Quote 49
I press my forehead to the wall and scream. After a few seconds I clamp my hand over my mouth to muffle the sound and scream again, a scream that turns into a sob. The gun clatters to the ground. I still see Will.
He smiles in my memory. A curled lip. Straight teeth. Light in his eyes. Laughing, teasing, more alive in memory than I am in reality. It was him or me. I chose me. But I feel dead too. (36.8-9)
After shooting her mind-controlled friend Will, Tris feels so guilty that her sentences start breaking down. A similar thing happens to her with Al commits suicide (24.9-16). Notice also the pretty severe effect of this guilt: screaming, crying, and feeling dead. Guilt is (obviously) no laughing matter.
Quote 50
"Your ranking serves two purposes," he says. "The first is that it determines the order in which you will select a job after initiation. There are only a few desirable positions available."
My stomach tightens. I know by looking at his smile, like I knew the second I entered the aptitude test room, that something bad is about to happen.
"The second purpose," he says, "is that only the top ten initiates are made members." (7.93-5)
We only get to hear a little bit about how other factions handle initiation. (In Candor, they have a truth-off, but in Amity do they have a friendly-off?) In Dauntless, it's all competition all the time. And it's not just about initiation. It also influences what kind of life these Dauntless will have, since the winners get to pick their jobs first.
Quote 51
If conflict in Dauntless ends with only one person standing, I am unsure of what this part of initiation will do to me. Will I be Al, standing over a man's body, knowing I'm the one who put him on the ground, or will I be Will, lying in a helpless heap? And is it selfish of me to crave victory, or is it brave? I wipe my sweaty palms on my pants. (9.51)
Tris is thinking something that we would like to write a paper on: Does competition reveal identity? Faced with competition for the first time (unless she used to play dodgeball in school, which we doubt), Tris has a question about how she will do and what that will reveal about her. Is she brave or selfish—or not selfish enough?