Divergent Chapter 24 Quotes

Divergent Chapter 24 Quotes

How we cite the quotes:
(Chapter.Paragraph)

"My first instinct is to push you until you break, just to see how hard I have to press," he says, his fingers squeezing at the word "break." My body tenses at the edge in his voice, so I am coiled as tight as a spring, and I forget to breathe.

His dark eyes lifting to mine, he adds, "But I resist it."

"Why..." I swallow hard. "Why is that your first instinct?"

"Fear doesn't shut you down; it wakes you up. I've seen it. It's fascinating." He releases me but doesn't pull away, his hand grazing my jaw, my neck. "Sometimes I just...want to see it again. Want to see you awake." (24.92-5)

Okay, you may beg to differ here, but this makes us look at Four a little nervously. On the plus side, he does resist his urge to push Tris until she breaks, so, yay. What a gentleman. But his first comment is more than a little creepy. Still, aside from the fact that he himself is a bit scary here, what he teaches Tris about fear is just as important. He's showing her that fear can make her better, more alive in some ways.

"Because you're from Abnegation," he says, "and it's when you're acting selflessly that you are at your bravest." (24.76)

Oh Four, you're so wise. Here's one of his impassioned arguments about how the virtues of the five factions can work together (to form Voltron). So Tris is braver—and more powerful—when she's being selfless. And her selflessness seems to come from her family. In that sense, her power lies not in her faction identity, but in her personal relationships. And family is something that crosses faction boundaries.

"Maybe. Maybe there's more we all could have done," he says, "but we just have to let the guilt remind us to do better next time."

I frown and pull back. That is a lesson that members of Abnegation learn—guilt as a tool, rather than a weapon against the self. It is a line straight from one of my father's lectures at our weekly meetings. (24.107-8)

Great, Tris meets a nice (but wounded and mysterious) boy—and he starts talking like her father, which is a total turn-off. But he does have a theory of guilt that might help. So now Tris has two methods of dealing with guilt: trying to act like her parents and trying to do better next time—both of them Abnegation lessons.