Identity
As in other children's and young adult fiction, the novel probes placement of authority and identity within the youths' relationship to parents and other social forces. The critic Antero Garcia describes the thematic similarity between the dystopian novels as an interest in the "grasp of power between youth and adult authority" and compared the novel to Unwind by Neal Shusterman.[8] In The New York Times, Susan Dominus stated that Divergent "explores a more common adolescent anxiety--the painful realization that coming into one's own sometimes means leaving family behind ideologically and physically."[3] The Voice of Youth Advocates agreed and wrote that Divergent shows the pressure of "having to choose between following in your parents' footsteps or doing something new."[9] The critic Antero Garcia compared the thematic interest in the characters being "forced into limiting constraints of identity and labor associated with their identity" to similar interest in forced identities and labor in the dystopian children's novels Matched by Allyson Braithwaite Condie and The Maze Runner by James Dashner.[8]
Social structure and knowledge
The government division of a population into fragmented communities is a frequent device in young adult and children's fiction. YA classics such as Lois Lowry's The Giver, Monica Hughes’s The Dream Catcher, and Zilpha Snyder’s Green Sky Trilogy use that device to different ends.[10] In her masters' thesis, Ashley Ann Haynes describes fractioning of societies in Divergent as a supporting comparison with Hunger Games.[10] Unlike the latter, however, all can choose which faction to join if they follow the rules and pass the tests. Divergent adds a new layer of complexity with its creation of an illusion of democracy for participants in its fractioned society, with the factions controlled by outside forces.[10]
The basis of the social structure in Divergent is that each faction fulfils a role in society. Those who cannot contribute to society are cast aside to become "factionless" and are deprived of access to an identity and resources. In a journal article, Andrea Burgos-Mascarell compared the factionless to illegal immigrants, who do not have access to certain public services either. Both are marginalised from society because they are unable to contribute to it.[11]
Some reviews criticized the lack of depth and realism of the social structures in the novel. Kirkus Reviews called the social structure a "preposterous premise."[12] Booklist called the structure a "simplistic, color-coded world [that] stretches credibility on occasion."[13] In a review for the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater's student newspaper Royal Purple News, Abrielle Backhaus notes how the "entire system seems insubstantial" and asks rhetorically, "How could it be possible for any individual, with his or her infinite emotions and experiences, to be condensed to one single quality to tolerate for the rest of their lives and to choose at the mere age of 16?"[14] In an interview, Roth described the social structure to have expanded from her initial conception, and she added Candor to fill "a gap in the reasoning behind the world that needed to be filled."[6]
The social structure most affects the novel's themes by socially dividing different knowledge types that characters can access. In her book chapter exploring how literacy in different knowledge types affects the series, Alice Curry described the factions and the character indoctrination in those factions as deliberately creating knowledge gaps between initiates to different factions.[15] Because of the initiation process, the characters become illiterate in the knowledge that is valued by the other factions.[15] Tris's "divergence" allows her to be successful because she can become literate in a broad set of knowledges and information types and so she becomes more admirable to the reader.[15] Curry argues that Jeanine's leadership in Erudite represents an academic ivory tower that alienates other types of knowledge and so the book critiques academic learning in favor of the broader knowledge that is embodied by Tris.[15] Curry compares the novel to Julie Bertagna's 2002 Exodus, describing both as using spaces and landscapes in which knowledge is learned, to critique "crumbling knowledge institutions," like academic spaces that "dissemble" knowledge instead of facilitating deeper holistic knowledge literacies that create "understanding."[15]
Violence and fear
Like The Hunger Games, Divergent depicts considerable violence for a young adult novel. The Publishers Weekly review emphasized that stylistic choice, called it "edgy," and described the initiation rituals that Tris endures "as spellbinding as they are violent [requiring] sadistic tests of strength and courage."[16] However, as Susan Dominus pointed out, the novel does not keep the violence at the forefront of reader experience. She wrote in The New York Times, "Terrible things happen to the people Tris loves, yet the characters absorb these events with disquieting ease. Here, somehow, the novel's flights from reality distance the reader from the emotional impact that might come in a more affecting realistic (or even fantasy) novel."[3]
When describing her inspiration for the Dauntless training their initiates by exposing them to their fears, Roth, in an interview for the website "PopSugar," said that she was influenced by many sources, but the most important was her "Psych 101 my first year of college [where] I learned about exposure therapy, which is when they treat people with fear, like for anxiety. It exposes them repeatedly to what they're afraid of, and gradually you become less afraid of it, or have a healthy level of fear, and I thought of the Dauntless then, because they're conditioning perfectly normal people to get over perfectly rational fears."[6]
Daniel Kraus's Booklist review of the novel described the intense psychological pressure as "akin to joining the marines" but also providing the "built-in tension" that makes the novel a compelling read.[13]
Christianity
Though the novel does not maintain an overtly-Christian thematic interest, some readers place the novel's themes within that context because of Roth's professed religiosity. In the postscript "Acknowledgements," Roth emphasized her Christian faith: "Thank you, God, for your Son and for blessing me beyond comprehension."[17][18] For some reviewers, this element of Roth's lifestyle is important to the novel's impact. For example, when reviewing the novel for the Christian ministry "Break Point," Sherry Early described Roth as "a Christian" and the novel setting as "post-feminist, maybe even Christian."[19] She also said that though the novel is "not overtly Christian," it follows a "Christian point of view" because it "fight[s] against the restrictions placed upon her by a controlling and totalitarian state" and because "Tris must also explore the cracks and imperfections within her own psyche."[19] K. B. Hoyle also acknowledges that the novel would have a "Christian message" in reviewing it for the Evangelical book review organization The Gospel Coalition.[18] However, Hoyle criticized the novel for using profane terminology and for never "clarify[ing] what the practices are supposed to mean."[18]
Reviewers outside the Christian community have also noticed the Christian context of the novel. In a review of the book and the first movie, David Edelstein observed the book's treatment of intellectuals as following a tendency in Christian culture to question genetic modification and the majority: the intellectual Erudite faction are largely depicted as control-hungry villains pitted against the Abnegation faction, which is depicted as righteous and merciful.[20] He wrote, "The novelist, Veronica Roth, reserves her loathing for the 'Erudites', who spend their days in intellectual pursuit" and that the trend of intellectualism (thinking without feeling) "makes people apt to seize power and impose Maoist-like uniformity on entire populations — on pain of death."[20]
