Hannah Rayner Blog Post 3

              Moylan in his “Preface” discusses his ideas on dystopian literature.  He explains that dystopian narratives show the current situation in history through “cognitive maps” that guide the reader to new ideas (Moylan xi).  However, not all dystopian novels discuss historical situations.  In the case of Divergent, the dystopian novel does not discuss a historical situation, but rather it creates a society in which people can relate to the characters and the situations that characters are going through.  Teens, especially, are able to connect with the Divergent series as it explains a society in which being different or not being good enough results in one being alone.  As explained in Divergent, the absolute worst fear of all the people in the society is to be “factionless” (Roth 44).  This is one of the worst fears among teenagers as well.  Teens feel that if they cannot force themselves to fit into a society with set rules they will be shunned from the society and forced to be alone.  Divergent, however, encourages people to be different as well.  The main character, Tris, is Divergent allowing her to be “immune to the serum” (Roth 428).  Her immunity to the mind control serum was only possible because she was unique compared to others.  Tris’ immunity allowed her to not be mindlessly controlled and forced to do things she did not want to do.  This can be compared to teens by looking at peer pressure.  Many teens become followers in a group and become uniform members of the group without thinking for themselves.  This what happened when the members of the faction were controlled by the serum.  However, one can escape the negative aspects of peer pressure by thinking for themselves and being unique. By making themselves independent, teens can evaluate choices themselves rather than just following the group mindlessly. 

               If Moylan was writing about the 21^st century compared to the 20^th century, he should focus more on the concept of fears in society such as the unknown and control.  When Moylan wrote about the 20^th century the fears he discussed in the 20^th century included “…war, genocide, disease, famine, ecocide, and depression…” (Moylan xi).  While some of these fears are still present in the 21^st century, they are not as much as a priority.  In the 21^st century, people are now more concerned with the government having too much control and withholding information.  The fears of the 21^st century can be seen in Roth’s novel Divergent.  In this novel, Roth focuses on the 21^st century fears of the unknown and control.  Tris, for example, fears what the government is hiding from the people outside of the gate.  She is scared of what actually lies outside the gate and why the government is not revealing the information to the people (Roth 128).  Tris in this situation explains the 21^st century fear of a large amount of government control and the fear of not knowing.