Quote 7
I stare at my plate of food. I just grabbed what looked good to me at the time, and now that I take a closer look, I realize that I chose a plain chicken breast, a scoop of peas, and a piece of brown bread. Abnegation food.
I sigh. Abnegation is what I am. It is what I am when I'm not thinking about what I'm doing. It is what I am when I am put to the test. It is what I am even when I appear to be brave. Am I in the wrong faction? (29.4-5)
Does it seem like the first half of the book is statements about how Dauntless Tris is; and the second half is full of quotes like this that point out how Abnegation she is? We like this quote because a) we're hungry and b) she thinks through a lot of important issues about identity: is identity what you do when you're under pressure? Does it come out in your actions? Or is it something that's true even when your actions say something else?
Quote 8
She presses her palms together. I see no vicious glee in her eyes, and not a hint of the sadism I expect. She is more machine than maniac. She sees problems and forms solutions based on the data she collects. Abnegation stood in the way of her desire for power, so she found a way to eliminate it. She didn't have an army, so she found one in Dauntless. She knew that she would need to control large groups of people in order to stay secure, so she developed a way to do it with serums and transmitters. Divergence is just another problem for her to solve, and that is what makes her so terrifying—because she is smart enough to solve anything, even the problem of our existence. (34.38)
"Enough with Tris already" (you're probably saying), "what about other people's identities?" Well, since we see everyone else through Tris's eyes, we get less info on their identities. It's possible that everyone is as conflicted as Tris and she just doesn't know it. When Tris talks about her own identity, there's lots of "maybe"s and "I am X—no, I am Y. Wait, I am Z." But when Tris is looking at Jeanine Matthews, Tris knows exactly what her identity is—evil computer lady.
Quote 9
"People tend to overestimate my character," I say quietly. "They think that because I'm small, or a girl, or a Stiff, I can't possibly be cruel. But they're wrong."
I shift the gun three inches to the left and fire at his arm.
His screams fill the hallway. Blood spurts from the wound, and he screams again, pressing his forehead to the ground. I shift the gun back to his head, ignoring the pang of guilt in my chest. (37.73-5)
To nicely tie up things, here we have Tris acting in one way and feeling another way. She says she'll be cruel but even here she feels bad about it. Notice how that comes at the end: she lets us think that her identity is "I am cruel" but then reminds us at the end that she's really not a mean person. Or is she? How many cruel things can she do before she starts being a cruel person?