This summer, I was meeting my family in Brazil for the first time. All the expectations and stories were soon to be lived up to or shattered. We were cooking dinner at my aunt’s house. Well, at least she was because she didn’t want me to help. I was the guest. The tiny one person kitchen was filling up as every one of my cousins came over to talk, to help out, and to get to know me. My aunt was stirring the stew in the huge metal pot, which held all the food for the family. Directly behind the stew was the pot filled with rice and another pot had beans. And there was another pot of some kind of meat stew. The stove was as filled as that kitchen at the time. There was about ten of us stuffing ourselves in the kitchen from both entryways—the
…show more content…
The main character, Tris, struggles with choosing one faction because she doesn’t belong to just one faction, she belongs to three. Something that is seen as rare and is secretive in the book. I remember reading this part and thinking which faction would I be? Which one would I chose? Would I want to be smart like Erudite, brave like Dauntless, honest like candor? But I don’t want to have to choose, because to me it doesn’t make sense why the characters did have to choose, why they only had to be one thing. Veronica Roth defines being divergent as being different from a group of people. But in this book, being divergent is seen as something awful, which eventually leads to a revolution. As Tris discovers that she is divergent, she is told to not tell anyone. And as the book progresses, the fact that she is divergent practically puts her on a kill list for the authorities. Being divergent, somehow threatens the authority and stability of the factions in the book, but I also believe it can happen in our society as well. Once we are seen as different, as unable to fit into the categories, society frowns upon us and labels us as the black sheep, simply because they can’t identify …show more content…
In America, I am Brazilian. There is no in between. No middle ground. I’m not a cookie cutter fit. People always have to identify each other with their nationally and ethnicity. I have been asked more times that I want to admit, “What are you” in the rudest, ignorant tone, yet at times it was out of pure innocence and lacked any intentional malice. They just needed a category to place me in and they were irritated when they couldn’t identify a category to place me in. I just always tell them I’m Brazilian, because it’s much easier for them to identify me as a Brazilian, who speaks Portuguese and has Brazilian culture, rather than telling them I’m an American, who speaks Portuguese with Brazilian culture and heritage.
The black sheep doesn’t fit into the basic categories, not even into the 21st century societal categories. It’s difficult to be different, to be yourself when every single thing in your life is placing you in a category. And honestly, how do you create something out of nothing? How do you become yourself without the input of the world around you and surge yourself something completely different and new? But somehow, we don’t fit the categories. Then the ones that are “different” unite and form a new category, where the outsiders aren’t so different
The main character, Tris, struggles with choosing one faction because she doesn’t belong to just one faction, she belongs to three. Something that is seen as rare and is secretive in the book. I remember reading this part and thinking which faction would I be? Which one would I chose? Would I want to be smart like Erudite, brave like Dauntless, honest like candor? But I don’t want to have to choose, because to me it doesn’t make sense why the characters did have to choose, why they only had to be one thing. Veronica Roth defines being divergent as being different from a group of people. But in this book, being divergent is seen as something awful, which eventually leads to a revolution. As Tris discovers that she is divergent, she is told to not tell anyone. And as the book progresses, the fact that she is divergent practically puts her on a kill list for the authorities. Being divergent, somehow threatens the authority and stability of the factions in the book, but I also believe it can happen in our society as well. Once we are seen as different, as unable to fit into the categories, society frowns upon us and labels us as the black sheep, simply because they can’t identify …show more content…
In America, I am Brazilian. There is no in between. No middle ground. I’m not a cookie cutter fit. People always have to identify each other with their nationally and ethnicity. I have been asked more times that I want to admit, “What are you” in the rudest, ignorant tone, yet at times it was out of pure innocence and lacked any intentional malice. They just needed a category to place me in and they were irritated when they couldn’t identify a category to place me in. I just always tell them I’m Brazilian, because it’s much easier for them to identify me as a Brazilian, who speaks Portuguese and has Brazilian culture, rather than telling them I’m an American, who speaks Portuguese with Brazilian culture and heritage.
The black sheep doesn’t fit into the basic categories, not even into the 21st century societal categories. It’s difficult to be different, to be yourself when every single thing in your life is placing you in a category. And honestly, how do you create something out of nothing? How do you become yourself without the input of the world around you and surge yourself something completely different and new? But somehow, we don’t fit the categories. Then the ones that are “different” unite and form a new category, where the outsiders aren’t so different