Dangers Are Exposed

Chasm where Amar died. Forced?...

During these days, I have been reading the second part of the book; "The Initiate", this portion, as the tittle says, talks about how Tobias, now making himself call Four as I mention before, became an official dauntless member. Amar, his instructor, helped him integrate, making Four open himself to new people leading him to meet his best friends now: Zeke and Shauna; romantic tension build up between them and Four discovers the he is divergent (different from the rest, belonging to more than one faction) so he has to keep a low profile. Moving on, Four ends up playing a dare game, with him getting a tattoo as a result. A piece of initiation consists on transfers (people from other factions that switched to dauntless) to fight between them; Four and Eric are the only ones undefeated so far, until Four beats Eric making him the best of his class. Four helps Shauna with her fighting strategies, so she can be able to defeat her next opponent, at the end, Four was ranked first and Zeke and Shauna were able to accomplish the required score, so at night they celebrate their triumph. Amar was asked to show his fear landscape to Jeanine Mathews, the next day they found his body in the chasm...

"He has my name between his teeth, Eaton, a far more threatening weapon than his feet or his elbows or his fists. The Abnegation say, in hushed voices, that the problem with many Erudite is their selfishness, but I think it is their arrogance, the pride they take in knowing things that others do not. In that moment overwhelmed with fear, I recognize it as Eric´s weakness. He doesn’t believe that I can hurt him as much as he can hurt me. He believes that I am everything he assumed me to be at the outset, humble and selfless and passive.

 I feel my pain disappear into rage, and I grab his arm to hold him in place as I swing at him again, and again, and again. I don’t even see where I´m hitting him; I don’t see or feel or hear anything. I am empty, alone, nothing. (Roth 80)" 

Eric and Four fighting

This fragment of the story appears in the middle of the section, when Eric and Four are fighting, when Four is about to loose the fight. The first part of the fragment shows the reader that most of the time, Four´s violence sparks when he is in the worst moments, in this case when he sees Eric threatening him with his name. The moment and pause and think about how strange is his fear about his name, his real name, and the negative consequences he thinks that only mention it will bring him is depressing; is like for him saying it to the dauntless is unbearable. Having the need, the necessity to change his name so people wouldn’t recognize him is impressive; he wants a clean slate, the past is on the past and he wants people to recognize him for who he is and not for where he came from. This passage made me feel, more than thankful, thoughtful not only for the reasons I already mention, but for the fact that it shows how persons, that seem like the unbreakable ones, can fall easily when you notice the aspect of their personality that they are more pride off, in this case arrogance, for Eric. 

¨"He was always a little troubled, a little unbalanced. Not like the rest of the initiates in his class," Max says. "I think loosing his grandparents really took a toll on him. Or maybe the problem was deeper.... I don’t know. It could be that he´s better off this way."

"Better off dead?" I say, scowling at him.

"That´s not exactly what I meant," Max says. "But here in Dauntless, we encourage our members to choose their own paths through life. If this is what he chose...so much better." (Roth 110)¨

I found this phrase shortly after Amar died; everyone was gathering in the chasm paying his or her respects to the defunct and Max approached Tobias-Four-. I cant really say if Max is telling the truth because sometimes he seems like he is the good guy and sometimes is the opposite; but what he said about is so much better to through into the chasm... to me it sounded a little strange and that is what catched my eye. When I read this part, it made me feel confused because everyone thought that Amar had thrown himself into the chasm, but from what I read before and after this fragment made me doubt it. Four knows that his dead had to do with Jeanine Mathews and what happen the night he left for Amar to be tested. What really made my head think was the fact that Max was in the room were Amar was being tested so he knows what happen in reality and I thought that maybe because it seemed that he trusted Four he will tell him like hints or something but he didn’t care about Amar’s dead because after that phrase it seemed that he was telling Four to forget about Amar and join them on something, that is not clear in this section of the book. This piece of the book made me want to keep reading the book, it sort of like persuade me to figure out whats happening but each time it seems Four has discovered something new its the whole way around.

"The Initiate" part of the book has been really interesting and engaging; the form Veronica uses imagery and characterization really makes the reader feel like is a character in the book; it helps me imagine the setting and the characters in real life. A prediction I have about the book is that this alliance between Max and Jeanine is really going to have a negative impact on someone, its going to bring many consequences to the form of living of the factions; everything will change shortly and not in a good way. Also, I think that Four is going to reunite with his father but that encounter is not going to end well. Moreover, with Zeke and Shauna, I predict that they will be in a relationship but is going to delay, is going to take maybe a long time for that to happen. In conclusion, I really think that Four is going to cause a change is some peoples life in the way they think, but his rivality with Eric will never end, due to the fact that it almost seems that Eric is jealous and when someone is in that mood, they wont surrender easily, so in consequence he will want to harm Four in some way and he will never stop having those wanting of being better than Four in everything he does.