has] stood still while knives spun toward [her] face and jumped off a roof, [Tris] never thought [she] would need bravery in the small moments of [her] life. [She does].” (Roth 373). Despite the moments where sexual content can overshadow the moral value of the book, the moral value of the book is still very prevalent. Many of these moral values, however, are still rooted in acts of sexual content. Unlike the example given in the first paragraph, however, the moral value of the situation is clearly displayed apart from the intimacy of Tris’ and Tobias’ actions. Through her experiences, Tris learns and shares with the reader that “bravery” is needed throughout one’s life, not just in the large moments like many think in both worlds, but also in the “small moments” of life. The moral values that she reveals throughout the book outweigh any prose methods to make the book more interesting (such as the addition of sexual content) because they have intellectual and emotional value rather than simply emotional value as prose fiction would enact. However, it is the reader’s choice to accept these moral values that he/she has been given. Tris’ realizations make her Divergent in more ways than one; not only in that is she not personally rooted to the faction (as the book defines it), but also in that she thinks differently than others, which leads her to come to conclusions, both moral and literal, that others who are not Divergent may never do. She applies the best qualities of mankind, many represented by a particular faction, to form better humankind. However, Tris’ realization about bravery can also be applied to the real world in many ways. The actions that show that that she is Divergent and thinks differently than others show that she doesn’t follow society’s rules. In the real world, many people have problems in making their own decisions because they are conflicted between following themselves to risk unpopularity, and following society to risk a lack of representing self. Tris shows readers that they do not need to follow society, and even though they may be considered unpopular or even hated because of it, following the goals of one’s “life” and opinions lead to an expression of oneself that cannot be expressed in any other way. Also, she shows through her actions that people need their virtues, in Tris’ case “bravery”, in the difficult times of life, but also for smaller aspects of “life.” Again, people who conflict attempting to conform to society can learn from this realization. Society implies that only the large aspects in life matter, and the small aspects of life are inconsequential and meaningless. However, Tris reveals to the readers that goodness/virtue it not only needed in large aspects of life when it matters most, but in the more numerous smaller aspects of life that ultimately make up the majority of life. Due to these conclusions, Divergent conveys a great moral value that adds greatly to the value of the book, hopefully allowing the book to be read to others not only for the entertainment and suspense of the situations, but more importantly for the overall moral values of the book.