Quote 1
"Attention!" he announces, flicking a lock of dark hair from his eyes. "I want to give you some advice about today. If by some miracle your families do come to visit you..." He scans our faces and smirks. "...which I doubt, it is best not to seem too attached. That will make it easier for you, and easier for them. We also take the phrase 'faction before blood' very seriously here. Attachment to your family suggests you aren't entirely pleased with your faction, which would be shameful. Understand?" (15.4)
Surprise, surprise—Eric being a jerk. Seriously, how many times in this book does he "smirk" or smile cruelly? Does he have no normal facial expressions? But what really caught our eye about this quote was that "faction before blood" phrase. Why "blood" instead of "family"? Is it because your faction is supposed to become your family? Do the semantics matter here?
"Fine," Eric says. "You can come up, Christina."
Al walks toward the railing.
"No," Eric says. "She has to do it on her own."
"No, she doesn't," Al growls. "She did what you said. She's not a coward. She did what you said."
Eric doesn't respond. Al reaches over the railing, and he's so tall that he can reach Christina's wrist. She grabs his forearm. Al pulls her up, his face red with frustration, and I run forward to help. (9.97-101)
Tris doesn't choose to help Christina when Eric punishes her by making her hang over the chasm. But Al-the-crier has enough courage and comradeship to want to help the poor girl out, even if it means facing up to Eric, who's a dangerous and unfriendly guy. So who seems like the better friend here?
Quote 3
"Oh, they can see and hear. They just aren't processing what they see and hear the same way," says Eric. "They receive commands from our computers in the transmitters we injected them with..." At this, he presses his fingers to the injection site to show the woman where it is. Stay still, I tell myself. Still, still, still. "...and carry them out seamlessly." (33.46)
Here's a hilarious group of lies and manipulations: (1) Jeanine's secret is mind control through the transmitters she secretly put into the Dauntless serum, and (2) Tris's secret is that she's not mind-controlled, which is emphasized by her italic commands to herself to stay still. And there's not even a break—these two secrets are in the same paragraph, which may show us how Tris's secret overpowers Jeanine's and Eric's secret.