Character Analysis
Last One Standing
Early in the novel, Christina says, "I didn't really want to bring this up, but I can't stop thinking […] that of the ten transfer initiates we started with, only six are still alive" (7.2). And those initiates just keep dropping like flies throughout the book. Christina loses Uriah and Tris by the book's final pages. She almost loses Tobias, too, but she keeps him from brainwashing himself with the memory serum.
Why does Christina have to go through all this suffering? Perhaps she does it to be an example to Tobias at the end. Would he have listened to anyone else who hadn't experienced the kind of loss she did? When she tells Tobias "life really sucks" (Epilogue.117), you know she means it.
Christina's experience of loss makes her life philosophy all the more powerful. She says she's waiting for "the moments that don't suck […] The trick is to notice them when they come around" (Epilogue.120). Basically, even when all your friends are dead, don't just put your head in your hands and cry forever. Not only will you be really dehydrated, but you might miss anything awesome that's going to happen.