Allegiant

Abstract

Allegiant is the third and final novel of the Divergent series, set in a dystopian future in an isolated city of the United States of America, where society is divided in different factions according to each individual’s skills. These are: Abnegation, Amity, Candor, Dauntless, and Erudite, with Divergent individuals possessing the skills typical of more than one faction. Allegiant still follows Divergents Tris and Tobias’s journey after they uncover the plan of Erudite Jeanine Matthews to destroy Abnegation through the use of a mind control serum to lead the Dauntless to attack Abnegation. They are able to dethrone Jeanine, seek shelter within the Amity community, and then learn that their city is isolated because they are being subjected to a genetic and social experiment. As the world descended into disarray and corruption, their city was barred from the outside to allow Divergents – with multiple skills and qualities – to increase, so that the city might, somewhere in the future, reopen its gates and allow these individuals to repopulate the wastelands. Allegiant takes place after this revelation, and after the Factionless – individuals who could not abide by society’s rules and became outcasts – led a successful rebellion against the imposed social order. Tris and Tobias learn about the “Allegiant” who are working to restore the faction social system. Tris is eventually invited to meet the “Allegiant”, and she is later taken to the so-called Bureau of Genetic Welfare, meeting its leader, David, who promptly gives her more details about the society in which she grew up. He explains to her that her city was barred from the outside world as part of a scientific and social experiment approved by the US government. The objective of this experiment was to produce Divergents, considered to be genetically purer than other people, which were, in turn, considered to be genetically damaged. The experiment, thus, sought to perfect human genetics, and that could only be done in a controlled environment. Eventually, Tris becomes part of the Bureau and realizes that it was this institution that actually supplied the mind control serums to Jeanine when she led the war against Abnegation. Tris also gets to know that David wants to release memory erasing serums on the population so as to take control of the city once again and continue his experiments, but Tris intends to release the serums in the Bureau instead. In the end, the city is saved and reopened.