In the film The Maze Runner by James Dashner and the novel Divergent by Veronica Roth, both authors or directors have chosen to focus on a similar theme. Both examples are set in a disastrous Dystopian world where the two young main characters are “immune” to a particular type of virus, experiment or test.
In Divergent, Tris, or Beatris, is born a “Divergent”, meaning that she doesn’t fit into only one faction, making her “dangerous” to the community and they are trying to eliminate her, but despite the endless armies coming for her, she ends up defending herself and ultimately saving and rebuilding their lonely dystopian future.
In The Maze Runner, Thomas, who is the main character wakes up in an unknown place knowing only his name. Both Tris and Thomas are very strong-willed personas and are not phased by the government/rulers, and will do whatever it takes to save themselves or the ones they love. Veronica Roth’s descriptive language and features are very strong, and as you read, every word creates a little movie that plays in your head.
Divergent reminds me of the evil ruler of Germany in 1939; Hitler. It makes me think of how he was trying to attain a specific race. Adolf Hitler imagined that those who were not Nazis were worthless and he didn’t want people who didn’t have his beliefs to be in his “prime race”. In Divergent, we can see that Jeanine Matthews believed that the faction “Abnegation” weren’t cut out to be a key component of her plan for a new colony, and so she and her workers set out to eliminate all Abnegation members.
Through the years, you can see multiple examples of chiefs and religious gangs or groups attempt to overtake a country and to say that their needs are more important than the others. I strongly believe that all of these thoughts are created by one thing; which is separation. In the modern day, it is shown that a certain religion or race is lesser than the others and we’re all becoming discriminated by one another. I realised that Veronica Roth has alike perspective on separation.
I felt that after reading her quote where she discusses the outcomes the separation of the factions had on a few of the characters, “Because it forced people to become narrower, twisted versions of themselves, and they ripped each other apart.” This quote summarizes what I believe the separation of the each of the factions did to Jeanine Matthews.
