Blog Post #2: Dynamic Character Analysis on Divergent

     It has been a mere two weeks since my first blog post and since then I have leafed through and have now finished the novel Divergent. As I had said in my previous blog: Veronica Roth is a New York Times Bestselling author for this Divergent Trilogy itself. As you can see from my widgets, I am an avid reader and have pored through just about every acclaimed fictional novel written over the past 3 years. When I say that Divergent is one of the most dynamically crafted and engaging books I have ever read, you can most definitely take my word for this. The main aspects that I will be analyzing in this specific blog post is the dynamic character(s) Beatrice Prior known as Tris.
   
     Beatrice "Tris" Prior was a former member of Abnegation , a faction which valued simplicity and selflessness above all other qualities. By the end of the book she transformed into a devout member of Dauntless, a faction laced with complexion and which valued self-preservation above all else. This drastic changing of factions was, in my opinion, a brilliant move by the author to show that Beatrice Prior was morphing and the resulting character would be a completely different person, one who was far more developed and would therefore be enticing to follow throughout the novel.
   

     This quote is a a prime example of when a dynamic character's change manifests him/her physically, "Looking at myself now isn't like seeing myself for the first time; it's like seeing someone else for the first time" (Roth 87). Tris has gone from looking like a generic Abnegation member who disregards the importance of beauty to a Dauntless member who dresses to reflect their personality. By the end of the novel this has become Tris' mentality, compared to her mentality of selflessness."I wish I could say I feel guilty for what I did. I don't "(Roth 174). This is another quote that exemplifies Tris' drastic change of moral values from being harmless and merciful to a ruthless person who valued self preservation above all else.

     I hope that after providing textual evidence and supplementing an extensive summary of Beatrice "Tris" Prior's life prior to becoming a  becoming a Dauntless member, you are able to clearly see and understand how Beatrice "Tris" Prior was a dynamic character in the novel Divergent. That's all I have for the novel Divergent. Stay tuned for more blog posts about other books (perhaps a blog post on The Color of Water or 1984 by George Orwell blog post).

Check this link to view a superb article about identifying dynamic characters in a novel, identifying various different types of change and distinguishing between static and dynamic characters:
http://avajae.blogspot.com/2013/03/characters-static-or-dynamic.html

Setting Analysis on Divergent Blog Post #1

     Veronica Roth is best known for her revolutionary trilogy: The Divergent Trilogy, starting with her first book, Divergent. In this New York Times Bestselling trilogy Roth is able to develop and utilize a setting like very few authors of this genre ever before. The book is enticing and for those of you reading this, who haven't read this this a must read, so make sure you watch out for Veronica Roth and any and all of her dystopian literatureesque super novels. Now lets get back to the point: setting, its an unavoidable and crucial part of the story, at times in the novel it seems as if the setting itself is another antagonist all in itself. From the cascading falls of the Dauntless Headquarters to the  broken windows on multistory skyscrapers, every setting ominously reminds the reader of what once used to be a completely different, inefficient and far less restrictive system of government; the republic of the United States of America.
   
     Many years after a revolution changed destroyed our world as we know it forever, the survivors of our human civilization banded together in the year 2100 in the war torn city of Chicago, Illinois. They formed a seamlessly perfect system of government, composed of 5 separate groups known as factions: Abnegation, Amity, Candor, Euridite and Dauntless, each represents one important aspect of our human civilization: Selflessness, Kindness, Truthfulness, Knowledge and Fearlessness. As each member of each faction turns 16 they take a simulation test which determines which factions they chose and in that the main character, Tris, has qualities present for 3 out of the 5 factions, this makes her a Divergent, she ultimately decides to join the faction Dauntless.
 
   
 The main setting that Roth develops and centers the novel around is the Dauntless Headquarters where initiates who selected Dauntless as their factions during the Choosing Ceremony. As I previously explained Beatrice Prior chose Dauntless as her faction, and coincidentally the Dauntless Headquarters were portrayed as the most elusive and mysterious faction of them all, to a point where the Headquarters locations were completely unknown to all non-Dauntless faction members. This masterfully played set of details (portraying Dauntless Headquarters as mysterious) make the setting of the novel all the more enticing and anticipated, as the reader yearns to uncover the hidden secrets of the larger than life Dauntless Headquarters.

     My favorite paragraph from the entire novel thus far is one that describes the magnificence of the chasm located inside the Dauntless Headquarters, "As we approach the railing, I hear a roar-of water,fasting moving water, crashing against rocks. I look over the side. The floor drops off at a sharp angle, and several stories below us is a river. Gushing water strikes the wall beneath me and sprays upwards. To my left, the water is calmer, but to my right, it is white battling with rock." This paragraph is the essence of the novel's setting. There are multiple major turning points in the novel for Tris including: her friend Christina is forced to hang over the chasm for 5 minutes, her friend Al takes his own life by jumping off into the chasm, she has to fight to avoid being thrown off by her enemy initiates. The setting is used to build tension between characters and used to progress parts/events of the plot to become more dramatic and suspense. All in all the setting is- as I previously stated- almost like another main character in the novel.

This link provides an in-depth analysis of the significance of the time period and setting of the novel Divergent By Veronica Roth

http://www.shmoop.com/divergent/setting.html