Divergent, Veronica Roth (3)
This may be the second most hyped YA novel, after ‘The
Hunger Games’, but I felt it did not live up to the hype. While it has some of
the same elements of lack of choice, teenagers fighting, and dystopian future,
the main character pales in comparison to Katniss. While she is supposed to be
strong and clever, she is surprisingly unaware of what is happening around her
– she almost has an Asperger’s level of reading people. This is reiterated with
her constant inability to understand why the main male character takes any
interest in her – duh, he likes you. For the most part I like a clueless
protagonist – one who is unaware of their qualities (Jane Eyre being one of my
favorites), but eventually they should be smart enough to overcome their
non-narcissistic nature and embrace the compliment. Character flaws notwithstanding,
the plot of the novel is interesting. Society has divided itself into factions
that represent the major personality types: intelligence, courage, etc. While you may grow up in one faction, you
pick your adult faction at age 16. Tris, the protagonist, goes outside her
faction and starts to realize that things are very different in the world than
she had thought. She represents the ‘I don’t quite fit in anywhere’ feeling of all
teenagers in a quite literal way, which ends up aiding her as conflict builds
among the factions.
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