Madysen Kouba
Ms. Fordahl
English 10
April 3 2014
Divergent Compare & Contrast
In the book Divergent by Veronica Roth, there are five factions in a futuristic dystopian city that was previously Chicago. Abnegation is a faction full of selfless people, Amity is full of kind people, Candor is full of truthful people, Dauntless is full of brave people, and Erudite is full of intelligent people. The main character is Beatrice (Tris) Prior, played by Shailene Woodley. She lives in Abnegation along with her mother, played by Ashley Judd, father, played by Tony Goldwyn, and brother, Caleb, played by Ansel Elgort. Caleb and Tris are both sixteen, and when the children in this city turn sixteen, they take an Aptitude Test, giving them an idea of what faction they should choose to live in. When Beatrice takes the test, she gets inconclusive results, making her Divergent, which is very dangerous to be. At the Choosing Ceremony the next day, she leaves her Abnegation life and chooses Dauntless. During initiation, she changes her name to Tris, and she meet other initiates. Christina, played by Zoe Kravitz, Will, played by Ben Lloyd-Hughes, Peter, played by Miles Teller, Molly, played by Amy Newbold, Al, played by Christian Madsen, and Edward, played by Ben Lamb. When the initiates get to the compound the all meet their instructor, Four, played by Theo James, and Eric, a Dauntless leader, played by Jai Courtney. The initiates learned that they would go through training in order to become a Dauntless member, and if they didn’t get a certain rank at the end of each stage of training, they would be cut and become factionless. During the two weeks that Tris is in training, Erudite is releasing negative reports about Abnegation, saying that Tris and Caleb’s father beat them, making them leave the faction. Tris and Four then later find out that Erudite is planning a war against Abnegation by manipulating the Dauntless into killing Abnegation leaders. Tris and Four are not affected by the manipulation serum, and they try to stop Jeanine Matthews, the one behind it all. They stop the manipulation and run away along with Caleb, Andrew, and Marcus.
Some similarities between the book and the movie were the characters. All of the main characters were credited and acted just as they did in the book. The Dauntless initiation was also very on point with the book, the train, jumping onto the roof, jumping into the pit, and the training methods. Another similarity was the Pit in the Dauntless compound, and how Eric made Christina hang over the railing of the chasm. One last thing that really stood out to me was how Four and Tris climbed up the Ferris wheel during the game of Capture the Flag. The movie really captured the essence of Four, ignoring his fear of heights just to make sure if anything happened to Tris, she was safe. It also really captured Tris's emotions and feelings for Four.
One big difference between the book and movie was when Tris and Molly fought in training. When Tris and Molly fought in the book, Tris beat the living day lights out of Molly, pushing Molly down in the rankings. But, in the book, Molly beat Tris. This, to me, showed that Tris never overcame her weakness. It shows she never came out of her shell and never evolved into the strong girl she was in the book. It just showed she barely scraped the bottom of the barrel in the rankings by losing to Molly.
Speaking of rankings, in the book, at the end of training, Tris was ranked first out of everyone. This showed that later on, she will have enemies and people who dislike her because of her skill. In the movie, Tris is ranked almost last. This completely eliminates the idea that the others think she isn't vulnerable like it did in the book. It doesn't create the controversy needed to make the rest of Tris's story interesting.
In conclusion, I liked the book ten times more than I liked the movie. The movie didn't capture what Roth showed in the book. There were scenes that were completely switched around in the movie, important things weren't shown, and things that weren't even in the book were added to the storyline. I believe the movie would've been excellent to someone who hadn't read the books, but since I read the book, the differences in the movie completely ruined it for me. Of course, the only thing that wasn't ruined for me was Theo James as Four. I mean, come on. Look at him.
