DIVERGENT.....

The movie

Divergent is a March 2014 film adaptation of a novel with the same title. The novel was authored by Veronica Roth and the film was directed by Neil Burger. It was hoped to be the first of The Divergent Series, the second installment of which is scheduled for release in March 2015.

The movie was situated in a ‘futuristic dystopian Chicago’ community where the inhabitants are divided into four factions who were grouped according to their virtues: the selfless Abnegation, the honest Candor, the brave Dauntless, and the intelligent Erudite. The factions are meant to secure the harmony of the community, where the members are expected to behave and contribute according to their strengths and virtues. The Abnegation class is assigned as the leader group precisely because of their selflessness. This is highly reminiscent of the Platonic ‘Republic’ of the classical times where the members of the community are also expected to contribute to their faction based on their strengths; except for Plato’s insistence on the leading role of the intelligent group as opposed to the selfless character of the movie’s Abnegation class. In this movie’s version of the factions, each person is required to affiliate to one of the four groups when he/she reaches 16 years old. Each is tested based on aptitude and is expected to make a lifelong commitment with the chosen group.

The movie’s protagonist, Beatrice Prior, was tested for the factions but was found to possess more than one dominant virtue: she is selfless, brave and intelligent. She was a ‘divergent’ – the type for those who are non-classifiable because of their multi-virtue attribute. Divergents however were seen as threats to the stability of the faction-system, and the government is then set on eliminating them. Despite discovering her multiple-virtues, Beatrice opted to affiliate with the dauntless, and followed the instruction of her examination proctor to keep the results of the exam to herself.

As a neophyte in the Dauntless camp, Beatrice – who shortened her name into Tris – had to go through the rigors of the training, where she struggled if not for the help and support of her mentor, Four. Tris has managed to top her challenges and even forged a special bond with Four, whom she eventually learned to be also a Divergent. Four had to warn Tris to make sure that her being a Divergent never gets discovered throughout the test.

At the culmination of Tris’ test to become a Dauntless, the sinister plot of the Erudite to usurp the ‘leadership role’ from the Abnegation group was discovered. The Erudite tricked the Dauntless group and used them to annihilate the Abnegation group. Two divergents, Tris and Four – along with Tris’ family, were instrumental in arresting the rebellion.

On the issue of virtues and freedom

The movie expresses a strong critique against those who thought that ‘totalitarian communities,’ where clear-cut roles of members are defined, will secure peace and harmony. The divergent class is a reminder that a rather simplistic view of the community, where people are thoroughly classified and each is able to align his/her desire with the expected behavior within his/her class, will not work. The divergent class is both a challenging realism and a hopeful invitation.

A challenging realism. The divergent class allows us to realize that individuals are never bereft of ‘personal’ and even ‘selfish’ inclinations. Yes, there are structures that will elicit our virtuous characters, but there are always those who diverge from expectations because of their personal – and sometimes selfish – motives for action.  The Philippines, for example, is currently rocked by the scandals in our politics mainly brought by the ‘divergent’ behaviors – as they are so accused – of our public servants – both elected and appointed – who are now facing charges on plunder. Should the allegations be proven true, these offenders will have shown us their ‘departure’ from the virtues expected them due to their office. Whereas they were expected to become honest and concerned for the people, they have diverged to become the corrupt individuals as they are now charged. A ‘realistic’ portrayal of the social and political structure can never ignore these deviations. There will always be members of the community – either from the ranks of leaders or from among the ordinary citizens – who will depart from the expected virtues because of personal (and selfish) reasons. This is who we really are – not that we are all sinful -, we are beings who are called to perpetually deal with our desires and inclinations for some of our wishes can pull us away from our main responsibilities in the family, school, organization or society in general. 

A hopeful invitation. Despite the challenge, however, the ‘divergent’ character reminds us of a very important component of the human person – our freedom. It is to this hopeful aspect of the divergent that the movie has centered on. The movie makes us see that the human person is always beyond – and is certainly more than – the structures that define our existence. Most of these structures are undeniable and inescapable. There are conditions that surround – and even define – our existence without our explicit approval and intention. A German philosopher, Martin Heidegger, has once reminded us that ‘we are simply thrown into the world’ where many of the things that we have to deal with are beyond our choices. It is almost beyond our option to use or not to use a computer, a cellphone, an ATM card, or the internet – very few will make the divergent option of foregoing these technologies. For most of us, ‘we simply use these things because they are there’ and they are presented to us as beneficial technologies. More importantly, these technologies define the expected behaviors from their users – facebook users, for example, are supposed to update their accounts every now and then, they are expected to like and comment on the posts of their friends, they are supposed to respond to messages, etc. As in the dystopian Chicago environment depicted in the movie, our society assigns certain behaviors expected of its members. To become a divergent is tantamount to becoming an outcast.

Yet, the movie gave us this hopeful invitation. It reminds us not to allow ourselves to be dictated by the predefined (expected) behaviors within the contemporary system. We are expected to continuously become truthful to ourselves, and such fidelity to who we are as persons will sometimes invite us to become a divergent member of the socialized environment.

The first of the Divergent Series has hinted us about the unfolding of the protagonists’ characters in the sequel of the series. But, we are already reminded that there is nothing wrong with becoming divergent if it is to be an outcome of our truthfulness to ourselves.

Questions to ponder:

1. What are the dominant behaviors (pop culture) in our communities – especially in the social media – that can become unhealthy for us?

2. How much do I know myself? What are the things that I like most about myself?

3. What are those traits that other people like most about me?