Beatrice Prior is born into Abnegation, but at her test she is warned that she is ‘divergent’, having traits that fit several factions, and so represents a threat to the system. After a symbolic Choosing Ceremony, young people leave family behind to adopt the ideologies and social roles of their chosen faction, following the doctrine of ‘faction before blood’. An aptitude test, in the form of a simulation, provides guidance on faction choice.
Its citizens choose at 16 to join one of five factions based on virtues: ‘Abnegation’ are self-effacing with religious associations and take on caring and political duties ‘Erudite’ fulfil intellectual roles ‘Dauntless’ act as armed protectors ‘Candor’ value honesty and ‘Amity’ favour peace and harmony. 1 Divergent is set about 150 years in the future in a post-apocalyptic Chicago, sealed off by a guarded wall. The appeal of the novel for its fandom is based partly on its strong-willed heroine, and the central premise of the faction system, both of which are integral to the film’s reworking of dystopia. This success came despite the fact that the series’ concluding book Allegiant (2013) was published to a negative reception from many fans.ĭivergent is adapted from the first novel in a best-selling trilogy by Christian author Veronica Roth. While making only slightly over a third of The Hunger Games’s $152.5 million opening, its opening box office enabled it to be ranked directly below the latter franchise and those of Harry Potter and Twilight (2008-12) in a list of ‘Young-Adult Book Adaptations’ ( Box Office Mojo). When Divergent made $54.6 million at its opening weekend in America ( Box Office Mojo), double the opening box office of Ender’s Game, it was hailed by industry commentators as having broken ‘the curse that has plagued every other YA film adaptation’ (McClintock). The year had seen the release of the less profitable dystopian science fiction Ender’s Game and The Host, and post-apocalyptic How I Live Now. Despite the continuing success of The Hunger Games franchise, by 2013 there was speculation in the industry press that this genre was not financially viable. Divergent is one of the first Young Adult films after The Hunger Games (2012) to bring dystopia, heroic adventure and teen development successfully to the screen. The run-down city or the warring space-ship take on an educational and game-oriented function. Mise-en-scène coded to convey social organisation becomes pleasurable fashion simulated environments enhance ability and self-knowledge, utopian and dystopian narrative spaces are defined by teenage communities and romances. Visual tropes from dystopian science fiction, war or drama genres abound in these films, but they are modified. The film, together with other Young Adult adaptations, constructs a cinematic analogue of Young Adult dystopian novels’ metaphoric treatment of adolescent concerns, and their focus on subjectivity. This article examines the ways in which Divergent (Burger, US, 2014) reimagines the aesthetics and spatial relations of classic dystopic and science fiction cinema.
Young Adult dystopian adaptations retain their source novels’ hybridisation of fast-paced action with codes of teen drama, reformulating these within post-classical cinema targeted at a young teen demographic. The films repurpose dystopia, de-emphasising the ideological critique associated with canonic dystopic fiction. Like the novels on which they are based, Young Adult dystopian films primarily provide a space for heroic adventure. Simulation Frames: Young Adult Dystopian Cinema