Allegiant Identity

What makes people who they are? Are they defined more by their genes or by what jeans they wear?

In Allegiant, we go from a society that dictates what kind of clothes people wear to a society where people dictate which genes are "good" and which are bad. With all these external influences, what's a young-adult gal or guy supposed to do? Well, Tris and Tobias have to do the same thing every other young-adult hero has to do: they have to figure things out on their own.

Questions About Identity

1. What traits of her former faction(s) do Tris and Tobias accept as a part of their identity? Which traits do they reject?
2. How is Tobias affected by the revelation that he is "genetically damaged"? How does it affect how he sees himself and the choices he makes?
3. How do the "genetically damaged" see themselves? Do they behave differently from people who are in factions?
4. Can the government define a person's identity?

Chew on This

Being outside the faction system and away from Dauntless gives Tris more freedom to define who she is… but only because she is labeled as "genetically pure."

Tobias still has to struggle with his identity because the government labels him "damaged," making him think that his identity is fundamentally flawed.