Divergent

Reading Check and Short Answer questions on key points are designed for guided reading assignments, in-class review, formative assessment, quizzes, and more.

Chapters 1-5

Reading Check

1. How old is the narrator?

2. Who is the narrator’s brother?

3. In what faction has the narrator been raised?

4. Which faction does the narrator’s brother choose?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. How does Beatrice’s reaction to the Choosing Ceremony differ from that of most people?

2. How does Tori react to Beatrice’s results?

3. Why does Abnegation rule the city?

Paired Resource

“Choices”

• This short poem by Nikki Giovanni offers a way of viewing the world and reflections on how the speaker responds to it.
• This audio version features the poet reading her work.
• This poem connects to the theme of Identity and Choice.
• How much choice does Beatrice have in her life? How might the speaker of “Choices” advise her?

Chapters 6-10

Reading Check

1. When Max tells the new initiates to jump through a hole in the roof, who jumps first?

2. How many new initiates will become Dauntless members?

3. What tattoo does Tris get?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. What does Tris’s willingness to jump on the train after the Choosing Ceremony reveal about her?

2. Who is Four? Identify this character through both plot events and traits.

3. When Eric forces Christina to choose between being factionless or hanging over the Pit, what does she choose and what does this reveal about her character?

4. What does Tris’s trip to the hospital show about Dauntless?

Paired Resource

“Universal Declaration of Human Rights”

• This document from the United Nations outlines rights everyone in the world should have.
• The document connects to themes of Social Divisions and Fear and Bravery.
• What rights does Eric violate during training?

Chapters 11-15

Reading Check

1. What did Four rank in his initiation class?

2. During Capture the Flag, who are the two team captains?

3. What does Tris learn Four is afraid of?

4. What does Tris realize about her mom’s original faction?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. How does Four help save Tris’s life on the Ferris wheel?

2. What does her fight with Molly reveal about Tris?

3. What advice does Tris’s mother give her, and what does this illustrate about her mother?

Chapters 16-20

Reading Check

1. After Stage One, what is Tris ranked in her class?

2. When Uriah invites Tris on an adventure, what do they and other initiates do?

3. What does Tori warn Tris that Dauntless leaders will do if they find out she is Divergent?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. What does the violence against Edward prove about the Dauntless initiation process?

2. How does Tris face the simulation in Stage Two?

3. How does Four learn Tris is Divergent?

Paired Resource

“Consider This: They Say You Can't Choose Your Family, But Some People Do”

• This text includes written and audio versions of an NPR segment about what makes family.
• The interview connects to themes of Faction Versus Family and Identity and Choice.
• How does Dauntless become Tris’s “chosen family”?

Chapters 21-25

Reading Check

1. After Stage Two, who are the top two ranked initiates?

2. After Al’s death, what tattoo does Tris get?

3. What name did Four have previously?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. Why does Four advise Tris to show weakness?

2. How did Four get his nickname, and what does this nickname illustrate about him?

Chapters 26-30

Reading Check

1. How many fears do most initiates have in their fear landscapes?

2. When Tris decides to visit family, where does she go?

3. Who is speaking out against Abnegation and interrogates Tris?

4. What does Four tell Tris Erudite are giving to Dauntless?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. In her fear landscape, when Peter tries to burn her, what do Tris’s actions reveal?

2. In the simulation, when told to shoot her family, how do Tris’s actions connect to her original faction?

Paired Resource

“Movement”

• This 4-minute video presents a slam poem by Minor Disturbance that gives voice to the power of taking action. (Content Warning: Poem topics include violence and oppression.)
• The poem connects to themes of Social Divisions, Identity and Choice, and Fear and Bravery.
• How do Tris’s actions during her initiation connect to the poem?

Chapters 31-35

Reading Check

1. What tattoos does Four have?

2. What final ranking does Tris receive?

3. Who rescues Tris and is killed?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. After the initiates finish their fear landscape, what does the injection Eric gives them suggest?

2. In the middle of the night after initiation, what happens to most Dauntless initiates, what happens to Tris, and how does this build suspense?

3. Why does Jeanine give Four another injection?

Paired Resource

“How To Find and Practice Courage”

• This article from Harvard Business Review examines different aspects of courage and includes some action steps to help build this trait.
• The article offers connections to Fear and Bravery and Choices and Identity.
• Which of the techniques in the article does Tris use?

Chapters 36-39

Reading Check

1. Whom does Tris kill to stop him from killing her?

2. Where does Tris find Tobias?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. How do Tris and Tobias interfere with Jeanine’s plans?

2. What does Tobias admit to Tris on the train to Amity?

Recommended Next Reads

Insurgent by Veronica Roth

• This is the second book in the Divergent series.
• The book offers thematic connections to Social Divisions, Identity and Choice, Faction Versus Family, and Fear and Bravery.
• Insurgent includes shared topics of oppression, growing up, family, friendship, love, standing up for beliefs, and justice.
• Insurgent on SuperSummary

The Testing by Joelle Charbonneau

• In this dystopian society, people struggle to rebuild life after tragedies nearly destroy the world. At first elated to be chosen for the Testing, Cia realizes the danger and deception it offers.
• This book offers thematic connections to Social Divisions, Identity and Choice, Faction Versus Family, and Fear and Bravery.
• The Testing includes shared topics of dystopia, oppression, growing up, family, friendship, love, standing up for beliefs, and justice.
• The Testing on SuperSummary