Insurgent by Veronica Roth (Revised)

(This book contains spoilers.)

    Justice is a very complicated topic, both in this book and in our own world. This book takes place in future Chicago where the entire government is corrupt and the people are separated into 5 factions. They are: Abnegation, which is for those who can uphold selflessness; Amity, for those who are peaceful; Candor, for the honest; Dauntless, for the brave; and Erudite, which is intended for the knowledgeable ones. Then there is the factionless, which is for people who don’t have a faction. Then there are those who are Divergent, meaning that they are fit for more than 1 faction. They are never to speak that they are Divergent because then, the government will want them dead. This book relates to our world by showing how justice has a different meaning for each person. Everyone has different values and beliefs, causing them to look at justice differently.  

     This book relates to justice in our world in many ways. One of the first is that justice depends on who you are. In Tris’s world, it depends on what faction you are in. For Dauntless, justice might be “an eye of an eye”. So they are like the victim who wants revenge for the murder of a loved one. The Amity will decide with each member giving their opinions and vote. This makes them the jury. But for Abnegation, it might just be jail, making them to be like the police, making sure that everything is smooth. Candor will be truthful about what happened. And finally, Erudite will layout the facts. Erudite and Candor share the role of the judge. In our society, it’s very similar. It all depends on who you are, what your morals are and your values. An example of this is at the end, from pages 516-518, when Johanna, the ex-representative of Amity, wants to know if Tori, one of the three leaders of Dauntless, will let amity care for the wounded. Tori gives her a look, meaning that she won’t and this makes Johanna angry. This shows that some people are able to accept that people make mistakes, like the Amity, while others can’t, like the Dauntless. This is why justice is hard and why many countries today are called corrupt.

     But there are people like Tris who are kind of Divergent. They are half and half, or in Tris’s case, three thirds (she is Abnegation, Dauntless, and Erudite; that’s why she is unique and the reason she is that is because of her parents (hint, hint, hint)). These people are understanding and intelligent. They are capable of putting themselves in the shoes of others and acting like them as well. A good example of this is when Tris was able to put herself in the position of Jeanine Mathews’, the leader of Erudite, shoes to see why she did what she did and her future plans (pgs. 205-207). Here, that would be like being a detective. A detective has to look many ways to find clues, suspects and, at the end and sometimes, although hardly ever, never, gets the attacker.

     Justice, in both this book and our own world, is portrayed as a very tough topic that has a different definition for every person. That’s why it is sometimes very hard to get justice because everyone has different views. So sometimes, it seems that there isn’t any justice at all. Or that it doesn’t make any sense. But you have to realize that it seems that way for you but may differ for others. So you have to look at it from all possible angles to understand. After all, it’s better to be Divergent than it is to be single minded. Or at least I think so, that is...