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Divergent And Philosophy 

Back tract to my midterm report: we discussed how Divergent compares to Plato's Ideal society and how his ideas of the classes of society compare to divergent. Plato's three classes are producers, warriors, and rulers. In Divergent, the three classes are amity as the producers because they produced everything for the there factions, the warriors were the dauntless because they were the protectors, and the rulers were erudite. 

Another philosophy shown in Divergent is existentialism. Existential is a philosophy that emphasizes individual existence, freedom and choice. It emphasizes that we as humans define our own meaning of life, and work to make rational decisions despite all the other outside forces. Tris practices this in Divergent because she is divergent, so she doesn't fit in to any one faction. She makes all her own her decisions without other factors effecting her decisions. Another is theory of structural functionalism, which in Divergent is each faction working together but still separate to fulfill the whole societies needs. The major theme id faction over blood. The structures of the factions were: candor as the lawyers and judges, erudite as the teachers, amity as the caretakers, and dauntless as the protectors. Through this faction-based society we see and appreciate the effectiveness in our society of the individual and the importance we have to be whatever we want in life rather than being told. 

     

     Friedrich Nietzsche's idea of ubermensch which is the idea that a there is a superior man who can rise above the norm of society and make their own choices and be "masters of their fate". These that are ubermensch are not slaves to society like everyone else. The slaves in his theory are comparable to the amity and abnegation factions. Those who are like Nietzsche’s ubermensch are divergent (Tris and Tobias) because they act on their own self-realized morals and not just the morals of society. It also helps because they are dauntless so they are taught to be vicious and defeat their opponent at any cost. But they are also this because they don’t only want to be constricted to their one faction they want to be like all of them. All of the other people in Divergent who were not like the divergent would be what Nietzsche called "slaves to society". These people could not control their thoughts and decisions during the choosing ceremony because they could not fight back against the test that would fit them into only one society. So they would have to just go along with whatever test result they were given.

     

      Overall, there is a lot of philosophy rooted in the book and movie series Divergent. I believe that by seeing how this “futuristic society” functions, we can better appreciate our society and how we can choose for ourselves what we want to be. Yet there is also a lot in Divergent that leads some to believe that a society based like this can be productive and functional. It also challenges us to be divergent ourselves, and not to fall into one social norm or lifestyle, to step out and up to be different. 

      

      

Divergent And Philosophy
Quiz Questions
1. What divergent faction was similar to the producers of Plato's classes of society?
2.  What faction served as the protectors?
3. Who had the theory of Übermensch?

Discusion Questions 
1. Do you agree with the theory and ideas behind Übermensch?
2. Do you believe society could function if everyone fit into Plato's three classes of society?
3. Do you think if there was these five factions in our world today that we could function better without war and chaos as they did in the book?