Divergent Thinking (10 page)

Recently, my daughter Jenna turned sixteen, and our household has been discussing her future career choice and where she'd like to attend college. As a high school sophomore, Jenna is facing a big decision just like
Divergent
's sixteen-year-old protagonist Tris, who had to choose a faction.

In the beginning of
Divergent,
Tris knows she has to make a huge choice once she turns sixteen: go to the Choosing Ceremony and decide, in front of everyone, which faction she will join. This is similar to my choice of where to attend college after high school and what career to pursue, though mine involves a lot less pressure. I can always pick something else if things don't work out or if I change my mind. Tris has one chance. She has to make that one choice count, and that's really scary.

Early on in
Divergent,
Tris takes an aptitude test to discover which of the five factions she belongs in. Her test results indicate an aptitude for multiple factions, though most people in her society are a fit for just one. As a student who has to decide on a career path and college within the next couple years, would you like to be able to take a test and have it decided for you?

The idea of being able to take a test and have all my difficult choices decided for me sounds great at first. However, I've actually experienced such tests, although they weren't quite so advanced as the ones in
Divergent,
and I've noticed a number of flaws.

There is a career site, called Career Cruising, my school guidance program uses to help kids decide on a career. It asks you questions about your interests and skills and then generates a list of careers you might be interested in, graded on how well your skills suggest you would do in them. Sounds straightforward, but at the moment I aspire to be a journalist, and although my interests put it on my list, my skill answers ranked it a C. I strongly disagree.

Actually, Career Cruising did not give an A to any of the careers that matched my interests. Is it trying to tell me I won't be good at any job that I would enjoy? That doesn't make sense. Some of the careers I scored a B for were market research analyst, translator, and researcher, but I'm not interested in any of them. It's like how Tris showed aptitude for Abnegation and Erudite in addition to Dauntless. She could have done well in either Abnegation or Erudite, because her skills were a match, but neither would have been a good fit for her, just like researcher wouldn't be a good fit for me. Neither of us would excel as well as we would in another faction or career because we wouldn't love it.

I can understand why market research analyst and researcher scored higher for you. You are logical and practical, you like order (except in your room), and you have the spark of creativity needed to bring all those skills together. But I agree, sometimes desire is as important as ability. Maybe that's why Tris' city has a Choosing Ceremony, not an Announcing Ceremony. No one is forced to pick the faction he or she shows the most aptitude for. We learn in the side story
The Transfer
that Tobias' test showed his aptitude was for Abnegation (though, admittedly, he was able to influence the results thanks to Marcus' training), yet he chose Dauntless.

And of course, Tris chooses Dauntless. It's who she wants to be, not her abilities, that ends up being most important to her. Living with the Abnegation all her life, she's had no experience with jumping on a moving train or leaping off a building. Yet she is determined to do well in her new faction, and she does. She persists and refuses to give up even after being beaten by Peter and almost tossed into the chasm.

Then again, if she hadn't been
any
good at being Dauntless, she wouldn't have made it through initiation, no matter how much she wanted to belong there. Do you worry about not having the right skills or talent to be a journalist and “washing out”?

Occasionally I worry that I am not a good enough writer to pursue a career in journalism. There are declining job openings, and it can get quite competitive. I will always have doubts about whether I will be successful, but I know that I work hard in everything that I do and will put forth my best work. I believe these qualities will ultimately lead me to find a great job.

In
Divergent,
Tris' parents aren't allowed to discuss the test or the results, and I think there are some benefits to parents not offering their opinion. It means there is no pressure for their children to please them and they can look deep within themselves and discover what their true desires are. But you already know that, when I think of careers for you, I lean toward librarian or teacher.

Would it have been better if I hadn't offered any advice or opinions? Would you find it helpful to make these kinds of decisions entirely on your own?

I know that some kids don't have the benefit of understanding parents, and some of my friends are not as free to go against their parents' wishes as I am, but I feel like even if I don't always agree with you, I value your opinion (most of the time).

You're right that librarian and teacher would fit me better in some ways, since I'm good at interacting with people. However, neither of those options appeal to me as much as journalism—where being personable would also help in doing interviews—as I would have to work with kids and do clerical work, which I'm not interested in
at all.

Even when I disagree with you, I would never make a permanent choice like Tris' before talking to you and Dad and even some of my friends. In making a big decision like that, I would
want
to discuss it with my family and friends. And I think not talking about my decisions could lead me to make worse ones. I might be more hesitant to do something that might be beneficial for me just because I'm not totally comfortable with it, like when I considered trying out for the soccer team. I was worried that I'd missed too much of the preseason and that I'd feel left out around the other girls, but after talking with you and my friends, I decided to try out and loved playing (go Bears!).

However, that's for big decisions. In small everyday choices I make about what clubs to join and how to do my projects, I think I'm better off with my opinion being the only one that matters. And in the end, it's my life, and if other people always make every decision for you, you will never be truly happy. Luckily, I'm a teenager, and even with your parental advice I still will probably not listen to you all the time and will do things to be different and independent. It's basically a rite of passage for every teen.

Not listen to me all the time? Gasp! (Actually, I'm well aware of that, since you decided to play the screechy violin instead of the soothing cello, which I recommended.)

When Tris is deciding what faction to choose in
Divergent,
she rules out Erudite right away because that faction had spread vicious rumors about the Abnegation and because her father hates them. Tris feels loyalty for her faction and to her father, which does factor in her decisions. How can it not? She grew up in Abnegation, and her family and friends are all part of the faction. But Tris is still left deciding between Abnegation and Dauntless—two completely different factions. She can't choose both.

Looking back on my school years, I was torn between two very different options of my own—I was also Divergent. My best grades were in math and science. I especially enjoyed earth science and decided to become a meteorologist when I was in sixth grade. (Ironically, my grades in English and spelling were horrible and I hated writing. Yes, hated, loathed, avoided—take your pick.) At that time in my life, however, I also played the cello, and I danced, painted, and acted in all the school plays. I daydreamed of becoming a famous actress or dancer. I thought back then that I would have to choose between science and art.

In our society, we tend to view science and art as opposites, even though science suggests that the two are actually closely related; for instance, studies have shown that children who take piano lessons at an early age do better in math than those who don't. In Tris' society, they have separated their citizens based on individual aptitudes—intelligence, bravery, honesty, selflessness, and peacefulness. When Tris is debating between Abnegation and Dauntless, she's torn between selflessness and bravery. As the story progresses, though, she begins to understand that the two aspects are intertwined. Her selflessness, as Four says, makes her brave. By the end of
Allegiant,
she realizes her Abnegation values and her Dauntless bravery are one and the same.

Back then I chose science because I lacked confidence in my artistic abilities and felt I'd never “make it big.” I worked as a meteorologist for ten years, and while some aspects of the job were interesting and challenging, I wasn't having much fun—unlike my current career as a fiction author (and essayist—hi, Mom!), where not only am I good at it, I'm having a blast.

I wonder what Career Cruising would have picked for me. Would I have gotten an A in fiction writing? Would I have saved time and money by concentrating on writing right away instead of studying meteorology? Or would I have ignored the advice? I probably would have ignored it. Scratch that: I
know
I'd have viewed the results as crazy. I wasn't as brave as Tris.

From your answers, Jenna, you could also be considered Divergent. You've always done well in English class, yet you're also enrolled in precalculus as a tenth grader and you tutor other students in your school in math. What draws you to journalism? Is it, like Tris, from a sense of loyalty or familiarity with the writing profession, since I am a writer?

Ever since I was in middle school, I just knew that I wanted to take journalism classes in high school and write for the school newspaper. It just always was that way. I had no doubt. I believe my love of reading and writing is partly because of your profession, but journalism allows me to do something similar while writing about so many more fun and interesting topics than I'd be able to if I wrote books, the way you do. Thus it allows me to be an individual while still connecting back to you.

This isn't so different from Tris finding out her mother had come from Dauntless (though later we learn her mother came from outside the city), or finding out her father came from Erudite, especially since Erudite was the faction her brother, Caleb, chose. It suggests that both Caleb and Tris are more like their parents than they thought, even though they made their own different choices.

I do enjoy tutoring math. I like knowing I'm making a difference in someone's educational experience and, hopefully, making it better. However, I do not wish to pursue teaching math in the long term. Tutoring is just one way for me to help others and still get to enjoy math.

Exploring what you enjoy doing is a wonderful way to “test the waters.” In fact, attending college is a journey of discovery. In Tris' world, though, there's no trial period, no chance for her to see what each faction really does before she chooses where to spend the rest of her life. She has the results of her aptitude test, cultural knowledge of the factions, and the few interactions she's had with kids from other factions at school. Tris knows she is drawn to the Dauntless; she watches them jump off the trains every morning and she admits her gaze “cling[s] to them wherever they go.” She also knows that her father calls them “hellions,” which may trigger her natural teenage tendency to rebel against parental opinion. And she knows that she does not feel at home in Abnegation; she longs to feel free, and the Dauntless seem to be free. There are a number of things that play into her decision, just like there will be for you when you decide on a college and a career. But for Tris, once she chooses, there's no going back.

I can still remember when my older sister Karen wanted to be a pharmacist. She was accepted into the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy, but then she worked part-time in a pharmacy and decided not to pursue it as a career because she was bored. I wanted to “test out” my future career as a tornado chaser, but my parents refused to drive me out West (can you believe that?). Tris doesn't have the same option. If, when she learns exactly what is involved in being Dauntless during her initiation period, she doesn't feel at home there, either, she can't just choose to try some other faction out instead. If she changes her mind, or can't cut it, she'll be factionless—way scarier than having an undeclared major.