Allegiant

“I would like to slap her, as I’m sure many of the people in this room would, though they wouldn’t dare to admit it. Evelyn has us all trapped in the city, controlled by armed factionless patrolling the streets. She knows that whoever holds the guns holds the power. And with Jeanine Matthews dead, there is no one left to challenge her for it. From one tyrant to another. That is the world we know, now.”

As Tris endures her trial, she realizes that Evelyn overthrew Jeanine to oppress the people of Chicago in a different way. Evelyn hates the faction system and wants it destroyed. She thinks that destroying the factions will bring freedom and choice to her people, yet she is actually limiting their independence and choice in the same way Jeanine did. Thus, as Tris observes, Chicago has traded one tyrant for another when both think they are doing what’s best for the city.

“I used to think about giving my life for things, but I didn’t understand what ‘giving your life’ really was until it was right there, about to be taken from me.”

In the series’ previous books, Tris is willing to sacrifice herself for the good of others, so this passage illustrates the development in her character and maturity in her outlook on life. She no longer wants to live recklessly and give up her life, as she now has someone and something to live for: her relationship with Tobias. However, this passage foreshadows Tris’s death at the novel's end. It also adds a sense of irony because Tris’s will to live leads to her death.

“The symbols of our old way of life, destroyed—a man dead, others injured—and for what? For nothing. For Evelyn’s empty, narrow vision: a city where factions are wrenched away from the people against their will. She wanted us to have more than five choices. Now we have none.”

Tobias has just witnessed the faction bowls’ destruction and an innocent man’s death, and his thoughts here reflect Tris’s from a previous passage. Evelyn thinks she is helping her people by getting rid of the factions, but as Tobias observes, they used to have five choices. However, there is now no choice; they are forced into being factionless, which means they have no identification group and no one to associate with who shares the same values and personality traits. Tobias knows the factions aren’t perfect, but he also knows his mother’s new system is flawed and denies them what choice they had.

“We will all contribute equally to our new city, as it should be. The factions have divided us, but now we will be united. Now, and forever.”

This passage is from a speech Evelyn makes to the city. Evelyn seems to bring everyone together and encourage them to work together to benefit each other. However, Tris knows Evelyn’s hold on the city isn’t as strong as Evelyn thinks. This ideal is unlikely because of the division between the factionless and those wanting the factions re-established. Neither side gets a choice, leading to continued tension and conflict.

“You don’t have to come, but I need to get out of here. I need to know who Edith Prior was, and who’s waiting for us outside the fence, if anyone. I don’t know why, but I need to.”

Speaking to Christina and Uriah, Tris tells of the strong pull to get outside the city boundary and learn more about Edith Prior and what her video means. Tris’s determination to discover more about her ancestor leads a group out of the city and to the Bureau’s compound. Tris plays an essential role in the novel: Her drive and determination lead her and her friends to the Bureau and the eventual collapse of the experiment in Chicago.

“I do like to hit people—I like the explosion of power and energy, and the feeling that I am untouchable because I can hurt people. But I hate that part of myself, because it is the part of me that is the most broken.”

When Tobias breaks Caleb out of prison, Zeke tells him to hit him to make their ruse more convincing. This passage reflects Tobias’s affinity for violence and how he hates that about himself. This idea comes up again when Tobias talks to Peter at the novel’s end. Tobias says Peter is evil because he always chooses cruelty; Tobias, on the other hand, doesn’t.

“I wonder if that fear still creeps up on her now, though she worked so hard to face it—I wonder if fears ever really go away, or if they just lose their power over us.”

Tris is watching Tori and thinking about how Tori worked to overcome her fear of the dark. The Dauntless spend much of their time in their fear landscapes to overcome whatever fears they have, believing fear is a sign of weakness. As illustrated by Tobias, the characters rarely overcome their fears entirely. Instead, the characters stop letting those fears have power over them, a message that will relate to many of the novel’s readers.

“I think of my father, a born Erudite, not Divergent; a man who could not help but be smart, choosing Abnegation, engaging in a lifelong struggle against his own nature, and ultimately fulfilling it. A man warring with himself, just as I war with myself.”

Tris’s reflection about her father taps into the main downfall of the factions. People rarely fit into only one group, yet the system forces them to choose only one. This also references the Bureau’s preoccupation with genetic purity and genetic damage. They look at genetic differences as good and bad when genes are neither good nor bad.

“I laugh, and it’s laughter, not light, that casts out the darkness building within me, that reminds me I am still alive, even in this strange place where everything I’ve ever known is coming apart. I know some things—I know that I’m not alone, that I have friends, that I’m in love. I know where I came from. I know that I don’t want to die, and for me, that’s something—more than I could have said a few weeks ago.”

Again, Roth illustrates Tris’s will to live, a recent development for her character. Despite all that Tris has been through in the series, she still learns that goodness and happiness are possible, and she finally knows who she is and that she has people who love her. She wants to live for these things, making her death all the more tragic and ironic.

“He just spoke out against his own leaders so casually I almost missed it. I wonder if that’s the kind of place this is—where dissent can be expressed in public, in the middle of a normal conversation, instead of in secret places, with hushed voices.”

The group from Chicago has grown up under an oppressive government, and even when Evelyn overthrows Jeanine, Chicago’s citizens are still forced to submit to a totalitarian government. So, when Tobias hears Matthew speak against the leaders of the Bureau, he is shocked. Tobias grew up in a world where a leader’s word is law, so hearing Matthew speak against the Bureau shows Tobias a different way of life.

“And as I stare out at the land, I think that this, if nothing else, is compelling evidence for my parents’ God, that our world is so massive that it is completely out of our control, that we cannot possibly be as large as we feel.”

Because of the totalitarian rule, Tris and her friends have lived under, they have no concept of how large the world is, and that Chicago is tiny by comparison. When the group goes up in an airplane and sees how vast the land is, they see how large the countryside is and struggle to grasp how different the world is compared to what they’ve been taught.

“My parents did love each other. Enough to forsake plans and factions. Enough to defy ‘faction before blood.’ Blood before faction—no, love before faction.”

As Tris learns more about her mother, one of the most touching things she realizes is that her parents loved each other and chose to defy orders to be together. This is a foreign concept for Tris, as she grew up in Abnegation, which taught her to be selfless and think of others before herself. Because her parents chose Abnegation against the wishes of the Bureau, Tris learns the importance of love. She also learns that love and family come before faction, another idea in conflict with how she was raised.

“‘Some of the people here want to blame genetic damage for everything,’ he says. ‘It’s easier for them to accept than the truth, which is that they can’t know everything about people and why they act the way they do.’”

This passage taps into the idea of control in the novel and that the Bureau wants to control and change genetics, something entirely outside human control. By blaming genetics, the Bureau feels they have the right to use any means necessary to maintain its power. Further, blaming genetics for what’s wrong with humanity is easier than admitting they’re not in control and can’t change the negative side of human behavior.

“I have brewing inside me the desperate hope that I am not damaged, that I am worth more than the corrected genes I pass on to any children I might have.”

When Matthew tests Tris’s and Tobias’s genes, he finds that Tris is Divergent, but Tobias is not. As a result, Tobias struggles with his identity and who he is and spends a significant amount of the novel trying to overcome the idea of being damaged. He also works to overcome his insecurities and fears, which are more deeply rooted than his rough exterior shows.

“If genetically pure people caused war and total devastation in the past at the same magnitude that genetically damaged people supposedly do now, then what’s the basis for thinking that we need to spend so many resources and so much time working to correct genetic damage? What’s the use of the experiments at all, except to convince the right people that the government is doing something to make all our lives better, even though it’s not?”

This passage marks a pivotal moment in the novel when Nita calls into question the Bureau’s logic of promoting and protecting the genetically pure while discriminating against the genetically damaged. She demonstrates the Bureau’s use of propaganda to teach its citizens only what they need to know to control them, and that the Bureau is basing its war against genetic imperfection on false information.

“Most of us came from Dauntless, but I’m struck by how different we are anyway. Different habits, different temperaments, different ways of seeing the world.”

Although the faction system in Chicago allows the citizens to do better than those in other experiment cities, the factions still play into the false idea that Chicago’s leaders can categorize people into one group based on one set of personal characteristics. Because Tris is Divergent, she is used to feeling like she belongs to more than one faction. Now that she’s learning more about the Bureau and meeting more people from outside Chicago, she’s starting to see that everyone around her has personal thoughts and characteristics that make them unique, thereby undermining the purpose of the factions.

“It’s the beginning of the Allegiant rebellion I’ve been expecting since I first heard the group had formed. Even though it has seemed inevitable to me since I saw how Evelyn chose to rule, I feel sick. It seems like the rebellions never stop, in the city, in the compound, anywhere. There are just breaths between them, and foolishly, we call those breaths ‘peace.’”

This passage reflects the near-constant conflict that riddles not only Chicago but also each character. The conflict between the genetically pure and the genetically damaged and between Chicago and the Bureau has been steadily increasing. Tobias realizes that he’s never really known peace and won’t achieve it until the conflict over genetics is resolved.

“‘You demonstrated the quality I most need in my advisers,’ he says. ‘Which is the ability to make sacrifices for the greater good. If we are going to win this fight against genetic damage, if we are going to save the experiments from being shut down, we will need to make sacrifices. You understand that, don’t you?’”

After Nita’s failed attack on the Bureau, David sees how capable Tris is and how hard she fights for what she believes in. David values her ability to make sacrifices, and this becomes increasingly ironic when David kills Tris as she tries to save Chicago from being reset. Thus, David values her willingness to make sacrifices, but she is only allowed to do so when it fits what David and the Bureau want.

“I don’t know how it would feel, to hate your own history and to crave love from the people who gave that history to you at the same time. How have I never seen the schism inside his heart? How have I never realized before that for all the strong, kind parts of him, there are also hurting, broken parts?”

This passage stems from Tris’s reflections on Tobias and all that he’s had to endure in life and since coming to the Bureau. Tris struggles with learning more about her mother, but this has distracted Tris from what Tobias has been working to overcome. As she watches Tobias looking at the family trees in the Bureau, she finally realizes all of the trauma Tobias has to shoulder. This softens her heart and allows the two to reconcile after Tobias’s part in Nita’s attack.

“‘I don’t know,’ Tris says. ‘I feel like I don’t know what’s right anymore.’”

Throughout the Divergent series, Tris has faced numerous internal and external trials. As she formulates a plan to bring down the Bureau, however, she begins to make decisions that are no different from those the Bureau makes regarding its experiments. This dilemma allows Tris to realize that situations are rarely simple and have either a right or a wrong answer.

“And I don’t want to die anymore. I am up to the challenge of bearing the guilt and the grief, up to facing the difficulties that life has put in my path. Some days are harder than others, but I am ready to live each one of them. I can’t sacrifice myself, this time.”

This moment marks another time Tris reflects on her mortality and her desire to live. She is steeling herself against whatever might happen in the fight against the Bureau. Of course, this adds to the novel’s irony when Tris dies, setting off the memory serum that ends the battle over genes. Tris was strong enough to shoulder whatever burdens she was forced to bear but also strong enough to sacrifice herself to overcome evil.

“Those lost in the memory serum haze are gathered into groups and given the truth: that human nature is complex, that all our genes are different, but neither damaged nor pure. They are also given the lie: that their memories were erased because of a freak accident, and that they were on the verge of lobbying the government for equality for GDs.”

This passage illustrates the most pivotal moment in the conflict between the genetically pure and the genetically damaged. This conflict is the focus of the Divergent series, and it is overcome by simply teaching the leaders of the Bureau that differences in genetic makeup are not harmful and not something that needs fixing. Instead, they should accept everyone and realize that humans are unique, complex creatures.

“There are so many ways to be brave in this world. Sometimes bravery involves laying down your life for something bigger than yourself, or for someone else. Sometimes it involves giving up everything you have ever known, or everyone you have ever loved, for the sake of something greater.”

Tobias struggles with Tris’s death and fights to move past it. However, as he overcomes his grief and accepts her loss, he grows as a character when he realizes there are different types of bravery. Tobias knows Tris sacrificed herself to reset the Bureau and save Chicago, so her kind of bravery allowed her to give up her life for the sake of others. Now that she is gone, Tobias must demonstrate a different type of bravery where he must leave his grief behind and work to establish a better, stronger Chicago.