Less is More.

When looking at the best-selling series of Divergent, readers are enthralled with the well-developed characters, plot, and setting. But the root of the story is the simplicity of the words on the page and how she molds and shapes them into something new, something exciting, and portrays the largest of ideas with the fewest words. This series is targeted at ages fourteen years and up, so it is placed in the Young Adult Literature category. But the interesting thing about this is even though it is targeted at eighth graders there are concepts and ideas that an adult would understand and thrive on. Even though this is considered adolescent literature, the writing in the novel is spectacular and Veronica Roth’s use of words is something to admire.

Many critics compare Divergent and The Hunger Games, even as far as saying that “for a book that explores themes about the right to be individual and the importance of breaking away from the pack, ‘Divergent’ does not exactly distinguish itself” (Dominus). But I have to disagree, though Divergent follows some of the same themes as Hunger Games did like girls breaking out of their societies norms, Roth does something more. Roth leaves the reader to interpret and make his/her own story. She uses phrases with very little words to portray a larger idea. In the second book in the series Insurgent, Roth leaves her main character Tris reflecting on her own feelings, motives, and actions, leaving the reader to stop and analyze how Tris is truly feelings, “I am almost afraid of him. I don’t know what to say or do around the erratic part of him, and it is here, bubbling just beneath the surface of what he does, just like the cruel part of me. We both have war inside of us. Sometimes it keeps us alive. Sometimes it threatens to destroy us” (242). This passage speaks to me. Roth uses simplicity to portray the larger image of the story: fear. There is even an element of the unknown shown throughout the series, the unknown of each other, and the unknown of the future. But never once is this said, instead it is shown.

Another critic for the New York Times states, “the book’s characters and themes are blunt, coarse things, with almost no nuance. What is compelling in Katniss, for example—her ambivalence about power, violence and romantic love—is entirely absent in Tris, who lives in a world of moral certainties. The regime’s overthrow is the only right thing to do, worthy of any kind of sacrifice; her companion, Four, is the man for her from the start of the books to the finish. In other words the thing is flat, flat, flat” (New York Times). Again I disagree, and loudly, I have read both series, if anything is flat it would have to be Katniss. Katniss fails to show any emotion throughout the series, whereas Tris has long excerpts like the one above where she reflects on the situations at hand. I could go on and on about the differences of both series, but that is meant for another paper.

In one of my other classes, I choose to look at the etymologies of the words that Roth uses in a 170 excerpt. I used the last two pages of Divergent, and found that most of Roth’s words stem from Old English. This is interesting because these are the simpler words, those that are not specific to any trade such as: a, and, everything, become, brother, behind, the list goes on and on. These are the words that adolescents use on a daily basis, those that come up in daily conversations amongst their peers Of the 170 words I looked at 106 of those were from Old English. The type of the words fairly matters, though it is interesting to look at, what does matter is how Roth shapes these words into ideas and even larger into a story.

The passage I used discuss the ambiguity that awaits them. The passage reads as such:

I kiss him as the train slides into unlit, uncertain land. I kiss him for as long as I want, for longer than I should, given that my brother sits three feet away from me.

I reach into my pocket and take out the hard drive that contains the simulation data. I turn it in my hands, letting it catch the fading light and reflect it. Marcus’s eyes cling greedily to the movement. Not safe. I think. Not quite.

            I clutch the hard drive to my chest, lean my head on Tobia’s shoulder, and try to sleep.

Abnegation and Dauntless are both broken, their members scattered. We are like the factionless now. I do not know what life will be like, separated from a faction—it feels disengaged, like a leaf divided from the tree that gives it sustenance. We are creatures of loss; we have left everything behind.  I have no home, no path, and no certainty. I am no longer Tris, the selfless, or Tris, the brave.

            I suppose that now, I must become more than either.

This passage is just as striking as the one in Insurgent because a sixteen year old should be scared of what is to come right after losing her parents in an all-out war and now they are being hunted. But what she doesn’t say is that she is scared. Instead she talks of what is lost, what is disengaged, that she has nothing anymore. She even questions who she is. This is far from a flat character.

            Critics need to reread both series back to back. The Hunger Games lacks plot, and is very repetitive, as a reader one has an idea of what is to come. In Divergent it is the complete opposite, the ending of the series takes everyone by surprise. Veronica Roth does a lot with very few words, she conveys ideas using the words that her audience uses in everyday conversation. Though she parallels the themes that are being seen throughout adolescent literature today, she does it in a captivating way that makes the reader young or old to question the book itself, and his or her self.

Works Cited

DOMINUS, SUSAN. "In This Dystopia, Teens Must Choose Wisely." New York Times. The New York Times, 12 May 2011. Web. 22 Nov. 2014.

Dean, Michelle. "Our Young-Adult Dystopia." The New York Times. The New York Times, 31 Jan. 2014. Web. 22 Nov. 2014. <http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/02/magazine/our-young-adult-dystopia.html>.

Roth, Veronica. Divergent. New York: HarperCollins, 2011. Print.

Roth, Veronica. Insurgent. New York: HarperCollins, 2012. Print.