What It Means To Be Divergent In The Movie

The Divergent movie series gave its title word a unique meaning within its dystopian universe, but the details of it, its place among the other factions, and other elements can be confusing. During the peak of film adaptations of young adult dystopian novels came Divergent, released in 2014. Directed by Neil Burger and based on Veronica Roth’s 2011 novel of the same name, Divergent took viewers to a post-apocalyptic Chicago, where a war led to society being divided into five factions, each one focused on specific activities and roles within society.

Divergent introduced viewers to Beatrice “Tris” Prior (Shailene Woodley), who learns she’s Divergent after taking a serum-induced psychological aptitude test to determine her best-suited faction. Tris chooses Dauntless as her faction, where she meets Four (Theo James) and learns there’s a sinister plot in the seemingly perfect society they live in. Divergent was followed by Insurgent and Allegiant, which continued Tris’ fight as a Divergent to stop those dangerous plans against society. Divergents like Tris are key to the movies, but the details about their attributes and more as Divergents can be a bit confusing.

Divergence Is When Someone Doesn’t Fit Neatly Into One Of The Five Factions

Not Everyone Had A Place In The Five Factions

As mentioned above, the war led to the creation of five factions dedicated to the cultivation of a particular virtue, with the purpose of keeping peace and for society to work properly. The five factions in the world of Divergent are Erudite, Candor, Amity, Dauntless, and Abnegation. Erudite is the faction dedicated to knowledge, intelligence, and curiosity, and was formed by those who blamed ignorance for the war. Candor is the faction of honesty, with Tris mentioning they can be too honest at times. Candor was formed by those who blamed duplicity and deception.

Amity is dedicated to peace, kindness, forgiveness, trust, and neutrality, and was formed by those who blamed war for humanity’s faults. Dauntless is the faction dedicated to bravery, strength, courage, and intimidation, formed by those who blamed fear and cowardice. Abnegation is the faction of selflessness, to the point where they forget themselves for the sake of others. As such, they blamed selfishness for humanity’s faults. Now, the characters in the Divergent series are required to take a serum-induced psychological aptitude test when they’re 16 to determine their best faction according to their predominant traits.

No matter the results of the test, each person has the right to choose the faction they want to be a part of for the rest of their lives. During the Choosing Ceremony the following day, each test-taker chooses their faction, so they can either stay in the one they were born and raised in, or they can leave their families and move to another faction. However, there are rare cases where the test is inconclusive as they fit into more than one faction, and these people are Divergents.

Why Being Divergent Is So Dangerous In The Movies

Divergents Had To Keep It A Secret

When Tris takes the test, her proctor, Dauntless member Tori, tells her to leave before her superiors arrive, and that she will record her results as Abnegation. While being a Divergent doesn’t sound like a bad thing, within the world of Divergent and its societal system, Divergents pose a threat to the government. Divergents are more capable of thinking independently than those who only fit into one faction, and they can sense any serums that are injected into them, hence why they are fully aware during the serum-induced test and can control these simulations.

Because Divergents can’t be manipulated and controlled by the government through serums and other ways to get to their minds, they are considered dangerous, as they can go against the government’s plans, whatever these are. Because of this, Tris and Four weren’t affected by the mind control serum provided by Erudite and used on the Dauntless to overthrow Abnegation, and they go on to lead a group that goes against the system in the rest of the Divergent saga.

The Difference Between Being Divergent & Factionless Explained

Those Who Were Factionless Had It Tougher Than Any Faction

In addition to the five factions, there’s another group in the world of Divergent: the Factionless. Those who have become Factionless are those who failed to or were unable to complete their initiation into a chosen faction. These people have no status or privilege and live in poverty in places like collapsed roads, empty subways, sewage, etc. The Factionless work as janitors, construction workers, garbage collectors, make fabric, operate trains, and drive buses, but they don’t have enough food and other basic resources. Because of this, Abnegation often gives food and medical attention to the Factionless, while other factions simply ignore them.

Many Divergents end up becoming Factionless, usually because they find it hard to adapt to just one way of thinking, leading to failure in their initiations or them deciding to leave their faction. However, not all Factionless are Divergent, and there are many that were either expelled from their factions or failed their initiations for whatever reason without being Divergent.

Which Characters In The Divergent Movies Are Divergent

Tris Isn’t The Only Confirmed Divergent In The Movies

Tris is the first Divergent character the audience meets in the first movie, but as the saga progresses, more characters are revealed to be part of this special group. As mentioned above, Four is also a Divergent, and in Four: A Divergent Story Collection, it’s explained that he learned about it when he escaped the simulation serum through unorthodox means, after which a fellow Divergent, Amar, warned him about the dangers of being one. Marcus Eaton (Ray Stevenson), one of the council members of Abnegation and Four’s father, is also a Divergent, and Tori’s brother, George, was also one, hence why she knew the dangers of being Divergent.

Tris’ mother, Natalie (Ashley Judd) is also revealed as a Divergent, with her original faction being Dauntless, but she transferred to another one to protect herself as advised by her mother. A Divergent character whose role was significantly reduced in the movies is Dauntless member Uriah (Keiynan Lonsdale), and one from the books that didn’t make it to the movies is Candor member Bobby. It’s unknown if the unmade fourth film in the Divergent saga would have introduced more Divergent characters or not, but there was definitely more to explore when it came to this unique group.

The Divergent Series

Based on the young adult novel series by Veronica Roth, The Divergent Series is a multimedia franchise that eventually launched into a film trilogy adaptation starting in 2014. Set in a dystopian future, The Divergent Series follows Beatrice “Tris” Prior, a teenager who learns she is Divergent after taking a placement test for a faction, where people with particular virtues are sorted into. As a Divergent, she discovers that darkness lies beyond the veil of their utopian society and that nothing is as it seems. The fourth and final film of the franchise was canceled before release, leaving the adaptation incomplete.

Created by

Veronica Roth

Character(s)

Beatrice Prior , Tobias Eaton , Christina (Divergent) , Peter Hayes , Caleb Prior , Marcus Eaton , Tori Wu , Jeanine Matthews , Natalie Prior , Eric Coulter