Allegiant (novel)

This article is about the novel. For the films based on the novel, see The Divergent Series: Allegiant and The Divergent Series: Ascendant.

Allegiant

Cover of first edition
Author	Veronica Roth
Cover artist	Joel Tippie
Language	English
Series	Divergent trilogy
Genre	Science fiction, dystopia, romance, young-adult fiction
Publisher	Katherine Tegen Books
Publication date	October 22, 2013
Publication place	United States
Media type	Print (hardcover)
Pages	526 pp (first edition)
ISBN	0-06-202406-X
OCLC	855550266
LC Class	PZ7.R7375 Al 2013
Preceded by	Insurgent

Allegiant is a science fiction novel for young adults, written by the American author Veronica Roth and published by HarperCollins in October 2013. It completes the Divergent trilogy that Roth started with her debut novel Divergent in 2011. The book is written from the perspective of both Beatrice (Tris) and Tobias (Four). Following the revelations of the previous novel, they journey past the city's boundaries to discover what lies beyond.

Allegiant was published simultaneously by Katherine Tegen Books and HarperCollins Children's Books in the U.K. Four weeks earlier, a free electronic companion book to the trilogy titled The World of Divergent: The Path to Allegiant was released online. The novel is being adapted into a two part film, the first part of which is scheduled for release on March 18, 2016.

Theme

The story background discusses how a future, ruined Chicago becomes a society that defines its citizens by strict conformity to their social and personality-related affiliations with five different factions. This removes the threat of anyone exercising independent will and re-threatening the population's safety through war or another human-created catastrophe. The factions are Abnegation to uphold selflessness, Amity to uphold peacefulness, Candor to uphold honesty, Dauntless to uphold bravery, and Erudite, to uphold knowledge. Tris tests out for equal aptitude with three different factions: Abnegation, Erudite, and Dauntless. This classifies her as "Divergent" and capable of independent thought beyond the restrictive nature of the factions. She is warned never to share this information with anyone for fear of her life. Divergent are a threat to the stable society, hunted and killed by the ruthless leader of Erudite, Jeanine, in order to eliminate the "threat" of independent thinking. Those who fail the initiation of their particular faction are deemed factionless, who are treated as a lower class and a drain on society.

Plot

Tris Prior is shocked by the video released to the public at the end of the Erudite headquarters raid. The video revealed the truth about the faction system and announced that Divergent are needed outside the borders of the city. Factionless leader Evelyn Johnson appoints herself leader of the city. She forces citizens to operate under her command and live as equal and factionless citizens. Tris questions Evelyn's motives and is kidnapped by the Allegiant, a rebel group determined to reinstate their old way of life. The Allegiant invite her to a meeting the following night.

Tris's brother, Caleb, is put on trial for assisting former Erudite leader, Jeanine Matthews. Caleb's betrayal prevents Tris from forgiving him. Caleb is found guilty of being a traitor and is sentenced to be executed in two weeks. The Allegiant, led by Cara and Johanna, plan to send a group outside the city to find the truth. Tris volunteers to go on the condition that Caleb is taken with them. Tobias, Tris, Christina, Cara, Uriah, Tori, Peter, and Caleb are ambushed after they jump off the train, which results in Tori's death. Driving through the unknown, they meet Zoe and Amar, Four's former instructors, who were believed to have been killed for being Divergent. Zoe and Amar take the group to the Bureau of Genetic Welfare, where they learn the truth about their society. Many years ago, the government believed that society's problems were caused by "bad" genes. In an attempt to create a better society, they began to modify peoples' genes, with disastrous results. The government set up "experiments" in an attempt to repair this mistake, establishing isolated cities across the remains of the United States. The hope was to raise enough genetically pure Divergent individuals to fix the "genetic damage" left in the wake of the Purity War.

Tris and Four are tested by Matthew and Nita to verify and study their Divergence. Tris is shown to be truly Divergent, but Four's genetic structure indicates that his genes are still "damaged". Matthew then brings Tris to the leader of the Bureau, David, to find out the truth about her mother. David gives Tris her mother's journal. Four is secretly asked to join a rebellion led by Nita, who is also genetically damaged. She tells him that the Bureau is lying when they say genetic damage is the cause of society's problems. She intends to demonstrate that the genetically pure are flawed as well. Four tells Tris about the plan, despite Nita's warning to keep it secret. Nita and her allies attack the compound, severely injuring Uriah in one of two explosions. Tris saves David from being shot by Nita and stops the attack. Nita is imprisoned for her crimes.

Tris confronts Four and ends their relationship. Tris is then offered a position on the Bureau's council and is told of events taking place within the city, including Allegiant's preparations for war with Evelyn and the factionless. David is desperate to stop the violence and maintain his life's work, even at the expense of destroying the memories and personalities of everyone in the city. He decides to use the memory serum to wipe the memories of people within the city, allowing the experiment to begin with a clean slate. Tris learns the Bureau created the serums that led to the destruction of Abnegation and the enslavement of Dauntless. Repulsed by the Bureau's actions and David's decision, Tris reconciles with Four. With her friends, she begins to create a plan to save her city. The group decides to break into the Weapons Lab and use the memory serum to wipe the Bureau's memories. The Lab is guarded by a fatal dose of the death serum, rendering it a suicide mission. Caleb volunteers for the role, tearfully asking Tris if his choice will allow her to forgive him for everything he has done. Tris says yes. Four, Christina, Peter, and Amar plan to go into the city to inoculate their loved ones against the serum.

Christina is able to retrieve doses of the inoculation serum and tells the group to inject themselves with it. Christina gives an extra vial of memory serum to Four, for use against either his father, Marcus, or mother, Evelyn, in the hope of bringing an end to the conflict. Four decides to confront Evelyn. Four meets with his mother and gives her the option of drinking it. Evelyn can then end the fighting and become his mother again. She embraces Four without taking the serum. They meet with Johanna and Marcus to put an end to the conflict. Peter laments his bad behavior and violent tendencies, which he knows will never change. Peter wants to take the memory serum and become a new person. Four gives Peter the serum; Peter takes it and his memories are erased.

At the Bureau, Caleb is ready to sacrifice himself, but he and Tris are ambushed by Bureau guards. Tris pulls her gun on Caleb and decides to carry out the mission herself, knowing that Caleb volunteered out of regret for his former actions rather than out of love for her. Tris tells Caleb that if she does not return, he should tell Four that she did not want to leave him. Tris destroys the entrance to the Lab and is exposed to the death serum, but she survives. David shoots Tris, who lunges for the memory serum and releases it. Tris slowly slips into darkness until she sees her mother reach out for her. She gladly accepts her mother's embrace, succumbs to her wounds, and dies.

Four, Peter and Christina return to the compound and are told about Tris' death by Cara. Four is incensed that Tris died for Caleb, even after Caleb's betrayal. Before Caleb walks away, he tells Four that Tris never wanted to leave him. Zeke and his mother take Uriah off of life support. Four cuts his hair and is about to use the memory serum on himself so that he can forget the pain of losing Tris and Uriah. Christina convinces him to not use it, saying Tris would want him to remember her.

Two and a half years later, Chicago is finally at peace, with former faction members, factionless, compound members, and other outsiders moving about at will. Four spreads Tris' ashes while ziplining from the Hancock Building, in memory of her. He accepts all that he has endured and reflects on his belief that while life damages everyone, people can always heal over time.

Background

Development

On July 18, at the San Diego Comic-Con panel for the film Divergent, Roth revealed that Allegiant is from both Tris and Four’s point of view. Talking about this, she said that "I tried repeatedly to write Allegiant in just Tris’s voice, but it didn’t work; her perspective, her way of seeing things, was a little too limited for the story I needed to tell, I wanted to do two things with it: A. let two characters experience different things, and B. let them react differently to the same things, so that I (and eventually, the reader) would get a better sense of the whole story, the whole picture.”

She further said that "I’ve said before that I’ve always seen Four (increasingly, as the series goes on) as a plot-mover alongside Tris, so he was the obvious choice for the second POV (though not the only one I tried). Exploring him and his choices and his assumptions about the world was incredibly interesting to me."

Title

Veronica Roth said that she didn't try to choose titles ending with "-ent" for all three books. Furthermore, she said that "I did not go through other ideas. It was always Allegiant, which she defined as "One who is loyal or faithful to a particular cause or person."

The World of Divergent: The Path to Allegiant

The World of Divergent: The Path to Allegiant

Cover
Author	Veronica Roth
Cover artist	Joel Tippie
Series	Divergent trilogy
Genre	Science fiction, dystopia, romance, young-adult fiction,
Publisher	Katherine Tegen Books
Publication date	September 24, 2013
Publication place	United States
Media type	e-Book (Kindle)
Pages	50
ISBN	9780062300805

The World of Divergent: The Path to Allegiant is a promotional electronic book by Veronica Roth, released free of charge by HarperCollins on September 24, 2013. Published four weeks before Allegiant was released, it was intended to be a companion book to the Divergent trilogy. Roth continues to write related fiction and The Path to Allegiant is a companion book to the entire so-called Divergent Universe in many respects. The book contains exclusive detailed description of Factions and its origin, the inspirations for the trilogy, quiz on "Factions" and answers by Roth regarding the trilogy. The book also contained ten teasers from Allegiant.

Critical reception

In a review for Entertainment Weekly, Hillary Busis gave the novel B+ and wrote that "If you've already been sucked into Roth's world, you'll appreciate the book's twisty plot — which provides needed context for the series' prefabricated society — and its chastely torrid Tris/Tobias love scenes." Publishers Weekly said in its review that "The alternating perspectives are bothersome at times, due to the similarity between Tris and Tobias’s first-person narratives. However, for those who have faithfully followed these five factions, and especially the Dauntless duo who stole hearts two books ago, this final installment will capture and hold attention until the divisive final battle has been waged."

Film adaptations

Main article: The Divergent Series: Allegiant

On December 16, 2013, Summit Entertainment announced that the film adaptation of Allegiant would be released on March 18, 2016. On April 11, 2014, Lionsgate announced that the film adaptation would be split into two films titled The Divergent Series: Allegiant and The Divergent Series: Ascendant, Ascendant has a release date of March 24, 2017. On July 9, 2014, Lionsgate recruited Noah Oppenheim to write the screenplay for Part 1. Shailene Woodley, Theo James, and Naomi Watts will reprise their roles. On December 5, 2014, it was announced that Robert Schwentke, who directed The Divergent Series: Insurgent, will return to direct Allegiant. Principal photography for The Divergent Series: Allegiant began in Atlanta on May 18, 2015.

External links

• Allegiant on Google Books
• Veronica Roth's official website