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Melissa Martinez
Professor Filbeck
English 113A
08 December 2014
Social Division
Social division has existed for centuries in America. This issue is seen in our world and
in movies that are categorized as romance, science fiction, thrill, adventure, and action. The film
Divergent, directed by Neil Burger in 2014, focuses on demonstrating the way people are put
into different factions depending on their personality and traits. The setting is in the city of
Chicago where society is divided into five different groups. These five groups are categorized as
Abnegation the selfless, Amity the peaceful, Candor the honest, Dauntless the brave, and Erudite
the Intelligent. When all teenagers reach the age of 16, they are require to take a test that will tell
them which faction they belong too. When Beatrice Prior (Tris) takes the aptitude test her result
comes out as Divergent, which means she does not fit into any group. She is left with some tough
decision whether to stay in abnegation with her parents or choose a different faction. As she
begins her new life in dauntless she has to work really hard to prove that she belongs there and
not let anyone find out shes a divergent because it would mean death. Little does she know that
theres a conflict that is threating every divergent and abnegations life. The only thing she can
do is fight back in order to keep her family alive and herself. In our society one way we are
organized into groups is by belonging in the lower, middle, or upper class. The movie Divergent
is similar to our world because people are organized and divided into groups based on the type of
career, income and skills they have.
In the film Divergent, 100 years ago the founders created a system that they believed

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would prevent future complexities. The founders created a system were people were divided into
five groups to maintain peace. The founders in the movie decided to make this system so people
would not have control over the government and the rest of society. This is compared to our
world because in our society we are divided into 3 social classes which are lower, middle, and
upper class. These social classes exist because they differentiate a person based on their income
and career. According to this article Which Income Class Are You, the lower class is made up
of people who do not have professional careers and whose income ranges from $23,050 to
$32,500. The middle class is made of people who have careers such as managers, teachers, office
workers and whose income ranges from $60,000 to $100,000 or more. The upper class is made
of people who have professional careers such as lawyers, doctors, CEOs and who income is
range from $150,000 to $250,000. As the movie starts it explains what each faction, as they are
call in the movie, do as a job. The way our social classes are presented in our society is by
having a social structure pyramid. This pyramid is divided into three different sections which
represent the three different classes. In our society the way a person knows where they belong is
by the type of career and income they have. The way this social structure works is the same way
the factions work in the film Divergent.
The social structure pyramid is divided into three groups, at the bottom sits the lower
class also known as the working class. According, to a website call Boundless, the determine
lower class describes individuals working easily-filled employment positions. In the article it
implies that the lower class job consists of filling up the easy jobs. To other people they think
that their jobs are easy when in reality they are not easy as it seems. This class can be compare to
two factions from the movie Divergent which are Abnegation and Dauntless. In the movie the
faction Abnegation is made up of people who are workers and help each other out. They are

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similar to abnegation because in our society we have people who work in the fields who crop and
collect the good vegetables that we purchase at the market. Those who work in the fields are the
ones who provide us with healthy vegetables that we consume every day. In the movie it shows
how the Amity not only works on the field but they tend to help those who are in need. In our
society the way we help others out is by either recommending someone or helping them find a
job. In addition, in the article The Class Structure in the U.S it states how people from the
lower class are referred to those who do not have a college degree, who work as sale clerks or
housekeepers, and whose income are low. They are similar to dauntless because as seen in the
movie people are not required to dress professionally. In our society those with non-professional
jobs do not require to dress a certain way, they dress with their own style. In our society the
working class is similar as them because they are not afraid to do any type of job. It makes them
brave because they are willing to work in dangerous jobs in order for them to survive and
provide an income to their family.
The class that is on top of the lower class is the middle class, which can be compared to
Abnegation and Erudite. This class falls into these two factions because according to the article
called The Class Structure in the U.S indicates how the middle class includes people in midlevel managerial positions or relatively low status professional positions, such as high school
teachers and small business owners. In our society the middle class are people who have a
career in which they do not make less than the lower class or more than the upper class. They are
the same as Amity because they are not aggressive towards other people of different social class.
It makes them similar because they do not tend to disturb the peace because they do not look for
violence. It also makes them Erudite because these people have careers in which they have to
suffer less than the lower class. Even though they do not make less or much money they are

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happy with their job.

The last class in the social pyramid is the upper class in which it can be compare to
Erudite and Candor. In the movie these two factions are seen as the wealthier factions because
they work as lawyers, they have the technology, and are the ones who control how each faction
works. According to an article called Where Do You Fall Into in the American Economic Class
System? it infers that the upper class people are the ones who contain a higher degree and work
in white-collar positions. These two groups are similar because they have higher jobs that require
knowledge and professional skills. In our society the higher education a person has the better
they get paid. They are people who know the way technology is advancing and are able to keep
up with it. In the movie, Erudite are seen powerful because they are people who are lawyers and
they tell the truth and it requires knowledge. In the article call The Class Structure in the U.S it
implies that the upper class are those whose occupations are held esteem, such as lawyers,
engineers, and professors. People who work in this kind of jobs and earn a great amount of
money than others are categorize as upper class. The way a person is categorized is by knowing
the type of job they have and the amount of money they make. Social division in movies is the
same as in our world because we are separating each other by the type of jobs we have.
In our society it has become hard for a person to move from the bottom to the top of the
pyramid. In the article The Effect of Socioeconomic Status on Students Achievement it implies
that Families with a lower socioeconomic status often struggle with providing academic support
for their children (Hart). This has become a struggle for students in the lower class because they
do not have enough academic support to get further in life. Sometimes they are put to work at a
young age so they can help their parents economically. It becomes hard for these students to
focus on school and move up the ladder so they can have a better life than the one they have.

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Another reason why it has become hard for students to move up is because of the type of
background they come from. In addition, students are more likely to exhibit behavior-related
learning problems because they feel as if they do not belong in school due to their working class
background (Hart). Its hard for students to do well in school and go to college because they
come from a working class they feel they shouldnt achieve a higher education. Since they come
from a working class they have the image or idea that they will stay in the same social class. It
becomes a struggle for students who come from a working class family to have a good education
and go to college and be able to move up the ladder. It can be compare to the movie Divergent
because in the movie people are born and raised in the same faction their parents were assigned
when they were teenagers. After they take the test they are determined whether they move to
another faction or stay with the faction they were raised in. It has become hard because some
students do not have enough money to attend college and move up in the social class.
The film Divergent is similar to our world because we are categorized based on the type
of career, job, and skills we have. The film gives us a warning that we are becoming more like
them where it will be hard to move up in the social class. It has become a struggle because in
order to move up it requires having a good education and income. Although for those who have
an education and money they do not struggle to move up the ladder. What this film is trying to
tell is that little by little we are going to end up dividing our self from each other because we
have different careers and personalities. If we keep living like this we will end up having a
society like in the movie Divergent.

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Work Cited
Alhanati, Joao. "Which Income Class Are You." Investopidia. N.p., 23 Sept.2012.Web.
"The Class Structure in the U.S. Source: Boundless. The Class Structure in the U.S..
Boundless. Boundless, n.d. Web. 18 Nov. 2014.
Francis, Davis. "Where Do You Fall in the American Economic Class System?" U.S News. N.p.,
12 Sept. 2012. Web. 18 Nov. 2014.
Hart, Lucy. "The Effect of Socioeconomic Status on Student Achievement." Globalpost. N.p.,
n.d. Web. 1 Dec. 2014.
"The Lower Class." Boundless. Boundless, n.d. Web. 18 Nov. 2014.
Williams, Geoff. "What It Means to Be Middle Class Today." U.S News. N.p., 24 Apr. 2014.
Web. 18 Nov. 2014.