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Empathy and sympathy are two strong feelings, and I love reading books, so I tend to see characters and situations slightly different. I feel with them, I try to put myself in their shoes. Divergent series by Veronica Roth, is very psychological (in layman’s terms of course). Society and individuals are divided into factions, based on personality types. The faction system here is very similar to what is happening in the real world now. The society is divided into factions and it has been for a long while, it is different in each era, based on certain intrinsic characteristics. It could be through jobs, likes and dislikes, hobbies, class and caste system.
I studied psychology sometime back, it helps me understand people and situations in different ways. The faction system in divergent is very much like the caste system, the erudite believe they have the right to run the system, they want to put down the abnegations, the existent ruling class. The other factions amity the farmers or the happy community, candour the faction that is always honest. The Dauntless, the faction the protagonists are part of, though they are Divergent, those individuals who cannot be part of one specific faction. They are shunned and hunted by the Erudite, who want to protect themselves and their power. The divergent cannot be controlled, the dauntless on the other hand can be controlled. Those of you who haven’t read the first book I advice you to not go forward after this section.

Though the story is fiction, parts of it are very real! People are controlled, this could be through coercion or in the case of this book or movie, through a serum which makes them controllable. Essentially they were part of a simulation, when they started to assassinate the abnegation. Now, simulations are very real, the fear simulation, both Four and Tris were part of, is very real. It taps a part of the brain that makes things feel very very real. The divergent cannot be controlled, that is why the erudite wanted them dead. Tris and Four can identify that the simulation is not real, that it is all in their head. So they are able to break through the serums force.
Society does put people down, in this case the faction system is the society. It controls individuals who are part of it, by shaping their mindset. Each faction is meant to do a certain task, the Erudite, the knowledge seeking and scientists, medical and educational lot. Candour, the people who see that law is maintained, that truth always prevails. The amity, the faction that is into agriculture, the peaceful group. Abnegation the selfless group, the group that doesn’t spend too much money, that helps others, they don’t believe in vanity and the current governing group. Dauntless, the protectors, law enforcers, peace keepers, essentially soldiers.
The book and the series are a very good read, it helps understand how rules can cripple the way individuals behave and how inequality is a byproduct of the rules that divide society or factions in the case of this book. The way a society is governed, how marginalisation can cause issues for thousands of people across different age groups. Here the individuals who are marginalised are both the divergent and the faction less who did not conform to the rules of faction system.