Don’t worry. Only 130 pages left. Here are a list of things that are almost as long as how many pages are left of Allegiant, but the entire remainder of Allegiant is actually still longer:
- The Old Man And The Sea
- The Time Machine
- A Christmas Carol
- Of Mice And Men
Not that this necessarily correlates to quality or scope of the story being told, but just think how you could read one of those, start to finish, and you still wouldn’t be done with Allegiant. Anyway!
Chapter 40: Tobias
Tobias explains that they’ve drafted Amar to help them get into the city “without requiring much explanation, eager for an adventure”. You might remember that Amar is 100% into the genetically pure/damaged social construct, and might wonder why on earth it would make sense for these characters to be on the same side. You might wonder. You just might.
Meanwhile, in characters who are just sort of here now, Tobias needs life advice from Cara, who is so desperate for characterization that we get sentences like this:
She is so careful in her movements, so precise— it reminds me of the Amity musicians plucking at banjo strings.
Tobias asks Cara how she was able to forgive Tris for killing her brother, Will, since he’s going to have to say something to Uriah’s family about what happened to him. Cara explains that she isn’t sure if she has forgiven her, but “that’s like asking how you continue on with your life after someone dies. You just do it, and the next day you do it again”. It’s a nice sentiment, although you do have to ignore the fact that someone did die, so that exact scenario is also a real thing that she is going through. She also tells Tobias that what helped the most was that Tris confessed.
“There is a difference between admitting and confessing. Admitting involves softening, making excuses for things that cannot be excused; confessing just names the crime at its full severity.”
I guess we all mourn differently, but I really hope that all future dictionary definitions aren’t written in overdetermined metaphors.
Cara also points out that Tobias didn’t even kill Uriah.
Let’s be real. “You didn’t even kill him!” is the “She doesn’t even go here!” of Divergent-land.
“You didn’t make the plan that led to that explosion.”
“But I did participate in the plan.”
“Oh, shut up, would you?”
Technically the book goes on to describe that Cara says this gently, but fuck that. I wanna savor this moment where someone told Tobias to shut up.
Later, the gang meets up to describe their top secret plan to sneak out to the city, and immunize themselves against the memory serum in case they don’t get out before/the others can’t stop the Bureau’s memory serum virus deployment. A mildly interesting character moment happens.
I notice, however, that Peter only pretends to inject himself […]
I wonder what it feels like to volunteer to forget everything.
Like this book?
Christina points out – which is remarkably easy to do if you stop for like two seconds – how many holes are in their plan:
“You know, the city is still on the verge of revolution,” she says […] “The Bureau’s whole reason for resetting our friends and families is to stop them from killing each other. If we stop the reset, the Allegiant will attack Evelyn, Evelyn will turn the death serum loose, and a lot of people will die.”
Incredibly unsurprisingly, Tobias makes this entirely about himself:
“I don’t think you want that many people in the city to die. Your parents in particular.”
I sigh. “Honestly? I don’t really care about them.”
OH MY GOD. TOBIAS. WE GET IT. You have feelings about your parents. Totally makes sense. A city might die, but, yeah, let’s make this about you.
“It’s basically one of your parents against the other one,” Christina says. “Isn’t there something you can say to them that will stop them from trying to kill each other?”
CHRISTINA, STOP ENCOURAGING HIM.
“Something I can say to them?” I say. “Are you kidding? They don’t listen to anyone.” […] Unfortunately, I do not have different parents.
But I could. I could if I wanted them.
Yes, this is going exactly where you think it’s going.
Just a slip of the memory serum in their morning coffee or their evening water, and they would be new people, clean slates, unblemished by history.
I feel like this is either super troublesome, or was already a Disney Channel original movie.
Christina and Tobias formulate a secret plan to allow Tobias to get away from Amar in the city without raising suspicion so he can go brainwash at least one of his parents.
“So you’re really going to erase one of your parents’ memories?”
“What do you do when your parents are evil?” I say. “Get a new parent.”
No, seriously, I swear I saw this on the Disney Channel like five times.
Tagged: Abnegation, allegiant, books, Dauntless, Divergent, dystopian, Erudite, summary, Tris Prior, Veronica Roth, young adult fiction
