La Bene Vita

Divergent (Warning: SPOILERS)

What do you do when you've been writing in first person, and then you decide to kill off your protagonist?

You add a new protagonist to narrate your denouement, of course.

I admit: I was surprised and devastated by the loss of Tris. When Tobias said, "Of course she took Caleb's place," it clicked with me, too. Of course she did. Of course. But up until the point where she took the backpack, held her estranged brother at gunpoint, and took his place in the suicide mission, I didn't see it coming. However, after she did, and when she said she knew she wasn't going to survive, I knew it, too.

In the end, it had to be Tris, anyway. Caleb could have never pulled off what Tris pulled off. Like Tris, Caleb would not have had time to put on the protective suit, and since he was not immune, he would have succumbed to the death serum before reaching the target. Even if, by some miracle, he made it in time to type in the codes, he would never have persevered through the pain of multiple gunshot wounds the way Tris did. Her training and experience throughout the series, up until that point, taught her how to handle the obstacles she ended up facing. Only Tris could have done what she did.

After I recovered from emotional turmoil, I decided that I loved the ending, and I'm not sure how it could have ended any other way. Happily ever after? Hardly. Tris was too addicted to danger to ever go back to her calm Abnegation-style upbringing. Of course she had to die. Besides, she had to make the ultimate sacrifice - both for her despicable brother who didn't deserve it and for the entire surrounding population of people, both guilty and innocent. Her sacrifice was the only possible closure for both the reader and for Tris herself, who started her story lamenting that she was "not good enough" for Abnegation. Can she be any better, after willingly giving her life for the undeserving out of selfless love?

Christian overtone, anyone?

Many critics complain that the romance between Tris and Tobias progressed too quickly and unrealistically. I liked the pacing of the romance, but I did have an initial creeped-out feeling because he was her instructor, albeit only two years older than she. Speaking as a professional teacher, that's a line you just don't cross, and I had a hard time swallowing it (pun intended.) It didn't help that I thought Tobias was quite a bit older initially. But after training, I settled into the romance element and enjoyed it.

Some critics also complained that Tris progressed in her training too quickly. I didn't have a problem with that, either. Most of her development was mental and emotional anyway. She did strengthen her body, but not unrealistically so. The few times she asserted herself physically, I think she took her opponent by surprise and, like Tobias taught her, used her small size and speed to her advantage. It worked for me.

By biggest complaint about the series was the addition of Tobias as a first-person protagonist in the third book. Up until that point, the story was told by Tris exclusively, in first-person present (the same point of view and tense in which The Hunger Games was told - new literary trend?) But in the third book, Allegiant, the reader was introduced to a new perspective, and the author identified which protagonist was speaking through chapter titles, alternating "Tris" and "Tobias." It was a huge change, and I should have recognized the signs of Tris' eminent demise, but as I said, I liked her sacrifice, so that's not my complaint. My complaint is strictly about the voice: I kept forgetting whose head I was in, so I don't think Roth did a good job of differentiating the voices of Tris and Tobias.

Overall, a great series, and one I will probably read again.