Divergent is marketed as a Dystopia, but it seems to miss the fundamental part of dystopian literature, which is commentating on an aspect of society that could lead to it’s downfall. It’s supposed to be relevant to our current world to some extent. In The Handmaid’s Tale, misogyny/the dehumanization of women is talked about. In Hunger Games, it’s about our society’s love for violence and war/how easy it is to dehumanize people, which is relevant to today’s society. In 1984 it’s a lack of individual thought. What exactly is Divergent’s overarching message? How did we get to this world in which people are divided into 4 groups based on one personality trait?

Idk the series should’ve been marketed as maybe a fantasy or action but even then it misses the mark. It just seems very shallow. Like the characters are not well thought out at all, not even Tris and Tobias who are supposed to be since they’re divergent. The writing also isn’t great, it honestly just seems like the series was just a cash grab because YA dystopian literature was popular at the time

  • cressian@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    I’ll just never forget how hard John Green plugged the books on his vlogs. Man really fooled me into thinking they were totally that good.

      • cressian@alien.topBEnglish
        1·
        1 year ago

        I never got the impression they were like friends or Mentor/Mentee; their books are published by two different publishers. It was part of why it felt so “cringe” to me. It very much felt like how influencers will give each other shout outs and act like besties or brand accounts will “fight” each other on twitter. In reality, its just marketing so they can generate hype and discourse; discourse makes hashtags trend.

        Roths book was written in her Senior year at college and was published shortly after she graduated. I always assumed John Green basically super-hyping her book was an attempt to speedrun the marketing for this short order book that NEEDED to get out because lets face it, the dystopian YA bubble was already over-inflated by the time Divergent hit shelves.