Insurgent Identity

When the Sorting Hat puts you into House Gryffindor… oh, oops, wrong book.

When the aptitude test puts you into the Dauntless faction, you might think life is all set. You get to be reckless and violent whenever you want, and that's just who you are.

But things aren't that easy for Tris. She's still coping with the fact that she's Divergent, which she figured out at the beginning of the last book. In Insurgent, she has to figure out not just what makes her, well, her; she also has to deal with the fact that she might be an insurgent, too.

That's a lot of confusion at any age, but it's especially crazy for a sixteen-year-old struggling to figure out her identity. She's Divergent and Insurgent. What else could she possibly be? Pungent? A superagent? A box of detergent?

Questions About Identity

1. Being Divergent, does Tris have a harder time defining her own identity than most other people do?
2. Do people choose their faction based on their identity, or does their faction define their identity?
3. Will being factionless make it easier or more difficult for people to define themselves?
4. Why is Tris so touchy about being called "little girl"?

Chew on This

Even though Tobias has an easy time identifying himself as Dauntless (he's strong, heroic, a leader) he still experiences some inner conflict about who he really is.

Tris spends a lot of time running away from her true nature. If she'd accept who she really is (reckless, passionate, angry), she might be happier with herself.