Divergent Summary

  So far in my book "Divergent" by Veronica Roth we know that the setting takes place in a dystopian future in Chicago.  The people are split into 5 different factions to keep peace and balance.   There is a day every year in which all 16 year olds will choose the faction that they will live in for the rest of their lives.  Once they have selected by drawing blood and letting the blood fall into a bowl of their chosen faction, they are now a initiate of that faction and may never see their family again.  Once they have selected they must go through initiation into the faction and those who do not pass or do not choose a faction will live factionless and homeless for the rest of their lives.


  The 5 factions are Candor (Honest), Abnegation (Selfless), Amity (Peaceful), Erudite (Intelligent), and Dauntless (Brave).  The main story follows a girl named Beatrice who later changes her name to Tris, as she goes to school on the day of the aptitude test to help her make her choice on what faction to pick.  She drinks a blue liquid and goes through several simulations that are supposed to narrow down which faction she would fit the best into.  The tester Tori leaves the room then returns and says, "Beatrice, your results were inconclusive.  Typically, each stage of the simulation eliminates one or more of the factions, but in your case only 2 have been ruled out… People who get this kind of result are… are called… Divergent."(Roth pg's 21-22)

  In this dystopian society people who are Divergent are considered dangerous to the system.  Why do you think Divergent's threaten the system and people's way of life in this world?
Also post what you got on your test and what faction you are best suited for.

The cover of the book.

Here is a link that will lead you to an aptitude test to find our which faction you would be best to live in.

http://assets.divergentthemovie.com/aptitudetest/


Here is a link to another test.

http://www.divergentfactions.com/divergent-faction-quiz.html

About The Author Veronica Roth

  The book I will be reading and blogging about this trimester is called "Divergent" by Veronica Roth.  Some information about the author Veronica Roth is that she is 22 years old and a graduate of Northwestern University.  Roth graduated with a degree in creative writing.  While she was a student there, she chose to work on the story that would soon become "Divergent", instead of doing her homework.  In my opinion, that was a very smart move by Roth because now she is very well known author because of the success the Divergent series has had.

  Roth is now a full time writer and lives near Chicago which is a coincidence because the book takes  place in Chicago.  "Divergent" is Roth's first novel and surely not the last, as she has 2 sequals to the book already and a movie that came out on March 21, 2014.  Veronica Roth is an amazing author and as I have started reading the book I can see that she really spent time writing and imagining the world that the book takes place in.

This is a picture of Veronica Roth.

About The Author

  Charlie Higson is an author, actor, comedian, and writer.  He wrote the very popular "Young Bond" series which has sold millions of copies worldwide.  He began his zombie adventure series for teenagers in 2009 with "The Enemy" and 1 year later came out with "The Dead."  Charlie is a huge fan of horror movies and books and studied gothic literature in college.  He has 3 teenagers and he says they are his inspiration for these teenager based novels.  He currently lives in London, England.

  He was born on July 3rd, 1958 in Somerset, England.  Charlie formed the band the band The Higsons where he was the lead singer and they released 2 singles.  He stared in many television programs on BBC as an extra.  Charlie Higson is still writing good books for teens even today and is  a world known author.















This is a picture of Charlie Higson.

Analysis of a Piece of Text

 
  A paragraph of text from my book, "The Enemy" by Charlie Higson is on page 439 when the leader of the grown ups is trying to figure out who he is.  "Fat man.  Bald.  White vest with a a red cross on it.  He knew the words.  Saint George.  Then he smiled.  The man was him.  It was was... What was it?  A mirror?  A window?  Yes.  He was Saint George.  A crusader.  That made him happy.   To remember hard words like that.  He was Saint George.  This city belonged to him."(pg. 439)

  This text is at the very end of the book.  Obviously we know that this guy is not alive.  He is one of the millions of other brain dead grown ups who want to kill the children.  But this guy is different from the rest of the other grown ups.  He is more intelligent and is able to get other grown ups to follow him into battle.  This guy believes he is Saint George who was a was a soldier in the Roman army and later venerated as a Christian Martyr.  He was believed to be born in 303 A.D and was a great military general.  The guy must have died with the Saint George Red Cross shirt on so he thinks he is him.

  It is believed in the story that this guy was one of the last alive grown ups to turn into a zombie so his brain isn't as rotten and therefore he is more intelligent.  Earlier in the book his army lost a battle to Arran and the kids so he has now sworn to kill them all.  He looks in the mirror or what he thinks is a mirror and tells himself that he is Saint George,  a crusader and that this city is his.  I predict in the next book the kids will see him again but I think Saint George will be more prepared and kill all of the kids with his undead army.
















This is the cross of Saint George.

Zombies

  Many books, movies and T.V shows in the past couple of years have been about zombies.  For example my book "The Enemy", by Charlie Higson.  An outbreak of a disease turns mostly every person on the planet into a brain dead zombie that only wants meat.  Only children survived and must survive in this new harsh world where they adapt to survive, or act stupid and get themselves killed.  Another example is The Walking Dead, which is a T.V series on AMC following a character named Rick Grimes and his struggle with other survivors to survive.  It is kind of like a W plot that never seems to end.  The show is in its 4th season and many people Rick has loved have died and every time they think they have a breakthrough something bad happens which puts the hero back a step and somehow he will overcome that obstacle.

  In the new season, where Rick and many survivors are living in a prison where walkers or zombies are trying to break trough the fences every day.  New illnesses are making people sick inside the prison and when they die they turn into a walker and want to only kill and eat live meat.  Recently the prison was attacked and many people died, walkers almost knocked the fences down and many people are getting scared.

  They always seems like in science fiction stories it always take place in a post apocalyptic future where a disease killed most of the population and turned them into zombies where a hero and his friends struggle to survive and there is always other survivors that want each other dead and everyone struggles to survive.

This is a picture of the popular T.V show The Walking Dead.

Theme

  The theme of "The Enemy" by Charlie Higson is that you shouldn't trust people you don't know.  I think this is the theme because the kids at Waitrose were all by themselves living badly until a kid they have never met before asks them to leave everything behind to come to Buckingham Palace on what the kid says and from pictures.  They were promised a new safe life but when they get there the leader David seemed nice but he only wanted the Waitrose kids to fight for him so he can rule London.  They also don't get a lot of fun time and the food is terrible.  An example to support this is when David locks Blue and Maxie in the nursery and not letting them leave.  David locks them a
in the room and says, "When you see sense, you can join the others.  In the meantime, I'm taking charge of all your kids.  Good night."

  At first David seemed like a nice guy and promised a new safe life but was just a kid wanting power, and put Maxie and BLue (the leaders) in house arrest.  Another example is when Small Sam was taken in by Nick and Rachael in the subway tunnels.  Nick rescued him and they fed him but when Sam fell asleep he was handcuffed and locked in another car with other kids.  He assumed they wanted to eat him and fatten him up.

Final Thoughts

  After finishing my book I really liked it so I wanted to see if there was a second book in the series. It turns out there is like 4 more books in the series and I am looking forward to reading them.  My book was kind of sad throughout the whole story because you would learn about a a characters and what they did before the disaster and you got to know them.  Then in the next chapter they might end of dying like many important characters like Arran, Freak, Deak, Joel,  Rhiannon, Calum and Rose.  The book was full of plot twists and surprises.

  One example is when Arran died, another is that David is a tyrant and kept Maxie's people at the palace.  A very important example is when the girl Maxie saved told them that there are tons of other kids living around London surviving and it isn't just David.  The suspense of Achilleus winning the fight was really engrossing and I didn't want to stop reading.

  Overall I really liked the book and I now want to read the other books in the series.






This is another picture of the book "The Enemy" by Charlie Higson.