The reason for the simplicity isn’t disdain for uniqueness, as the other factions have sometimes interpreted it. Everything—our houses, our clothes, our hairstyles—is meant to help us forget ourselves and to protect us from vanity, greed, and envy, which are just forms of selfishness. If we have little, and want for little, and we are all equal, we envy no one.

Oh, and soul-crushing depression, decreased productivity, pretty much nonexistent creativity, and a tendency to completely lose it and stab people in the face.  Can’t forget those lovely effects of this lunacy you’ve all decided to adopt.

This isn’t selfless service; this is reducing yourself to a non-entity, which is simply not how our brains our wired to behave.  People have needs, and if they ignore their own needs, then bad things happen.  It’s not that complicated of a concept.  And how far is all of this supposed to extend.  Can they not speak up if someone bullies them?  Do they have to donate themselves into poverty?  Must they be friends with someone who constantly puts them down, or who is overly demanding?  Are they able to ever say “stop, you’re invading my comfort zone and I feel uncomfortable”?  This is a really, really dangerous concept to be presenting as ‘good,’ and it’s making me very uncomfortable.

My natural tendency toward sarcasm is still not appreciated. Sarcasm is always at someone’s expense.

I think you’re confusing ‘sarcasm’ with ‘general dickery.’

Tris waits outside her home until her brother and neighbors arrive. Then there’s really dull padding and they go inside to cook dinner.

Most of what we eat is frozen or canned, because farms these days are far away.

Due to a lot of craziness, most of our food is grown far, far away from us.  I have a farm nearly next door to my house that grows beans, and if I go to the local big chain grocery store, the beans there are from somewhere on the East Coast.  On average, our food travels between 1,500 and 2,500 miles before it reaches our tables, which is actually a huge problem, because the pollution caused by all this transportation is whopping.  In fact, if you’re in favor of saving the environment, it is arguably better to buy locally produced food than it is to buy organic food.  (When you’re out shopping, ‘organic’ is a dubious label at best, anyway.)  You can find Farmer’s Markets and CSA’s in your area and help out not only the environment, but small farm owners as well. 

My point is this line is completely meaningless.  Our farms are already far away, and we still get ‘fresh’ peas.  So if that’s changed, then it’s got to be because the society has lost processing or transportation abilities.  If you’ve got refrigerated trucks on highways, then ‘far away’ isn’t a big deal because you can still arrive within a few days with whole produce.  If they’re down to a cart pulled by a donkey, okay, then you need to can everything.  What this line boils down to is just “this specific situation is exactly the same as in your world, but the result is different, but I won’t tell you why.”

Why are all the farms so far away, anyway?

So they parents get home, and they all sit down to dinner.  They’ve heard about a student that had an ‘odd’ test, but nothing else, and the kids don’t tell them it was Tris.

I couldn’t be Candor. I lie too easily.

[…]

“No,” Caleb says. He smiles at my mother.

My brother couldn’t be Candor either.

Yeah, but you’re both capable of telling the truth, right?  Or does the ability to lie completely invalidate the ability to hold honesty in high esteem?  Are you telling me that all Candor people, by definition, lack a poker face?

Seriously, what did you guys do to the human race?

They say grace before dinner, and it seems that not every family is religious but hers is. 

Her dad talks about his day.  The government is all ruled by Abnegation people, because since they are so ‘selfless’ they are incorruptible.

That’s right, this book assumes that if you give people boring gray clothes and boring tiny houses and boring minimal necessities and boring sameness day in and day out, then put them in positions of power, they won’t take bribes.

And I’m sure communism won’t produce some of the most corrupt bureaucracies every heard of, either.

Really, this book is taking a statement like “we value this or that” and treating it as if these social values are biological imperatives.  Like someone from her group physically has to be selfless and is incapable of being otherwise. 

I think the system persists because we’re afraid of what might happen if it didn’t: war.

How are you guys not already at war?  At the very least, the factionless should have murdered you all in your sleep.  Beyond that, how is there not a Candor or Erudite group that’s thought to themselves “Those Abnegation idiots are too soft and spineless; I could totally run this place better”?  Especially since, you know, you’ve discouraged your ruling party from being honest and intelligent.

Think I’m kidding about that last part?  As her dad is telling a story about his coworker, Tris has a few very basic questions regarding it, and she’s chastised for asking them.  Apparently it’s not ‘selfless’ enough to ask questions.  She’s actively being discouraged from educating herself about the world around her.  And this is supposed to indicate an average Abnegation family.  These jerks are in charge of shit?  From all the evidence, they couldn’t lead their way out of a paper bag.

Her dad’s coworker is upset because someone released a ‘report’ saying that he (Marcus) used to beat his son (Tobias) and therefore Tobias became Dauntless.  Her family views this as a betrayal, since people don’t usually leave their faction.  Noticeably absent from this conversation?  AND CLAIMS THAT MARCUS DIDN’T BEAT TOBIAS.  No one brings it up.  No wonders if it’s true or not, or insists that it can’t be true.  Not a word.  Apparently this beating is just accepted, and everyone is cool with it, and they thing Tobias should have stuck around anyway.

Mr. Prior says that the Erudites have been releasing many such reports.  Many such….true reports?  False reports?  Are they ‘attacking’ you by making up lies or by bringing to light your dirty laundry?

“You know why,” my father says. “Because we have something they want. Valuing knowledge above all else results in a lust for power, and that leads men into dark and empty places.

O.O

I…just…what?  What even is this?  Why do you think this?

Yeah, I’m starting to understand the claims of anti-intellectualism now.

Down with those damned smart people.  Let’s keep in place the selfless people who would rather turn a blind eye to CHILD BEATING than let anyone know that their world isn’t full of rainbows and puppies.  Yeah, that’s a healthy government attitude right there.  (In fact…that sounds oddly familiar…)

The next day they go to the Choosing Ceremony.

lit cigarette. I will never smoke one myself—they are closely tied to vanity

Every time I see something like this, I can’t help but feel like I’m getting a peek into the author’s brain. 

At the Hub, they take the stairs rather than selfishly take up space in the crowded elevator.  Then a whole bunch of other Abnegation people join them.

The uniform pounding of feet in my ears and the homogeneity of the people around me makes me believe that I could choose this. I could be subsumed into Abnegation’s hive mind, projecting always outward.

But then my legs get sore, and I struggle to breathe, and I am again distracted by myself.

Yes, that’s right little girl.  Submit to us.  Lose your entire sense of self.  Don’t be distracted by pain.  Pain is selfishness.  You are not allowed to protect yourself and your body.  You must give over everything, every last breath, even if it injures you, rather than put anyone out by making them *gasp* wait for the next elevator.

I seriously think Abnegation is evil.  Someone tell me they’re evil.  Like, megalomaniac, crush-you-under-my-heels, bat-shit-fucking-insane evil.  Not that I’ll be happy if I’m right, because with that ‘hive mind’ comment it’s pretty obvious if they’re bad, but if they’re not bad, then it’s just a brain scratcher.  This whole thing is in that kind of grey area where it’s so unsubtle and un-nuanced that I’m not sure if it’s poor foreshadowing or poor psychology.

The Choosing Ceremony consists of a big audience, and in the middle are five bowls representing the five factions.  Kids have to cut open their hands and bleed into the bowl of their choosing.  What the flying fuck is this?  Why did their society as a whole decide that self-mutilation is the way to go?  I mean, of course it’s possible to have a rite of passage like this, but it’s not the least bit in step with 4/5ths of the rest of their society.  It doesn’t make sense in context.

Marcus stands up and starts giving a speech.

“Decades ago our ancestors realized that it is not political ideology, religious belief, race, or nationalism that is to blame for a warring world. Rather, they determined that it was the fault of human personality—of humankind’s inclination toward evil, in whatever form that is.

Fair enough.  I can get behind that idea.  We’re pretty inclined to war, and religion and race are just excuses we use.  I see people blame religion for war a lot and I want to throttle them and point out that we’d find some other reason to go to war without it.  (I think my desire to throttle them proves my point…)

On the other hand, ‘decades’?  Really?  As in, this whole system came about fairly recently, within living memory, and everyone is just going along with it?  That’s not enough time to change society into these faction-specific personality traits, not through selective breeding.  If this is less than a century, then Tris is part of, like, maybe the third generation to go through this.  We’re talking a massive comic-book-type toxic waste spill, or deliberate and invasive neurological meddling to reach this point.

Either that or everyone is ‘divergent’ and just pretending.

They divided into factions that sought to eradicate those qualities they believed responsible for the world’s disarray.”

Mankind is too divided to live in peace!  Let’s divide further!  That will fix everything!

“Those who blamed aggression formed Amity.”

 “Those who blamed ignorance became the Erudite.”

 “Those who blamed duplicity created Candor.”

 “Those who blamed selfishness made Abnegation.”

 “And those who blamed cowardice were the Dauntless.”

And then they all allowed the other factions to live alongside them.  So the Erudites got rid of ignorance in their own group, but everyone else is still stupid.  And the Candors got rid of duplicity in their own group, but everyone else is still two-faced.

Do you know what the logical conclusion of this is?  Candor deciding that duplicity really is the blame of war, and insisting that everyone else be just as honest as they are.  Which, of course, everyone else would resist, which would result in another fight.  (Except it wouldn’t just be Candor, of course, it would be everyone coming to this conclusion.)

Why didn’t they blame all those things and just make one faction full of friendly, smart, honest, brave people?

Who all get together and stab the fuck out of Abnegation?

I try to stand completely still, because if my knees are locked and my body is stiff, I don’t shake.

Locked knees: awesome way to pass out.

So they get into the ceremony, and Tris is quietly freaking out because she doesn’t know what to pick still.  Some kid named James is the first to pick a faction he wasn’t raised in.

They will see him as a traitor from now on.

Because the way to live in peace with other people is to see them as horrible betrayers of everything you hold dear.  Right.

And then time will pass, and the hole will be gone, like when an organ is removed and the body’s fluids flow into the space it leaves.

…and then the body dies.  Seriously, organs are important.  You replace them with new organs.  Otherwise that ‘fluid’ is blood, and then you die.  This is a terrible metaphor.

Unless these are all genetically modified humans who can lose organs and replace them with self-replicating orgo-jelly, the new and improved way to survive the zombie apocalypse!  Orgo-jelly, for all your heart, live, intestine, and kidney needs!  Get yours today!

Also available in brain flavor!  (Side effects may include a diminished capacity to act like a person, limiting you to only one small slice of the human experience.  Oops.)

Oddly enough, no one has balked at the whole hand-slicing thing yet.  They just shrug and go along with it like it ain’t no big thing.

Caleb picks Erudite, and Tris goes up for her turn determined to stay with her family, since they already lost one kid to the ‘enemy.’  Yeah, in this ‘peaceful’ society, they still see 4/5ths of everyone else as being an enemy.  But at last minute she picks Dauntless, because otherwise we wouldn’t have a story.

Oh, no, wait, it’s because she’s “selfish.”  Yeah, she’s not completely atuoman and outwardly focused, so that means she’s “selfish.”  Great message to be sending to our young people.