How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #4
If I help her, Eric would make my fate the same as hers. Will I let her fall to her death, or will I resign myself to being factionless? What's worse: to be idle while someone dies, or to be exiled and empty-handed? (9.80)
Even after the big decision about what faction to be in, Tris is left with dozens of other choices about how she wants to act. Here's one of the most striking choices. And what's striking about it is that Tris doesn't choose the action-hero "do the right thing no matter the cost" choice. Instead, she chooses to let her friend dangle for a while. Yikes.
Quote #5
"This is what I chose. This is it." I look over Robert's shoulder. The Dauntless guards seem to have finished examining the truck. The bearded man gets back into the driver's seat and closes the door behind him. "Besides, Robert. The goal of my life isn't just...to be happy." (11.77)
Here, Tris talking to ex-Abnegation neighbor Robert, who has chosen to switch to Amity, where he farms and sings. That sounds like an okay life, right? But when he presents this option to Tris, she responds that she doesn't choose things just to make her happy. That sounds a little Abnegation to us. And also a little judgy.
Quote #6
I nod. Four told me that Eric's vision for Dauntless is not what it's supposed to be, but I wish he would tell me exactly what he thinks the right vision is. I get glimpses of it every so often—the Dauntless cheering when I jumped off the building, the net of arms that caught me after zip lining—but they are not enough. Has he read the Dauntless manifesto? Is that what he believes in—in ordinary acts of bravery? (21.98)
This vision of the politics within the Dauntless faction tells us that there's a little fight going on over whether Dauntless should choose competition or teamwork as their main goal. So even though all the Dauntless have already made their One Big Choice, they've still got some littler choices to make about what that One Big Choice really stands for.