Divergent: A Dystopian Society

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A dystopian society is one that depicts a futuristic imagined place, usually resulting from some revolution, in which the citizens live under an extensive privation of freedom, an overbearing government, along with systematic social oppression and the illusion of a perfectly functioning society. The citizens fearing the world outside, encouraging conformity and uniformity, providing limited and controlled information, being submissive and compliant with social rules are some elements that characterize these societies. The protagonist of a dystopian society often feels trapped by the oppressive system and through the course of the story tries to become free from it. In addition, she or he is uncertain about the system’s intentions and can sense …show more content…
According to all these characteristics and descriptions, the movie Divergent portrays a dystopian society, one that restrains the characters from their liberties, oppresses, and encourages them to be submissive to the structure of the …show more content…
Positive Liberty consists of the possibility and freedom to act in any way because of the presence of control, determination and realization over ones actions, intentions and purposes. On the other hand, Negative liberty incorporates what the absence of obstacles, barriers or constraints to achieve a purpose or rather the quantity and quality of choices that are available for one to choose freely and without external interference. In Veronica Roth’s movie, the dystopian society portrayed lacks negative freedom. The structure that strictly imposes the selection of one of the factions to belong to limits the options of the individuals regarding their role in society. The absence of this liberty becomes an obstacle or an interference with the available positions to fill in their dystopian society. On another note, the character of Beatrice Prior, the protagonist, lacks positive freedom and through the movie fights to attain it. Divergence, by definition, refers to the action of separating or bifurcating from the norm. The fact that her character is nominated as “divergent” gives her the power to have control over herself and her actions and thought in spite of the government’s attempt to limit
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