Tuesday, December 11, 2012

"Hey baby, what's your faction?"

In keeping with the theme of easy distraction this week, I have a couple of fun diversions for you. I recently read Veronica Roth's Divergent, which came out in 2011 and was hailed as the perfect option for readers who couldn't get enough of The Hunger Games. In Divergent, another young adult dystopian thriller, the society is divided into five factions, each representing a shared set of very specific values. The factions -- Abnegation, Amity, Candor, Dauntless, and Erudite -- have their own respective codes of conduct, and the people within them are defined by the characteristics of their faction. For example, the members of Dauntless get around town by jumping on and off of moving trains, and the selfless members of Abnegation always carry extra food to give to the homeless. Amity is filled with friendly, peaceable types; Candor is home to the artless; and Erudite finds its members spending their days in the library.

Of course, there are problems with essentializing an entire community of people, but if there weren't problems, there wouldn't be a book. And much as you may resist wanting to categorize yourself and others, it's difficult to read this book and not consider which faction you would inhabit. To that end, here are three online quizzes that sort you into your faction. (Much like Hogwarts' fabled sorting hat.)

Quiz One
Quiz Two
Quiz Three


1 comment:

  1. Some lab at Berkeley had developed a very detailed Sorting Hat, with extensive personality and psychological questions, it was quite long I recall... That put me into Ravenclaw. I kind of expected at least a part of myself to venture into Slytherin territory... and Pottermore made me a Gryffindor.
    This first test here placed me in Erudite. I've not looked at the other two (yet... I have a lot of work and thus a lot of potential for distraction). But overall I'd expect I would be as divergent in theory. Because no one faction was even close to good enough.

    Have you read Insurgent yet?

    ReplyDelete