Text Connections

  A text-to-self connection for my book Divergent is that sometimes I feel like there is someone controlling me and not allowing me to think on my own.  This is like my book because the government in my book wants you to think a certain way to be able to be controlled.  But Divergents don't think one way and that is why they are so difficult to control.

  A text-to-text connection for my book is to Fahrenheit 451.  My book connects to Fahrenheit 451 because in the book, the government hankers to control the people and make sure that nobody can learn from books in dismay that the people might take on the government.  That is why they burn the books, to prevent the people from gaining knowledge of the past and revolting against the government.  A quote from my book that supports this is when Tris and her mother are talking, "But our minds move in a dozen different directions.  We can't be confined to one way of thinking, and that terrifies our leaders.  It means we can't be controlled"(Roth pg. 442)  Governments in both societies want the people to think a certain way so they can be manipulated and controlled by the government.


  A text-to-world connection for my book is that in today's day and age, the government feels like a major presence in our society.  Every month you hear reports on the news about how the government is being incriminated of spying or listening in on people's conversations.  The technology is available that the government could be able to eavesdrop on any one's conversations.  The government can use technology like this to control and manage the people.  The government claims that they use this type of technology to prevent terrorist plots or other tragedies from happening.  But  most people feel like they are violating their privacy.  This is like my book because in the book, the Erudite have created a serum with transmitters to take control over the Dauntless soldiers to kill the Abnegation people.

I myself am against this idea of the government spying on the people for many reasons for example privacy!  Hello?  Does really anyone want the government watching and listening to them 24/7?  No!How do you, the reader, feel about this issue in our society today?  Comment your opinion.

A picture of a sign saying the Government is watching people.

A cartoon sketch of the government spying on the people.

Here is a link to the 'New York Times' website article talking about this issue.
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/03/13/facebooks-zuckerberg-complains-to-obama-over-government-spying/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=0

Letter to the Author

  If I wrote a letter to the author of my book Veronica Roth, I would tell her my thoughts and opinions.  The letter would be written similar to the one below.

Dear Veronica Roth,

  Hi, my name is Nate Berman, I am a freshman at Mason High School and I am currently your book "Divergent."  I am almost finished with the book and I really like it.  I like how you have created this futuristic dystopian society that is split up into 5 factions but I do want to know why and what happened to make this society this way.  I also like how you keep the reader such as myself guessing by incorporating lots of suspenseful parts to the story and using some elevated diction throughout the story for example on page 357 when Tris thinks, "My stomach twinges at the thought of him."(Roth pg. 357)  This diction makes the reader be able to picture her stomach twinging and there is more sentences like this throughout the story.  Something I don't like about the book is that you only focus on Tris and you don't show the reader what life in the other factions is like.

  Overall I really like the book and all of the plot twists the most.  I am definitely going to try and read the other books in the series.

                                      Sincerely, Nate Berman

Veronica Roth and the cover of the book.

The Best/ Worst Things About My Book

  So I am almost done with my book and I want to share some reasons about the best things of my book.  First my favorite reason is that there is a very good and easy to follow story line.  There isn't any flashbacks that would confuse me and it is a very smooth and steady plot.  Another reason I love this book is that the plot is very suspenseful and it makes me want to keep reading to find out more.  Another reason is the setting.  The setting is in a dystopian future that has the people split up into 5 different factions.  Before I bought the book I read the summary and I was immediately drawn in because it sounded interesting, the plot seemed good and the setting is in a dystopian future.

  Now some of the worst things about my book are.  One thing is that it mainly only focuses on Tris,  the reader doesn't get to follow any of the other character who chose different factions.  I would like to know how other people are doing during their initiations.  Another thing is that the reader is not given a lot of information about how the world changed and the government creating factions.  Overall I love my book and highly recommend it if you want an action, suspenseful and thrilling book.

My book "Divergent" different factions.

Character Symbols and Animals

  A symbol that would represent the main character Tris would be a chimpanzee.  Chimps are very unpredictable, strong and intelligent like Tris is in the book.  Tris might appear small and weak but she is smart and knows how to fight.  She can be unpredictable in the way she fights whether she ruthlessly destroys her opponent without mercy or fights her enemies physiologically.  A chimp is not very big but they are very intelligent and they are incredibly strong and have the ability to rip your limbs off over your body and this is why they are so unpredictable like Tris.

  A symbol that would represent Four is a lion.  Lions are the kings of the jungles and are leaders, strong, vicious and also unpredictable like Four.  Four is one of the instructors over seeing the training of the initiates.  Four is leader and mentor to the initiates, he is also strong and can be vicious if he is in a fight, like when Tris was being beat up he came in and beat up the attackers.  Lion's are also big and are leaders to other lions just like Four.

Tris is like a chimp.

Four is like a lion.

Krista Ramsey Introduction Activity

http://www.cincinnati.com/story/opinion/columnists/krista-ramsey/2014/03/15/krista-ramsey-third-grade-reading-guarantee/6475723/

My article is about a 3rd grade teacher Jeni Ernsthausen who wants to help her students pass the OAA.  She doesn't want to be bore them with too much reading and writing but wants to get kids to like to read and be ready for the next grade and even in a job one day.

The line I think is best written is, "It has taken two years of legislating and countless hours of hammering out rules and time lines, but Ohio’s Third Grade Reading Guarantee is fully in place this year."(Ramsey)  The impact of this quote on the reader is that the reader feels like this is a very fancy and important sentence because Ramsey uses elegant diction like 'legislating' and 'hammering'.  The use of these words makes the reader picture Ernsthausen almost literally hammering time lines and knowledge into her student's heads.  The sentence is also a good form of elegant syntax.

Krista Ramsey's writing style is a elaborate and well organized style.  An example of this from the article above is, "She also has a very good handle on something the state’s not measuring at all: not just if her students can read, but if they will read." (Ramsey)

Some questions I have for Ramsey are:

1: Where do you go or what do you see to get ideas to write about?
2: What kind of education did you receive and where did you go to college?
3: Would you have ever considered being a writing teacher or language arts teacher?

Character Development

  I am about half way done with my book now but the main character Tris has already changed a lot throughout the book.  At the beginning of the book, Beatrice Prior was a normal 16 year old girl part of the Abnegation faction.  After her aptitude test showed she was divergent and after she chose Dauntless at the choosing ceremony, Tris has undergone many changes.  The first change is that before the choosing ceremony Tris really didn't know where she belonged and after all her training and time spent with the Dauntless, she finally found out that she loved the Dauntless.  Tris feels more free and has the ability to do more things than she could in the Abnegation Faction.

 
  The second change Tris has gone through is that she is now a better fighter and she is much tougher now.  At the beginning of initiation Tris was a terrible fighter and didn't want to hurt anyone, but after other initiates bullied her Tris became tough and when she fought she fought without mercy.  When she was fighting Molly (one of the bullies), Tris beat her to the ground and kept kicking her until Four the trainer pulled her away.  The third change is that Tris is now becoming one of the Dauntless.  At the beginning of the book, Tris was a selfless Abnegation girl but after doing things like jumping from a moving train to zip lining off of the top of the highest building in the city has transformed her and made her brave.  Tris feels like she can relate and fit in with other Dauntless members and really trusts them.

This is the main character Tris.

Future Predictions and Questions

  So far in my book a lot has happened.  I am only on page 179 out of 487 but I still have lots of questions and predictions.  So my first question is, why does the Dauntless faction have to get so many piercings and tattoos to show their bravery?  Eric who is one of the Dauntless leaders has many piercings covering his face and head and I feel like this doesn't show bravery at all it just makes him look ugly and scary.  My next question is, what is beyond the fences around the city that the Dauntless patrol?  In the book Tris and other initiates take a field trip to the fence that surrounds the city and Tris noticed that when they closed the gates, the lock was on the outside which makes me wander if they are keeping something out or in.

  Another question I had was, what happened to this future society that made the government turn to the faction system and why are divergents do dangerous to the system?  So the government says that the only way the society will survive is if the people know what faction they belong in.  Many people have different opinions on what led to the faction systems, like some say that people were to selfish and wanted power.  Some future predictions I have is that Four will find out that Tris is Divergent because Tris is intelligent, brave and selfless which means she is more than one type of faction.  Another prediction I have is that Tris will have to fight Peter and she will beat him because she recently just beat Molly and Tris is angry at what they did to her and tells herself that she will hurt them.  My final prediction is that Al and many other initiates will not pass and become factionless because they are to weak or not Dauntless material.

This is the main character Tris practicing on a punching bag.