Character Analysis
Four, being a prequel to the Divergent trilogy, means we get some cameos from a bunch of Divergent characters we love (and love to hate).
Just like in Divergent, one of the first people we meet is Tori, she of the aptitude tests and the tattoo parlor. Just as she lets Tris know she's Divergent in Divergent, she guides Four to his destiny, too. And she also calls Four a "masochist" (2.120), an assessment we honestly have to agree with.
This being Four's story, we get to interact with both his parents. First, there's his abusive father, Marcus Eaton, who plays a big part in the first story, "The Transfer," when he beats Four (then just called Tobias) with a belt one night and gives him a haircut the next. Four wonders how his father can be such a monster one night, and trim his hair the next. Has he "already shoved it into a separate compartment in his mind, keeping his monster half separate from his father half" (1.131)? Four later returns to see Marcus, but the reunion isn't productive at all.
We're also with Four when he learns that his mother, Evelyn Eaton, is still alive. He's not happy that his mother isn't dead. He's angry. Four tells her, "You left me alone in a house with a sadistic maniac" (3.203). Evelyn is bitter with her former faction. When Four tells her that Dauntless is planning an attack against Abnegation, Evelyn is fine with letting them all blow up since a few of them are liars anyway. Her cold attitude drives her and Four even further apart.
Speaking of planning an attack, we get a brief cameo from villainess Jeanine Matthews, who looms around asking questions.
We briefly meet Lauren, an initiation instructor who works as a computer technician, and Gus, Four's supervisor (who can't supervise very well). Once Tris appears, we get brief mentions of her friends, Nicole, Lynn, Marlene, as well as some of her minor antagonists, like Peter, Drew, and Al, who kills himself.