Discussion of Divergent Movie

Divergent Discussion

Themes

One of the themes that is present in the movie can be identified using a Marxist lens. Marx's belief was that there is a dialectical relationship between the owners of capital and of the laboring masses. His theory postulated that the owners of capital would continually increase their power through the accumulation of capital, which also gave them more power over society, until which point the relationship between capital (the means of production) and labor were so out of balance that there would be virtually no choice but for the workers to eventually revolt and try to disrupt the system. Marx based his theory on the historical analysis of many different societies that have followed such a trend and several examples of this can be seen throughout world history. The dialectical relationship was based on the relationship of power between the different classes.

The powerful members of society would continue to consolidate their power until the laboring class of society had a comparatively meager existence. The laborers would eventually realize that they had the power in numbers and overthrow the existing power structures in hopes of creating something fairer based on their class interests. Marx's theory is that this was a natural cycle that would occur and societies would continually be in one stage or the other. However, Marx also believed that there would be some sort of evolution that would allow societies to avoid repeating this cycle and, in his opinion, he believed that the next stage would be communism. Although communism did not work out in many attempts thus far, in theory at least it seems to be a more egalitarian and fair way to distribute resources equally in a society and eliminate the social classes altogether.

The film Divergent takes place in Chicago sometime in the future. Tris, one of the main characters, is trying to decide which faction to join which is the custom when individuals reach the age of sixteen. If the sixteen-year-olds are unable to join a faction, then they are the equivalent to a contemporary homeless individual. In the film, the Abnegation faction is the faction that currently controls the government. This faction is basically selfless and would represent something that Marx would find more ideal than a society that has power imbalances. The individuals that are less self-interested are more capable of ruling or performing government functions.

However, there are other factions, such as the Erudite, that want to take power from the government leaders. Each faction has its individual power, however they are not the same and they are not equal; each has their own special contributions to society and each has a different ideology. The power struggle between these factions represents power struggles that have also happened in many other societies before, and similar to the types of power struggles that Marx bases his theories on. There have been many struggles between different class interests throughout history as well as the military and it's role.

Another theme could be identified to be class conflict, which is definitely related to the Marxist view. The classes in the movie can be thought of in terms of the factions; however at the same time, there are also classes within the factions. In fact, one of the phrases in the movie is something of a social status manifesto which is stated as "the future belongs to those who know where they belong" (Farley, 2014). The class conflict is amplified by the factions and the individuals' dedication to these factions. The membership into any one of the factions defines the individual and their ideology or worldview. Once you enter one of the different factions, you are basically locked into the membership and the accompanying worldview. You are expected to marry in the same faction and there is really no social mobility that is available. Once you chose a faction and you are accepted, then you are basically locked into that class similar to strict classes in other societies such as the caste system in older societies.

Part II -- Divergent and Contemporary Similarities

In the United States today, the society is perceivably becoming more polarized on many different levels. There is polarization in regards to economic inequality for example. Bernie Sanders, a presidential candidate from the Democratic Party has been one of the most vocal politician to address these issues. He refers to himself as a democratic socialist which has many characteristics that are similar to the goals in a communist system. There is a significant amount attention paid to the debate about whether Sanders is a socialist or a democratic socialist and exactly what the difference is and why that might matter.

"When Bernie is asked, 'Are you a socialist?' he doesn't deny it, and he immediately talks about Scandinavia. He uses them interchangeably. But if you look at his history, he knows the distinction," Schwartz vice-chair of the Democratic Socialists of America, said in an interview (Qui, 2015).

Parrellels in the kinds of issues that Bernie has argued in today's political arena are similar to the same kinds of themes, although greatly exaggerated in the film, which exists in Divergent.

The presidential candidates, especially Bernie Sanders, quickly point out how inequality has consistently grown over the last few generations and the top 1% or fraction of 1% have been responsible for receiving much of the wealth that has been earned in any economic growth. This class does not represent one that is bound by blood, rather they are bound by their class and position in society. It seems many of these individuals also have similar ideologies. I believe that the factions in the film represent an exaggerated form of such a class division. Not only is there the wealthy one percent (or less) class in the U.S., there could also be the military class, political class, and technological class among others.

The movie (and book) is undoubtedly designed to highlight the potential futures of our current social problems.