We’re back to Divergent! Last week on the slow novel version of the Sorting Hat we watched Tris wimp out on helping her friend as she hung from a precarious cliff and nearly died.
That night I dream that Christina hangs from the railing again, by her toes this time, and someone shouts that only someone who is Divergent can help her. So I run forward to pull her up, but someone shoves me over the edge, and I wake before I hit the rocks.
Dream foreshadowing is so weird, because I’ve yet to read it done really well. Even in Harry Potter it always felt very ‘children’s book’ and a little like the author was talking down to the reader.
I’m also realising the bigger issue I have with this book, is that I don’t really believe that being ‘Divergent’ is so unique? It’s really dumb to expect everyone to believe that every human isn’t a fine mix of all these ‘factions’, and in my mind the ‘true’ ones would be the rare ones.
Hopefully this is actually explained (like the factions are fake, etc) because I’m still not really buying it.
We re-enter the training room where Tris is paired up with Peter, the stock ‘bully’ character that might as well be named Goyle/Crabbe/Cato/[insert muscle villain from novel here].
“My cheeks feel hot. Al and Christina are just trying to help, but the fact that they don’t believe [ ... ] that I have a chance against Peter bothers me.”
Well, Tris, you won’t. You said yourself he’s a foot taller than you and way heavier. This isn’t between you as a highly trained fighter and some bulky dude. You’re both equally untrained and he has the advantage.
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| me @ Tris during this inner monologue |
There’s a fight scene, and Tris does her best to be a human version of the song “I Get Knocked Down” in a stupidly comical way.
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| well HERE'S a song I never thought I would reference |
Another writing pet peeve of mine is that when authors are describing their protagonist in pain, they often describe it this way:
“I scream for the first time, a high screech that belongs to someone else and not me”.
It’s not bad writing per se, but I feel like the reader gets lost in that sentence. Who does the screech belong to? An eagle? A velociraptor?
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| every book should have more of them |
Tris wakes up in the infirmary, and Christina and Al are visiting her. We get the clumsiest racial coding of Christina in the world:
His eyes are dark brown, almost the same color as Christina’s skin.
Er... yes. I’m far from the best person to speak on this, but why can’t authors just identify their characters by their ethnicity for the reader instead of making references to skin color all the time? Christina was actually cast as a black woman in the movie (thank God) but it seems like a lazy way to play the ‘I just meant that she was tan!!!11! Lolz!1!!’ card if there’s a movie adaptation (see: Katniss and her ‘dark olive’ skin).
Al stays behind after her friends leave to tell her that her injuries make her look like she ‘belongs’ in Dauntless, which honestly makes me picture a faction of moody pierced teenagers with lots of bruises and black eyes. Then Tris gets super personal and intrusive, but we’ll ignore it for plot!
“Al are you okay? [ ... ] I mean, is it getting any easier?”
[ ... ] The question must have embarrassed him [ ... ] If I spent my nights sobbing into my pillow, I would be a little embarrassed too.
That’s... weirdly rude and ridiculous. You brought up an uncomfortable question that even the bully of the group has ignored, because it’s not his business, and then you’re projecting your own emotions onto him and painting them as weakness?
Is Dauntless just an entire faction of Complete Assholes? Why would I ever root for anyone in this faction if their definition of bravery is just straight-up recklessness and life-threatening situations?
Al admits he pretended to be unconscious so that he wouldn’t have to needlessly beat anyone anymore, and Tris has this even more gross thought:
If he is a coward, it isn’t because he doesn’t enjoy pain. It is because he refuses to act.
TRIS. T R I S. HOW DARE YOU. YOU ARE JUST AS COMPLICIT IN LETTING THIS HAPPEN. WHAT A PISS POOR ATTITUDE TO HAVE.
Al leaves and Tris thinks about her family visiting, and because she is a huge hypocrite:
I clench my teeth as the tears come. I am fed up with tears and weakness.
I really hope there is actual development into the idea that having emotions isn’t weakness, because if not, then this just reads like an overdramatic teenager writing about emotions for the first time.
This book is moving so sloooowly, the plot hasn't even actually been revealed. So far the only thing I know is that Tris has multiple personality traits, like everyone else in the world! What a surprise!
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| this is me shouting at Veronica Roth |
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