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...

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…