Wait, What Now?
In Tris' simulations in the past few days, she's faced four different fears: Peter setting her on fire, drowning in an ocean, her family bleeding to death, and being forced to shoot her family. The following day, she faces that final simulation again, and tells Four that she misses1. She asks if Four misses his family, too, but he doesn't; this makes Tris curious. She wonders again if he is Divergent. When returning to the dormitory, Tris receives a shock: she is ranked first after stage two. Peter is second, but while his average simulation time is eight minutes, hers is only two minutes and forty-five seconds. Al is ranked last. Peter freaks out and insists that Tris is trying to manipulate them in some way. Will defends her, but after Peter leaves Will asks her if he was right. Both Will and Christina storm out of the room as well, and only a hopeless Al is left.
Some of the Dauntless-born initiates, Uriah, Marlene, and Lynn, come to congratulate Tris.
When getting a drink of water in the middle of the night, Tris overhears a conversation between Eric and someone else about whether or not she is Divergent. Then all the sudden a hand clamps over her mouth and a dark cloth is put over her eyes; Peter and two other people kidnap her. She matches the smell of the hand over her mouth with the smell of Al's bunk. She fights as they take her near to the Chasm, and then, all the sudden, someone comes and defends Tris: Four. Tris wakes up in a small room, and sees Four washing blood off of his knuckles. Four explains that he dropped Drew off at the infirmary, and Peter and Al ran; Drew insisted that they were only trying to scare Tris. Four offers to report this, but Tris refuses; she doesn't want them to think she's scared. She's hurt from Al's betrayal. Four says he hurt her because her strength made him feel weak. He adds that it wouldn't hurt her to pretend to be vulnerable. He tells her that it's more important for her to be safe than to be right, but asks her to ruin them when the time comes. He also tells her not to call him Four, but doesn't offer an alternative - yet. Tris sleeps in Four's bed that night, not wanting to sleep in the same room as the people who attacked her. In the dark, while staring at him sleeping, she admits that she likes him.
The next day, Tris wakes up and goes to the dining hall. She sits down with Will and Christina, and Uriah joins her; all three stare at her wounds. Tris says the names of her attackers. They're shocked to hear Al included. Eventually Drew comes into the dining hall, even more beat up than Tris is, and Four smiles in satisfaction. Uriah decides that the only thing they can do about this is edge them all out of the rankings. On the way to training, Christina apologizes to Tris for the way she acted. Four leads them on a climb all the way up through the pit, and announces that today they will face a different kind of simulation: the fear landscape. They have stored data about each initiate's worst fears, and they will have to get through a simulation of all of them. The number of fears they face will correspond to the number of fears they have. The following week, they will go through their fear landscape as fast as possible in front of a panel of Dauntless, which will determine final ranking. Back in the dorm, Al asks to talk to Tris, trying to apologize. She does not accept; she tells him to stay away from her and never come near her again. Christina wakes Tris in the middle of a dream about her mother, and takes her to the edge of the Chasm where workers are hauling something up from its depths. To Tris's shock, it's a body - Al. He pitched himself over the edge, killing himself. Tris leaves Christina on the ground and runs away. She goes to the tattoo parlor, where Tori gives her peppermint tea to drink as the funeral begins.
She asks Tori how long it took her to be okay again after her brother died, and Tori responds that sometimes she still doesn't feel okay. They head to the funeral; in Dauntless, a funeral is a raucous, drunken occasion in which the life is celebrated rather than mourned. Eric plasters on a false smile and makes a speech about the bravery it takes to venture into the unknown of death. Tris, however, disagrees; she thinks it would've been braver to just admit weakness and leave Dauntless. She leaves the funeral early and runs into Four. During her fit of rage, Four grabs her and warns her that the Dauntless leaders are watching her closely. He says he keeps trying to help her, but she refuses to be helped. He also warns her that her selfless instinct is dangerous, and Tris accuses him of always trying to protect her. He denies it, and says his first instinct is to push her until she breaks, because he's fascinated by the way fear wakes her up rather than shuts her down. For the first time, they truly embrace, and Tris wonders aloud whether if she'd forgiven him, Al would still be alive. Four says she has to use the guilt to remind her to do better next time, a mantra drilled into the heads of Abnegation children, which makes Tris asks what faction he actually came from. He refuses to say. Tris makes a drastic decision to get a tattoo of the Abnegation seal, because she feels it's still a part of her identity. Afterwards, she, Will and Christina go stand over the Chasm and throw down every report that Erudite made about Abnegation. They discuss Jeanine Matthews, the Erudite representative, and Tris asks Will's opinion on everything she's saying. He suggests that it might be a good idea for multiple factions to run the government, rather than just one, which makes Tris a little touchy. She also notices the beginnings of a relationship between Will and Christina. Later, Tris catches up with Four, who invites her into his fear landscape. Before they go in, he tells her to see if she can figure out why they call him Four, and if she can figure out his real name.
In the first part of the landscape they're on top of a building, reflecting his fear of heights, and they have to jump off. Next they're trapped inside a small room, representing his fear of confinement, and they have to scrunch up tight in order to pass this stage. They're closer than they've ever been, both physically and emotionally, and Tris makes him talk about the origin of this fear. Four tells her he was punished as a child by being forced into the small upstairs closet. Next, a woman is pointing a gun at them, and on a table next to them is another gun; Four must kill her. Then finally, he has to face a man that Tris recognizes: Marcus Eaton, one of the Abnegation representatives. She realizes that Four is really Tobias Eaton, the boy who transferred to Dauntless.
Marcus begins to beat Tobias with a belt, and Tris steps in its path. She grabs the belt and swings it towards Marcus instead. Then the landscape ends, and Tris realizes that he only has four fears: that's why they call him Four. Tobias tells Tris that his four fears have not changed since he arrived in Dauntless. She asks about his aptitude test results, and he says that his result was Abnegation, and explains that he chose Dauntless to get away from his father. He mentions that part of the reason he didn't want to be a Dauntless leader is because he still sometimes feels like he doesn't belong among the Dauntless. He tells Tris his theory that selflessness and bravery aren't very different, and Tris admits that she left Abnegation because she wasn't selfless enough. But he reminds her of the times she's shown selflessness - when she stood in front of the knife target for Al, or her interference in his fear landscape. Tobias admits that he likes her after a deep conversation. Then they kiss for the first time, and it occurs to Tris that if they had both chosen to remain in Abnegation, they might be doing the same thing in gray clothes instead of black.
Tris is in a great mood the next morning, and as she goes to the dining hall she expects to spend the meal with Tobias. But when he walks in he completely ignores her. The initiates discuss fear landscape day, and Uriah tells them they'll be seeing an instructor's landscape today. Christina says she hopes it's Four's, but Tris insists that it won't be him, because she knows he won't want them to see his father. It turns out to be Lauren's landscape that they view; she tells them that a normal person will have between ten and fifteen fears. The lowest number someone has gotten in recent years is four -Tobias, obviously. Each initiate faces one of Lauren's fears, and Tris gets kidnapping. It's too much for her to handle, and she screams and screams until they stop the simulation, as Lauren's fear of kidnapping has become one of her own. In front of everyone, Tobias tells her to get herself together, and that her response was pathetic.
Tris decides that it's time to go to visit Caleb. She sneaks out without supervision and heads for Erudite headquarters. The main Erudite building is a library, complete with a huge portrait of Jeanine Matthews. She goes up to a desk and asks to see her brother, but the person in charge insists that he can't give out personal information. Then all the sudden Caleb's behind her, calling her name. He's wearing glasses and a blue t-shirt. He's shocked by the way Beatrice looks and acts and asks her if she made the right choice, but she denies that there was even a right choice to begin with. Tris says his faction's corrupt, but they continue to disagree, and Caleb tells her to leave. Before she does, she tells him their mother said to research the simulation serum, and he's jealous that she saw her; he was unaware that the Erudite were barring Abnegation visitors from their compound. Before Tris can leave, she's taken away by two Erudite men. She's taken to Jeanine Matthews herself, and she recognizes the woman's voice from her aptitude test - and from overheard secret meeting with Eric. Jeanine says that test was her greatest accomplishment as a scientist. She also reveals that Tris and Tobias were the only two Abnegation ever to switch to Dauntless. She presses Tris, asking why another one of her simulation tests didn't show in the records. It's obvious to Tris that she's trying to get some proof of her Divergence. Tris insists that her sensitive stomach means that every simulation makes her sick. She begins to weave another lie, saying that she chose Dauntless because she was bored of being good all the time. She says she doesn't miss her family, and Jeanine asks if that means she agrees with all the reports that have been printed about them. Tris swallows her pride and says yes. Tris's escorted back to Dauntless, where Eric greets her menacingly. He accuses her of being a traitor, and threatens to change both her rank and the ranks of her friends. Tobias walks in and intervenes, giving Tris a look that clearly says she must feign vulnerability to get out of this. She lies to Eric and says she ran off because she tried to kiss Tobias and he rejected her. He falls for it and lets her go. She's mad at Tobias for everything at first, but he insists that by ignoring her, he was trying to protect her, because Peter would be raged if he found out they were in a relationship. She forgives him, but then they worry about whether or not her act was satisfactory enough to convince Eric and Jeanine. Christina reveals something big to Tris: Will kissed her. She admits that they really like each other, but also that she sometimes misses Candor, where there was no manipulation and everyone always knows where they stand.
That night, Tobias pulls Tris into a train car and while riding the train, they look out and see that the lights of the Erudite buildings are on all night, and they wonder what they're doing that requires constant energy. Tobias admits two things to Tris: that he is very suspicious of people, and that he is very good with computers. Before training started, he found a way into Dauntless files and discovered what looked like war plans, sent by Erudite. They're planning a war on Abnegation, and will use the combat-skilled Dauntless as their soldiers.
Some of the Dauntless-born initiates, Uriah, Marlene, and Lynn, come to congratulate Tris.
When getting a drink of water in the middle of the night, Tris overhears a conversation between Eric and someone else about whether or not she is Divergent. Then all the sudden a hand clamps over her mouth and a dark cloth is put over her eyes; Peter and two other people kidnap her. She matches the smell of the hand over her mouth with the smell of Al's bunk. She fights as they take her near to the Chasm, and then, all the sudden, someone comes and defends Tris: Four. Tris wakes up in a small room, and sees Four washing blood off of his knuckles. Four explains that he dropped Drew off at the infirmary, and Peter and Al ran; Drew insisted that they were only trying to scare Tris. Four offers to report this, but Tris refuses; she doesn't want them to think she's scared. She's hurt from Al's betrayal. Four says he hurt her because her strength made him feel weak. He adds that it wouldn't hurt her to pretend to be vulnerable. He tells her that it's more important for her to be safe than to be right, but asks her to ruin them when the time comes. He also tells her not to call him Four, but doesn't offer an alternative - yet. Tris sleeps in Four's bed that night, not wanting to sleep in the same room as the people who attacked her. In the dark, while staring at him sleeping, she admits that she likes him.
The next day, Tris wakes up and goes to the dining hall. She sits down with Will and Christina, and Uriah joins her; all three stare at her wounds. Tris says the names of her attackers. They're shocked to hear Al included. Eventually Drew comes into the dining hall, even more beat up than Tris is, and Four smiles in satisfaction. Uriah decides that the only thing they can do about this is edge them all out of the rankings. On the way to training, Christina apologizes to Tris for the way she acted. Four leads them on a climb all the way up through the pit, and announces that today they will face a different kind of simulation: the fear landscape. They have stored data about each initiate's worst fears, and they will have to get through a simulation of all of them. The number of fears they face will correspond to the number of fears they have. The following week, they will go through their fear landscape as fast as possible in front of a panel of Dauntless, which will determine final ranking. Back in the dorm, Al asks to talk to Tris, trying to apologize. She does not accept; she tells him to stay away from her and never come near her again. Christina wakes Tris in the middle of a dream about her mother, and takes her to the edge of the Chasm where workers are hauling something up from its depths. To Tris's shock, it's a body - Al. He pitched himself over the edge, killing himself. Tris leaves Christina on the ground and runs away. She goes to the tattoo parlor, where Tori gives her peppermint tea to drink as the funeral begins.
She asks Tori how long it took her to be okay again after her brother died, and Tori responds that sometimes she still doesn't feel okay. They head to the funeral; in Dauntless, a funeral is a raucous, drunken occasion in which the life is celebrated rather than mourned. Eric plasters on a false smile and makes a speech about the bravery it takes to venture into the unknown of death. Tris, however, disagrees; she thinks it would've been braver to just admit weakness and leave Dauntless. She leaves the funeral early and runs into Four. During her fit of rage, Four grabs her and warns her that the Dauntless leaders are watching her closely. He says he keeps trying to help her, but she refuses to be helped. He also warns her that her selfless instinct is dangerous, and Tris accuses him of always trying to protect her. He denies it, and says his first instinct is to push her until she breaks, because he's fascinated by the way fear wakes her up rather than shuts her down. For the first time, they truly embrace, and Tris wonders aloud whether if she'd forgiven him, Al would still be alive. Four says she has to use the guilt to remind her to do better next time, a mantra drilled into the heads of Abnegation children, which makes Tris asks what faction he actually came from. He refuses to say. Tris makes a drastic decision to get a tattoo of the Abnegation seal, because she feels it's still a part of her identity. Afterwards, she, Will and Christina go stand over the Chasm and throw down every report that Erudite made about Abnegation. They discuss Jeanine Matthews, the Erudite representative, and Tris asks Will's opinion on everything she's saying. He suggests that it might be a good idea for multiple factions to run the government, rather than just one, which makes Tris a little touchy. She also notices the beginnings of a relationship between Will and Christina. Later, Tris catches up with Four, who invites her into his fear landscape. Before they go in, he tells her to see if she can figure out why they call him Four, and if she can figure out his real name.
In the first part of the landscape they're on top of a building, reflecting his fear of heights, and they have to jump off. Next they're trapped inside a small room, representing his fear of confinement, and they have to scrunch up tight in order to pass this stage. They're closer than they've ever been, both physically and emotionally, and Tris makes him talk about the origin of this fear. Four tells her he was punished as a child by being forced into the small upstairs closet. Next, a woman is pointing a gun at them, and on a table next to them is another gun; Four must kill her. Then finally, he has to face a man that Tris recognizes: Marcus Eaton, one of the Abnegation representatives. She realizes that Four is really Tobias Eaton, the boy who transferred to Dauntless.
Marcus begins to beat Tobias with a belt, and Tris steps in its path. She grabs the belt and swings it towards Marcus instead. Then the landscape ends, and Tris realizes that he only has four fears: that's why they call him Four. Tobias tells Tris that his four fears have not changed since he arrived in Dauntless. She asks about his aptitude test results, and he says that his result was Abnegation, and explains that he chose Dauntless to get away from his father. He mentions that part of the reason he didn't want to be a Dauntless leader is because he still sometimes feels like he doesn't belong among the Dauntless. He tells Tris his theory that selflessness and bravery aren't very different, and Tris admits that she left Abnegation because she wasn't selfless enough. But he reminds her of the times she's shown selflessness - when she stood in front of the knife target for Al, or her interference in his fear landscape. Tobias admits that he likes her after a deep conversation. Then they kiss for the first time, and it occurs to Tris that if they had both chosen to remain in Abnegation, they might be doing the same thing in gray clothes instead of black.
Tris is in a great mood the next morning, and as she goes to the dining hall she expects to spend the meal with Tobias. But when he walks in he completely ignores her. The initiates discuss fear landscape day, and Uriah tells them they'll be seeing an instructor's landscape today. Christina says she hopes it's Four's, but Tris insists that it won't be him, because she knows he won't want them to see his father. It turns out to be Lauren's landscape that they view; she tells them that a normal person will have between ten and fifteen fears. The lowest number someone has gotten in recent years is four -Tobias, obviously. Each initiate faces one of Lauren's fears, and Tris gets kidnapping. It's too much for her to handle, and she screams and screams until they stop the simulation, as Lauren's fear of kidnapping has become one of her own. In front of everyone, Tobias tells her to get herself together, and that her response was pathetic.
Tris decides that it's time to go to visit Caleb. She sneaks out without supervision and heads for Erudite headquarters. The main Erudite building is a library, complete with a huge portrait of Jeanine Matthews. She goes up to a desk and asks to see her brother, but the person in charge insists that he can't give out personal information. Then all the sudden Caleb's behind her, calling her name. He's wearing glasses and a blue t-shirt. He's shocked by the way Beatrice looks and acts and asks her if she made the right choice, but she denies that there was even a right choice to begin with. Tris says his faction's corrupt, but they continue to disagree, and Caleb tells her to leave. Before she does, she tells him their mother said to research the simulation serum, and he's jealous that she saw her; he was unaware that the Erudite were barring Abnegation visitors from their compound. Before Tris can leave, she's taken away by two Erudite men. She's taken to Jeanine Matthews herself, and she recognizes the woman's voice from her aptitude test - and from overheard secret meeting with Eric. Jeanine says that test was her greatest accomplishment as a scientist. She also reveals that Tris and Tobias were the only two Abnegation ever to switch to Dauntless. She presses Tris, asking why another one of her simulation tests didn't show in the records. It's obvious to Tris that she's trying to get some proof of her Divergence. Tris insists that her sensitive stomach means that every simulation makes her sick. She begins to weave another lie, saying that she chose Dauntless because she was bored of being good all the time. She says she doesn't miss her family, and Jeanine asks if that means she agrees with all the reports that have been printed about them. Tris swallows her pride and says yes. Tris's escorted back to Dauntless, where Eric greets her menacingly. He accuses her of being a traitor, and threatens to change both her rank and the ranks of her friends. Tobias walks in and intervenes, giving Tris a look that clearly says she must feign vulnerability to get out of this. She lies to Eric and says she ran off because she tried to kiss Tobias and he rejected her. He falls for it and lets her go. She's mad at Tobias for everything at first, but he insists that by ignoring her, he was trying to protect her, because Peter would be raged if he found out they were in a relationship. She forgives him, but then they worry about whether or not her act was satisfactory enough to convince Eric and Jeanine. Christina reveals something big to Tris: Will kissed her. She admits that they really like each other, but also that she sometimes misses Candor, where there was no manipulation and everyone always knows where they stand.
That night, Tobias pulls Tris into a train car and while riding the train, they look out and see that the lights of the Erudite buildings are on all night, and they wonder what they're doing that requires constant energy. Tobias admits two things to Tris: that he is very suspicious of people, and that he is very good with computers. Before training started, he found a way into Dauntless files and discovered what looked like war plans, sent by Erudite. They're planning a war on Abnegation, and will use the combat-skilled Dauntless as their soldiers.
"It's when you are at acting selflessly that you are at your bravest" (Roth, 311)
This quote made me love it. This explains that Tris is both Abnegation and Dauntless at the same time. This also contradicts my theory about how Abnegation was her lowest percentage of personality. This changes everything! If we follow Four's theory, Abnegation would make up 30% of Tris's personality, Erudite 20%, and Dauntless 50%. I just loved how Roth contradicted and made me build up another percentage of Tris's personality.
"Protect Al. My friend. My attacker" (Roth, 312)
This quote is said after Four explains to her that if she gave up in the knife throwing, Al had to take her place in front of the target. This means that she has to be brave in order to protect others. I think this is a nice quote because, if you think about it, shows that a friend can be turned enemy, or an enemy can be turned friend, or both!(Paradox) Tris wanted to protect Al, even when he betrayed her, and I think that is selfless and brave.
I need more!
In these chapters, Tris had to go through a lot. Her best friend betraying her, having to kill her parents in a simulation, her brother betraying her, and her best friend killing himself! Wow, Tris must be tough. These chapters were just shocking, every minute bringing out a new event and changing not only the story, but myself too. I just loved the chapters and seeing Four, Tobias, developed from a mean instructor, to a loving character. We still have a lot to see, and I cannot wait!
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