Reading Reflection #2

Readers’ response #2

Book: Divergent
Author: Veronica Roth
Pages read : 1-102

Dear Ms. Mchlauchlan

This week I read Divergent by Veronica Roth. I had it recommended to me by a friend who told me that it seemed like a book that I’d enjoy. When I first the back and first few pages of the book, I had a text to text connection because to me, it sounded a bit like The Hunger Games because of the different factions and how they have a role specifically for that faction. Further in, I found that it being more and more like Harry Potter with the factions but more with the characteristics each one had rather than the role each one played. I kept seeing Erudites as Ravenclaws, Gryffindor/Slytherin mix in Dauntless, Amity as Hufflepuff and Candor as Hufflepuff/Slytherin mix. I couldn’t see Abnegation being like anything from Harry Potter or the Hunger Games. The rivalry and hatred that Abnegation and Erudite have, reminded me a lot like the rivalry between Gryffindor and Slytherin.

That being said, When Caleb first chose Erudite and everyone was really angry, I didn’t understand why. I really don’t see how intelligence and selflessness don’t go together.

The main character Beatrice is interesting to me. She’s from Abnegation so she was taught complete and utter selflessness from the very beginning. She seems to be a family person who strives for something new and adventurous. She just seems to want to break free from everything that Abnegation stands for.  On the day of the test she says the following; “It is on these morning that I feel guilty for wanting to leave them”, Which shows that she values her family an awful lot.

 At her school, she encounters bullying for being Abnegation. They call her a stiff for being one. She seems so uncomfortable and awkward in her own skin.

At another part of the book, I had a text to text connection. Beatrice has to take a test that challenges where she’ll go, faction-wise. It seemed a lot to me like a physical version of the sorting hat quiz in Harry Potter.