I feel as if I can make the argument that we all possess what I call: The Divergent Complex. Now, what is this exactly? I will firstly have to explain a little bit about the book titled, “Divergent,” in which all teenagers aged 16 must go and complete an “aptitude test”. This test is actually a personality assignment test that indicates your appropriate “faction” based on your results from your exploration through a simulation.

Here are the four factions:

Abnegation: where you are selfless.

Erudite: where you are considered intelligible and value knowledge.

Dauntless: where you are considered fearless and courageous.

Amity: where you value peace and harmony.

You MUST do the test, and you are supposed to obtain only ONE result and make ONE selection to either remain in your current faction, or switch to the faction the aptitude test indicates is your best fit. What is quite intriguing is how the book/film tries to demonstrate the reliability of such a test by placing you in different simulated situations to see if you obtain the same result. It’s like an alternate-form reliability test where we have different forms of the same test. The simulation is meant to reveal a common personality trait pattern across simulator environments based on how you deal with the situation.

Today, so many of us have filled out personality tests in magazines, online, in school etc. We strive to know where we belong and crave categorization to understand how to work in society and how to identify ourselves. As lead character Tris points out, “The test will tell me who I am, where I belong,” However, she ends up having multiple results, multiple faction options to which she belongs, and she ends up with the title of a Divergent. The idea of a Divergent is depicted as dangerous, feared, unruly etc. because even in real life, not having these definite answers as to who, how, and what we are leaves us scavenging for answers to our existence. That is why I believe we all have this Divergent Complex, where we look to categories and personality classifications to help us self-identify, to help us justify our behaviours, and to help us receive necessary feedback confirming certain views we have about ourselves.

This Faction system demonstrates how we have the inner need to belong, indefinitely and perfectly, to specific, rigid categories. We prefer a world that is black and white because gray gives us no answers on how to be.

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