Chapter Eighteen

The initiates are being trained together and they are all standing in a dark hallway, being called one at a time into a room with Four. They don't exactly know what stage two is all about but they do know it'll be emotional, and a lot of it.

Drew, Uriah, and Tris are the last three left and finally, Tris gets called in. Four tells her that the simulation is in order to face your fears and you're timed. You will be in the simulation until you can lower your breathing or lower your heart-rate back to normal. She is given a shot in the neck and the transmitter in the serum are connected to the computer so Four can see whatever the person is going through. He tells Tris to be brave.

Tris awakes in a grassy field and the sky is an orange/yellow and it gives her anxiety. I can relate because a lot of my dreams make me feel dread and have anxiety. Then birds start attacking her and trying to crawl down her throat. I initially though... she's afraid of birds? She got a tattoo of birds on her. But then I realized that is symbolizes something else.

As soon as she wakes up, Four looks astonished and walks her back to the dorm. He tells her that it was amazing and that she got out three times faster than anybody else. After she settles down she asks his ranking. It turns out that Four was ranked first and Eric was ranked second, so by default Eric became a leader.

"It fills me with anxiety, my body cringing away from it."

I imagine it as this color almost.

Chapter Seventeen

Uriah comes up to Tris and gets her to go outside with him and a bunch of Dauntless people. None of the initiates know where they're going but the members know. She's meeting new people and nonchalantly asking questions about Four. Technically that's our generation's Facebook stalking.(:

She figures out they are going to the Hancock building and they go to the very top floor and climb to the ceiling. This building is very, very, very, high up and they plan to zip-line off of it! Tris is the first of the initiates to go and she completely loves it. Just at the right time, you have to unclip your harness and fall into the arms of the other Dauntless members. This makes them feel one with another and it's really what brings them together, this is really what makes a person Dauntless.

Because she was the first to jump she loses the nickname "Stiff." (hahahah.;) I thought it was interesting how she technically got a "flashback" of the Marsh and saw how life used to be. I wonder if she only saw that because she's Divergent, or maybe everybody sees it and they just don't talk about it? But that seems pretty unreasonable. 

They are all addicted to the rushing feeling and the adrenaline pumping through them. She finally feels like she fits in with Dauntless and officially wants to be one of them. 

"Before he can finish the word "go," he releases the sling and I forget him, I forget Uriah, and family, and all the things that could malfunction and lead to my death."

Chapter Sixteen

The rankings are being released and Four explains how the ranking are qualified. She thinks that he looks at her because she's nervous.... right. That's why he's looking at you....

-You get a score for your level of skill
-1st fight, if you beat someone of a higher level you get points, if you prey on the weak you lose points
-2nd fight is the same thing
-The 1st stage of initiation is weighted less than the 2nd and 3rd

Cristina get's ranked 4th, Al 8th, and Tris 6th. Edward is ranked 1st and Peter is 2nd. There is a lot of tension in the room and Tris notices that Peter is really calm even though, normally, he would be furious.

Later that night Tris wakes up to people shuffling around the room and then after a shriek that no one will forget, running footsteps. The lights go on and Edwards eye has been stabbed. Tris's Abnegation takes over and while everyone else is frozen, she helps Edward and makes sure he doesn't pull it out of his eye. After
Edward is headed to the hospital, Tris cleans the blood off of the floor because no one else will. The only people that weren't in the room were Peter and Drew so they totally had to have done it. All the initiates are haunted by what happened and no one really sleeps for the rest of that night.  The next day, they are informed that Edward and Myra quit and are now factionless.

I was actually scared while reading this because it was described in a way that everyone can imagine and it was so meticulous in the choosing of words, I loved it. I also noticed that in this situation Tris's selflessness made her brave. That in some way makes her have an advantage over the initiates.

After the incident Al flat out hits on Tris and she thinks it's really uncomfortable and I'm almost positive a lot of girls can relate to this... (Friend zone.)

Tris loves the Dauntless faction and wants to be first in order to be a leader, to turn it back to its original Faction Manifesto (Rules written directly after formed.)

"Sometimes crying or laughing are the only options left, and laughing feels better right now."

Chapter Fifteen

Faction before blood is really important to all the factions, but most important to Dauntless. On visiting day, they are told by Four to not look too attached to their family. This shouldn't be a problem though because Tris's mom isn't going to show up right? Wrong.

Tris is so happy to see her and her mom makes a special occasion to only talk about her and Tris brings up Caleb. Her mom can't visit Caleb because the faction tension between Abnegation and Erudite. The Erudite won't let any Abnegation onto their compound. She introduces Four to her mom and her first reaction is, "he's handsome!" An Four says not to worry about Tris, says that she's doing very well even though that's not totally true.

Tris is introduced to Will's sister, but his sister is making very rude comments about Abnegation and Tris is willing to fight for her mother. Will has to practically separate them. Afterwards, Tris is lead by her mom to a super secret hallway and asked all these questions about initiation, like she already knows how everything works. Tris tells her mom that she is Divergent and Tris is instructed to stay in the middle of the pact.

Why does her mom know about Divergence? Because usually only people who are Divergent, know about being Divergent. That makes me think that she is maybe Divergent. Finally, her mom wants her to ask Caleb to research the simulation serum because her mom can't go there and do it herself.

It takes Tris a while to figure this out, but her mother was Dauntless before she chose Abnegation.

"If Eric thinks I did something right, I must have done it wrong." -hahahah

Chapter Fourteen

I think it would be super hard to beat up someone that you don't have a problem with. They have to fight the people that they've become close to. You'd have to dig down really deep to something that angers you; enough to the point that you could mess someones face up. This is the reason that Al isn't going to make it, he's just on the floor letting people hit him. He doesn't have the rage that everyone else has. 

If bullying her is cowardice, why don't the people get reprimanded for it? They really aren't Dauntless at all if they're bullying because that's completely against their faction and corrupts them, in a way.

Tris's gets out of the shower and is walking back to the room to get clothes but, the only people in the room are Drew, Peter, and Molly. They start picking on her and they make her towel fall off and make fun of her body. This only gives her momentum when the next day her and Molly are paired to fight. Tris beats the crap out of Molly and I thought it was super empowering. Tris actually kind of scares Four with how bad she beat her.

"His eyes travel down my body, not in the greedy way that a man looks at a woman, but cruelly, scrutinizing every flaw." 

This quote sticks out to me because I don't like having people look at me too long. I know this sounds petty, but allowing them to like stare at me, gives them more time to notice my flaws; which makes me feel insecure.

Chapter Thirteen

The Dauntless believe Pride is more important than reason or sense. But I think, in order to be functional, you have to have both, otherwise you will never think about your actions and you'll just be ruthless; which isn't what Dauntless "wants."

Tris is very clever and stands up to Peter's stupid remarks. Tris actually throws better than most people there, but Al isn't doing well at all. Eric is in a bad mood so when he notices Al, he tells him to get his knives while the others are still throwing. He honestly bursts out that he's scared of getting hit in the head with a knife. So he makes him stand in front of a target until he doesn't flinch. Tris tells them to stop then says,

"It doesn't prove anything except that you're bullying us. Which, as I recall is a sign of cowardice."

She ends up taking his spot and flinches the first time, but the second she's determined. Four is purposely missing but then nicks her ear, she doesn't flinch though...

Chapter Twelve

Tris and Four have this whole Flirtationship because they keep awkwardly staring and Tris's training get's distracted by him too often. I love this Romance thing in the novel, it makes it just that more special.

The Dauntless Initiates are woken up and told to get clothes on, they're going to go play Capture the Flag. That actually seems kind of fun and not dangerous at all! But then, they hand out guns... At first I thought that they were real guns, but it turns out they were just paintball guns.(: The teams are picked by Eric and Four and one team will be let off the train, then the next, ten minutes after. They can hide their flag wherever they want and whoever team captures the other teams flag, wins.

This picture gets the point across and makes me laugh.(:

"Shockingly," Tris gets picked first but honestly, anybody reading the book could tell that that was going to happen. By the team picks, she can tell that Four is smarter and Eric is ruthless. They are the opposites of Dauntless. Tris notices that the other girls of initiates flirt with Four but he doesn't respond any. Her team is arguing about how to divide up and how to keep the flag safe, so Tris just ignores all of them and starts climbing a Ferris wheel to see higher ground. Four decides to follow her and they keep climbing. Tris about falls and that's when Four leaves her??? I was freaking out, I thought he turned and was going to leave her to die because she's Divergent. But then it turns out he had a brilliant idea and he gets her down safely.(:

Meanwhile, Tris found where the other team is and leads all the initiates there but right as she's about to take it, Cristina takes it from her and says she's had enough for today. They end up winning. Everyone is very happy with Tris and really impressed. After all, she is just a little girl from Abnegation right?...

"If my entire life is like this, loud laughter and bold action and the kind of exhaustion you feel after a hard but satisfying day, I will be content."