In Tris's society, each teenager, when they come of age, takes an aptitude test to determine which faction they belong in to start their futures. They go through simulations to tell them what faction they should choose. After Tris went through her simulation, her results were inconclusive, which means she is Divergent: "'People who get this result are ...' She looks over her shoulder like she expects someone to appear behind her. '...are called... Divergent'" (Roth 22). Tris got Abnegation, Dauntless, and Erudite as her factions, but can only choose one.
The day the choosing ceremony comes, Tris is very nervous and is unsure about her choice, but once they ask her to choose, she picks Dauntless. Tris knows she could never pick Erudite, due to her father, and she knows she will never belong in Abnegation, so she knows she must be Dauntless. After the choosing ceremony, all the dauntless catch a train to the Dauntless headquarters, and the Dauntless initiation begins! Before arriving inside the headquarters, they are greeted on the rooftop by Eric, a Dauntless leader. He tells them the first step of their training begins with jumping off the roof into a large hole, but he doesn't tell them what is inside. Everyone is very uneasy and no one wants to be first jumper, but that's when Tris, the stiff, volunteers: "She smirks at me. 'A stiff, the first to jump? Unheard of'" (Roth 60). By Tris being the first to jump, it showed her who she truly was as a Dauntless, and also introduced her to her love interest in the book, Four.
After this first initiation, the Dauntless transfers go through series of training to prepare them as Dauntless, fearless and brave. During this time, we meet Christina, Tris's best friend, Will, Christina's love interest, Peter, the bully, and Al, a friend. These characters are all Dauntless transfers and go through the same training as Tris does. Throughout their training, they have to encounter enormous obstacles and power through immense training so they don't get cut. But in order to stay on they top, some of the initiates cross the line. Peter, a big competition of Tris, stabs Edward, another initiate, in the eye in order to stay on top. Dauntless training was made to push people to their breaking points, and that was the reason why Al went behind Tris's back and almost killed her: "The same smell surrounds Al's bunk. A weight drops in my stomach" (Roth 278). Al helped Peter and his friend Drew almost kill Tris because she was on the top of the rankings. Tris was heartbroken to find out that her friend went behind her back and almost killed her, but the day after Al had killed himself because he felt so guilty.
Before the death of Al, Tris goes through series of simulations and obstacles with her trainer, Four, who she ultimately falls in love with. Four pushes Tris and helps her to hid her divergence after he found out she was Divergent. The only reason he found out her secret was because he is Divergent, too. These two characters become the primary couple in the books and create a relationship to last, especially after Four helps her with her Dauntless tests. In order to finish Dauntless training, you must go through a series of simulations, like your fear landscape, while the Dauntless leaders are watching you. Since Tris is Divergent, she knows when she's in the simulation, unlike the others. In order for her identity not to be exposed, Four brings her into his own fear landscape, which is where we learn his true name and how he got his nickname "Four": "My voice trails off. Only four fears" (Roth 331). We find out his real name is Tobias Eaton and his father was Marcus Eaton, a leader of Abnegation. Tobias left Abnegation to escape his father, who beat him.
Before the last Dauntless initiation test, each Dauntless got injected with a serum that was supposedly for the last round of training. It wasn't until Tris was woken by her fellow initiates shuffling that they were under simulation and she wasn't, due to her divergence. In order to not be caught, she pretended to be under simulation like the other mindless Dauntless, who were picking up guns and seemed to be preparing for battle. Tris knew they couldn't control it, but she knew who was controlling them... Erudite. Erudite was complaining how they should run the government instead of Abnegation, so they created a serum to control the Dauntless and capture all the Abnegation. They also created this serum to find and kill all the Divergent, knowing that they are a threat to their society. This action was done by Jeanine, leading of Erudite and someone who wants to lead the entire society.
While pretending to be under simulation, she found Tobias and thankfully realized that he was out of it, too, pretending to be under. They rode the train with the others to Abnegation where they saw the Dauntless (under simulation), killing and attacking the innocent Abnegation. During this time, Tobias was steered away from Tris to Eric, who never liked Tobias and thought he was under simulation. Since Eric was working for Jeanine, he wasn't under the simulation and was about to shoot Tobias when Tris raised her gun to his head: "My index finger hovers over the trigger. 'Get you gun away from his head,' I say" (Roth 424). Tris was about to be shot and Jeanine tells Eric to take Tobias back to Dauntless, but then Tris's mother comes and saves Tris. While they are running from the Dauntless, Tris's mother tells Tris to meet her father and others at a special location, and then her mother dies trying to save Tris's life. Shocked and upset, Tris makes it to the location where her father, Caleb, Marcus, and others await. Tris tells them that their goal is to make it back to Dauntless and shut down the simulation, so off they go on their hard journey.
While trying to make it to Dauntless headquarters to find Tobias and save everyone, Tris's father dies trying to save her life, as well: "My father jumps out of the elevator and sprints down the right hallway, drawing the Dauntless guards after him" (Roth 470). Even though Tris lost both her parents, she still fights to make it to the room with the serum. Once there, she finds Tobias under serious simulation and Jeanine, telling her that Tobias doesn't know her anymore. Shocked and angry, she runs to Tobias, but instead he pins her to the ground and tries to kill her. Tris would never hurt Tobias so she tired to talk him out of the serum, resisting his dagger. Slowly, but surely, her method works and he finally recognizes her again. Before the guards can come and stop them, Tris stabs Jeanine in the hand and runs to turn off the simulation serum on every Dauntless.
Before anyone can catch Tris, Tobias, and others, they catch the train and ride it out of the city, ending the first book: "Abnegation and Dauntless are both broken, their members scattered. We are like the committed now" (Roth 487).
INSURGENT: The second book in the series starts with Tris, Tobias, Marcus, Caleb, and Peter on a train that is leading them to amity, where they were hopefully staying for a while: "Pinpricks of light are the first sign that were are nearing Amity headquarters" (Roth chapter 1). In order to not be caught by Erudite and Dauntless, they need to stay somewhere outside the gates for a while so they won't be caught. Eventually, Jeanine will think to look at the Amity compound.
During their first stays at Amity, Tris decides to cut her hair and get used to the place, even though all the people there are happy and she is not necessarily a happy person. While Tris is not in her room, Peter tries to steal the the hard-drive with the simulation data on it, but Tris catches him and then they get into a huge fight: "His eyes shift to the dresser behind me, to the left side, where the hard drive is hidden. I frown at him, and then notice something I didn't before: a rectangular bulge in one of his pockets" (Roth chapter 6). Since both Peter and Tris broke the rules they made with Amity and their leader, Johanna Reyes, when they first arrived, Tris was put under peace serum, which caused her to become happy and carefree as a punishment for fighting: "'The Peace Serum,' Johanna says. 'In small doses, it has a mild, calming effect and improves the mood'" (Roth chapter 6).
Hours later, after the serum wore off, Tris and Tobias head down for dinner in the Amity cafeteria. While there, Tris spots a line of cars coming there way, which could only mean one thing, that Erudite found them: "Cars with black roofs--solar panels, which means only one thing. Erudite" (Roth chapter 6).
The Erudites come in and fights break out all over. During this chaos, Tris, Tobias, and the others she came with escape the compound and follow the railroad tracks to the city, catching a train in the process. Before they even escaped being in harm's way, they were all running from gunshots being fired when Tris saved Peter's life. After that, Peter remembers this act.
As they are following the tracks, they hear an upcoming train and decide to hop on to ride it into the city. As soon as they get on, they didn't realize they had company: "Eyes glitter in the darkness. Dark shapes sit in the car, more numerous than we are. The headquarters" (Roth chapter 8).
While on the car, the factionless are about to kill them when Tobias says his full name, and Edward, first a Dauntless initiate and now a factionless, spares their lives: "'Fine, you can come. But when we get into the city, you've got to come with us'" (Roth 8).
Once they arrived at the factionless headquarters, Tobias finds out the person who was looking for him was his mother, Evelyn, who supposedly died when Tobias was young: "Evelyn was the name of Marcus's wife and Tobias's mother. My grip on Tobias's hand loosens. Just days ago I was remembering her funeral. Her funeral. And now she stands in front of me, her eyes colder than the eyes of any Abnegation woman I've ever seen'" (Roth chapter 8). After meeting Evelyn, they find out that she is running the factionless and has a plan to take over the city with the rest of the factionless. Tris, confused by what the factionless were doing, decides to go to Candor to find answers and to see the rest of her fellow Dauntless.
Once they arrive at Candor, they are immediately arrested by the Candor, as Candor was instructed to do so upon Tris and Tobias's arrival. After sitting in a cell, the Candor's tell them they have committed crimes against humanity and must be tested under the truth serum to see if they are lying or not, which they agree to: "Niles opens the black box. It contains two needles, one for Tobias and one for me" (Roth chapter 11).
Once they were under the serum, both of them were presented in front of Candor and Dauntless and asked a series of questions. Tobias went first, and they found him to be telling the truth, so he was let off the hook. Next was Tris, who was nervous and anxious about going under the serum because even though she would be aware under it, she didn't want to speak the truth about Will with Christina watching her. In the end, Tris told her dreaded secret because it was eating at her alive: "'I shot will,' I say, 'while he was under the simulation. I killed him. He was going to kill me, but I killed him. My friend'" (Roth chapter 13).
After the interrogation, Tris is so driven by guilt that she almost jumps out of a window, but then decides not to because she knew it was not the right thing to do. Instead, she reunites with her old friends Uriah, Lynn, and Marlene, who were living at Candor with her: "Marlene pokes her head around one of the bunks and smiles toothily at me" (Roth chapter 14). Tris's reunion is then cut short with her friends because Dauntless traitors, led by Eric the Dauntless leader, attack the Candor compound: "All around me, people drop to the group. My fellow faction members. My closest friends. All of them falling--they must be dead, or dying--as the earsplitting bang of bullets filling my ears" (Roth chapter 14).
During the chaos of guns firing and people dying in the Candor headquarters, Tris is caught by Eric and almost captured and killed by him, but then she stabs him in the gut: "The gunshots gradually stop. My hand is wet. One glimpse of red tells me it's covered in blood--Eric's" (Roth chapter 16).
After the battle stops and the smoke clears, the head of Candor, Jack Kang, sets up a peace treaty meeting with Jeanine to settles things once and for all. Tris and friends decide to spy on the meeting, but then realize that Kang doesn't actually meet with Jeanine, but with Max, one of her workers: "'Very well. I will contact Jeanine Matthews, and see if we can negotiate a peace. Any objections?'" (Roth chapter 18).
Before this meeting, Tris finds out that Peter has ran off to Erudite to help Jeanine, betraying everyone. As well, Tori and Zeke, Dauntless spies, decide on a plan to reclaim the old Dauntless headquarters back and to stop Jeanine when the meeting comes in place, but their plan is ruined when Jeanine doesn't actually show.
When the failed meeting has ended and days have gone by in the Candor headquarters, Tris and the other Dauntless are woken by someone on the roof--Marlene. Marlene was put under simulation to send a message to Tris from Jeanine, right before she jumped off the roof and died: "'This is not a negotiation. It is a warning,' says the simulation through Marlene, moving her lips and vibrating her throat. 'Every two days until one of you delivers yourself to Erudite headquarters, this will happen again'" (Roth chapter 26). Tris, knowing she cannot let anyone else die because of her, decides that she must turn herself in to Jeanine.
In the middle of the night, when Tobias was asleep, Tris sneaks out of the headquarters and goes to Erudite: "I will not let Tobias go to Erudite when it happens again, when someone else dies. I will not" (Roth chapter 28). Once Tris arrived at Erudite, Jeanine starts to perform tests on Tris to see how her brain works and to test her divergence. After scanning Tris's brain, Peter escorts Tris back to her room, but, she soon sees someone she knows very well: "Tobias, blood trailing down the side of his face marking his white shirt with red; Tobias, fellow Divergent, standing in the mouth of this furnace in which I will burn. Peter's hand clamp around my shoulders, holding me in place" (Roth chapter 29). Tobias came for Tris to be with her, but she doesn't understand why because he can't save her.
While doing more tests on both Tris and Tobias, Tris realizes that Caleb was working for Jeanine: "I look over my shoulder, and through the haze of drugs I see him. Caleb" (Roth chapter 31). Caleb betrayed Tris and told Jeanine everything about her.
As more tests go on and as Tris nears her execution, Jeanine still cannot figure out how to control her and becomes frustrated, so she decides to finish the tests on Tobias and schedules Tris's execution sooner: "I'm going to die tomorrow. It has been a long time since I felt certainty about anything, so this feels like a gift" (Roth chapter 34).
The day her execution comes, and as she is preparing to die, she realizes she doesn't want to die. But it is too late, the serum is then injected and all goes numb: "Then the heart monitor stops beeping" (Roth chapter 35). But she is still alive: "But I'm still breathing" (Roth chapter 36). Peter, instead of killing her, helped to fake her execution so they, along with Tobias, could escape. Peter saved her life because she saved his back at Amity, and they all retreated to Tobias's old house in Abnegation.
During their stay with Evelyn, she comes up with a plan destroy Erudite and retrieve top-secret data from Jeanine: "'Our strategy is not pointed, but broad. There is no way to know who among the Erudite support Jeanine and who does not'" (Roth chapter 38).
In the end, Tris and Marcus invaded the Erudite building and made it to the top, where Tris was being studied. Despite the fact that they only where there to receive the information that so many died to protect, They found Tori, a Dauntless leader and friend, had killed Jeanine because she was the reason for her brother's death: "She draws a long knife from the side of her boot, lunges, and stabs Jeanine in the stomach" (Roth chapter 45).
Everyone goes back to Abnegation and celebrates their victory, as well as a new world with no factions. Before book two ends, Marcus, Tobias, and Johanna show up with the video that was kept hidden for so long. The video, who contained a girl named Edith Prior, said that Divergent's are the solution, not the problem, and that their society was an experiment was a cure for the moral sense everyone lost. The entire purpose of their society was to save outside humanity, which then concludes the second book: "'The name you should give these people is Divergent. Once they become abundant among you, your leaders should give the command for Amity to unlock the gate forever, so that you may emerge from you isolation'" (Roth chapter 47).
ALLEGIANT: The third book in the series opens with Tris in a jail cell at Erudite headquarters, along with all of her friends, for being traitors and reveling top-secret information to the entire city: "I pace in our cell at Erudite headquarters, her words echoing in my mind: My name is Edith Prior, and there is much I am happy to forget" (Roth 1). After being put under truth serum, Tris lies their way out of jail and they start to figure out what they will do next now that all the factions are gone. This is when they are approached by a group called the Allegiant, and their goal is to escape the city and find what is out in the world: "The night air slips into my lungs, and I feel like it is one of my last breaths. Tomorrow I will leave this place and seek another" (Roth 65). Before everyone leaves with the Allegiant to find new cities, Tobias breaks Caleb out of jail and takes him along with them.
Johanna and others took a train to find trucks outside the fence, but the rest went on foot. When they all approached the fence, the Dauntless patrol fired, and Tori, Dauntless leader, was shot and killed: "I sprint in the direction of Tori's body--of her fallen flashlight" (Roth 92). Once the chaos inside the fence subsided, the rest made it out the fence and were safe, outside of the city.
While traveling outside the fence, they find it to be a lot of abandoned cities, left over from the war: "The world beyond ours is full of roads and dark buildings and collapsing power lines" (Roth 101). While walking through these abandoned places, they meet Amar and Zoe, who worked for the same organization that founded the city. After meeting them, Zoe hands Tris a photo of her mom with others in the photo, but doesn't explain it to her yet. This brings up a lot of questions Tris has, but decides to ask later. Instead, Zoe and Amar lead Tris and the rest of her to group to their compound, the O'Hare Airport, which is the headquarters of the Bureau of Genetic Welfare, and it's an agency of the United States government.
Once inside, Tris and her group get introduced to David, head of the Bureau and the man in the photo with her mom. David explains that Tris's society was a social experiment to fix genetic damage caused by the government, who wanted to rid people of greed, low intelligence, violence, dishonesty, and cowardice: "'A few centuries ago, the government of this country became interested in enforcing certain desirable behaviors in citizens'" (Roth 121). He then explains that people who have healed, or normal, genes from the experiment are the Divergent's. The people who are not healed are "genetically damaged," and they are not Divergent.
While at the compound, Tris, Tobias, and others get tested to see if they are "genetically damaged" or not. Tobias, thinking he was Divergent, actually finds out that he is not: "'It means,' Matthew says, 'that you are not Divergent. Your genes are still damaged, but you have a genetic anomaly that allows you to be aware during simulations anyways. You have, in other words, the appearance of a Divergent without actually being one'" (Roth 176). Nita, a girl who works for the Bureau, understands what it's like to be genetically damaged and invites Tobias in on a plan she has, to stop the "genetically damaged" terms and to stop being one herself.
While Tobias is off with Nita, causing usually trouble and learning the way things work in the Bureau, Tris was given her mothers old journals by Zoe, which talk about how Tris's mom went into the city to try and stop the violence occurring: "It's a lot to take in, but I find myself rereading the sentence: The only problem is that at my Choosing Ceremony next year I'll have to join Erudite, because that's where the killer is" (Roth 206).
Nita fills Tobias in on a plan to steal memory serum from David and the Bureau, who supposedly want to use it to wipe the memories of the city. Tobias tells Tris about the plan, but she doesn't believe Nita. Instead, Tobias still sides with Nita, who ends up blowing up a part of the compound. But before the compound blows, Tris finds out that Nita is actually lying. She wasn't going to steal the memory serum, but he death serum, and she was going to use it to kill everyone: "'No, they don't want the memory serum, they want the death serum. Similar to the one the Erudite have--the one you were supposed to be injected with when you were almost executed. They're going to use it for assassinations, a lot of them. Set off an aerosol can and it's easy, see? Give it to the right people and you have an explosion of anarchy and violence, which is exactly what those fringe people want'" (Roth 281). The explosion then goes off and Uriah is injured. Tris, not wanting Nita to get the code for the weapon's lab, tries to find David to protect him. Tris, using David as a shield so she doesn't get shot, ends up saving his life from Nita and her gang.
After the explosion, Tris finds out that Tobias and Nita were arrested for their crimes, but Tobias was released on account of being "genetically damaged."
Tris, after thinking the Bureau wasn't going to use the memory serum, learns that they still intend to wipe out everyone's mind in Chicago. Tobias, feeling horrible after putting Uriah in a coma, decides to travel back to the city to warn everyone, and to apologize to Uriah's family.
Before Tobias heads to the city, Tris comes up with a plan to let the memory serum loose in the Bureau first. She wants to do this because if they don't, the death serum will be released and the whole city will be killed, but the only problem is that whoever retrieves the memory serum must go through the death serum, which will kill them. Caleb is nominated to risk his life and release the memory serum: "'Oh, just come out with it,' Caleb says, lifting his eyes to mine. 'You want me to do it. You all do'" (Roth 409). Once agreed on this conclusion, Tobias goes back to the city.
In the city, Tobias talks to his mother and convinces her to let go of her control over the city. She listens to him and agrees to join alliance with Allegiant, leaving everyone to live happy lives: "'If you agree to them, I will step down and surrender whatever weapons I have that my people are not using for personal protection. I will leave the city and not return'" (Roth 482).
Back at the Bureau, Tris's plan takes place sooner when an emergency lockdown goes off, so Caleb and her rush to the lab. Before Caleb can go in and sacrifice his self, Tris knows she can not let him die because he is only going out of guilt and she is going out of love, so she goes into the lab herself: "I hear a spraying sound and know that the death serum is floating through the air, but the guards are behind me, and I don't have time to put on the suit that will delay its effects" (Roth 458).
In the end, Tris ultimately survives the death serum because of her Divergence, but then dies after being shot by David: "The gun goes off again" (Roth 474). When Tobias returns, he finds out that Tris has died and the memories of everyone in the Bureau have been wiped: "It's then that I realize: Of course Tris would go into the Weapons Lab instead of Caleb" (Roth 490).
The third book ends with a glimpse of Tobias's life two-years after Tris's death, where he scatters her ashes when zip-lining from the Hancock building in Chicago, proving he has overcome his fear of heights. Tobias, though missing Tris, is determined to have a positive outlook on life with his friends, thus concluding the series.
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| The Divergent Series |
