Good Intentions

In the book Divergent everyone is separated into factions based on their life choices and strengths. People could transfer to where they think they will be the best they could. The factions had worked together to create a safe world with a perfect government, but the purpose has grown from that. In class we talked about how the factions may have turned into a competition, and how they strayed from their purpose. I think this is the case.

I think that, although they don't seem like competitors to each other, inside they each want to outdo the other. I think that is also part of why Jeanine was writing those things about Tris' dad. The Dauntless, I feel like, want to outdo the other factions in strength and toughness, even though that was why they were created. The factions lost sight of what their purpose originally was, and they got caught up in the competition.

Also, in Dauntless, and all the other factions, there are initiations to see who could become part of that faction. I'm not sure if the other initiations result in some people becoming factionless, but the Dauntless initiation does. I think that the initiations started to change along with the faction's goals, and I think that the initiations started to mirror the factions. The Dauntless are very rigid, and their initiation doesn't leave much room for slackers. I agree with Tris when she was talking about the Dauntless manifesto on page 206. Tris talks about how Dauntless might have started out with good intentions, but got sidetracked along the way.