Thirst For Power In Divergent By Veronica Roth

A Thirst for Power that Lead to Destruction
“The lust and the hunger? The thirst for power? And thus it is brewed, clearly, the heart’s deadliest poison to integrity.” (Criss Jamie) The thirst for power is rooted in one of humanity’s base traits: greed. Left unchecked, it can tear down entire civilizations. The book Divergent by the author Veronica Roth is a story about a sixteen-year-old girl named Beatrice Prior, who lives in a futuristic dystopian society. This society is divided into five factions: Erudite the intelligent, Abnegation the selfless, Candor the honest, Amity the kind and the Dauntless the brave. Upon discovering Beatrice is divergent, a dangerous categorization, she struggles with her identity, trying to belong in a sea of

Throughout the novel, it is seen that Jeannine will go to great lengths to eliminate any threat to her plans to obtain power. Which includes killing off the Divergent: people who belong to more than one faction. Divergents pose a great threat to Erudite’s power because they can’t be controlled.
“But our minds move in a dozen different directions. We can’t be confined to one way of thinking, and that terrifies our leaders. It means that no matter what they do, we will always cause trouble for them. I feel like someone breathed new air into my lungs. I am not Abnegation. I am not Dauntless. I am Divergent. And I can’t be controlled.” (Roth, 442)
This quote accentuates why Jeannine goes to great lengths to kill the divergent. In addition, the governmental faction: Abnegation, stood in Erudites way to obtain any power over the dystopian society. Thus, Erudite made orders to kill all the political leaders from Abnegation as well as anyone who stood in their way.
“No,” says Tobias through gritted teeth. “But at least his evil didn’t involve the widespread manipulation of an entire faction and the systematic murder of every political leader we have.” (Roth,

The intelligent faction believed Dauntless: a faction known for their bravery and physical power, were becoming a threat to their authority. In effort to maintain their dominion, Jeannine orchestrated a plan to possess the dauntless society into following her every command. She believed she could use Dauntless to create fear of disobedience in the other factions. “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.” (Roth, 432)
This quote activity demonstrates how Erudite orchestrated an entire plan to control the other factions through fear, as well as take down a potential enemy. Not only did Erudite possess Dauntless to instill fear but they used the dauntless faction as their own army. They programmed their brains to kill all Divergents and political leaders.
“Weak-willed,” Tobias scoffs. “It requires a strong will to manipulate a stimulation, last time I checked. Weak Willed is mind-controlling an army because it’s too hard for you to train one yourself.” (Roth,