Project 1: Video/DVD Analysis

The video that I am going to analyze is the Divergent which was produced on the year of
2014 directed by Neil Burger. The film talks about what would happen in the future which the
world is divided into five different factions. People in the future believes that by dividing
people into factions according to their talent and strength might create a new world with
perfect society. Each of the person who lives there have to take a imagination test when they
reach the age of 16. By the result of such test, they would be divided to one of the five
factions. Factions are included the Abnegation, Dauntless, Amity, Erudite and Candor.
Abnegation represents selfless. Dauntless represents brave. Amity represents peaceful.
Erudite represents intellectual and Candor represents honest.
The video focuses on a girl named Beatrice Prior, who grows up in an Abnegation
family and finally enters the Dauntless. When she takes her imagination test, she is given an
unclear result and finally is told that she is a divergent. Within the society, the leader in
Erudite who named Jeanine, thinks that divergent might threaten the society due to its
existence. Divergent is someone who obtains several talents and they are hard to control.
Jeanine wants to control the whole society and gain her own power. Thus, she creates a
special syrup and generates an Dauntless army to kill all of the Abnegation which runs the
government because of its selfless.
Four (one of the leader in Dauntless) realizes Jeanines plan before she actually starts her
action. He tells Tris to help him and to rescue Triss family who is still in the Abnegation
neighborhood. Unfortunately, Triss parents are both sacrificed, but they successfully destroy
Jeanines plan and save most of the Abnegations.
The Divergent not only focuses on the design of society but also the development of
classes conflict. We can interpret the video by using the views of Comte, Marx and
Durkheim. Auguste Comte is a sociologist who generates the term Sociology. He believes

that everything would follow some certain rules which keep everything going, just like the
universe. The universe maintains its gravity in order to keep functioning. He thinks that it
would be the same thing for Sociology. It must have certain laws or theories to keep it
working. I think he would view the Divergent as the way he views the society. The laws that
maintains in the society in Divergent would be the five factions. Each one of them has an
specific role within the society and it would be like the law to keep it functions.
Karl Marx is another sociologist who suggests that there must contains conflicts that
develop by class struggles. Inequalities would be introduced due to different social classes.
He creates the conflict theory which analyzes the society in an macro level. In the video of
the Divergent, Marx might view the society by his idea of conflict theory. While Jeanine
gains her power in the Erudite, she thinks that Erudite should have the power to control the
whole society because of its intelligence. This is introduced not only to Jeanine but the whole
society which we can observe within the interactions of Tris and the other Dauntless
members. She is bullied because of her identity as an Abnegation. This would explain how
conflict theory is applied to the unequal world in Divergent.
Emile Durkheim is also a sociologist who believes in the idea of structural
functionalism. He thinks each person have a specific role within the society and each of them
have to contribute and creates a better world. People carry different functions and jobs in
order to keep the society working and reach dynamic equilibrium. Durkheim would view the
Divergent as an example of his idea. The Divergent generates its own society by creating the
five factions. Each of the factions carry its own role and functions toward the society as a
whole. They held together to keep the society functioning by having a strong trait in each of
the factions.
In my opinion, the paradigm that is most presented in the video is the structural
functionalist paradigm. The reason why this paradigm is the most involved is because the

whole setting of the story is based on the five factions, which carry different roles and
functions in the society. The society present in the Divergent cannot function properly
without any of the factions and thats the reason why structural functionalist paradigm is the
most represented one. By ignoring what Jeanine does to the society, the five factions would
maintain a good balance and create the dynamic equilibrium which was introduced by
Durkheim.