Character Change

    The main protagonist in Allegiant is Beatrice (Tris) Prior. She starts in the abnegation faction, the faction of selflessness, and chooses to switch to Dauntless. Immediately after making the switch from Abnegation to Dauntless, Beatrice changes her name to Tris and her personality along with it. Abnegation members are sort of looked down upon in their society and Tris is effected by this. She doesn't want to be known as the girl from Abnegation or by "Stiff", she wants to be known as Tris. She quickly grows up and learns new customs and an entire new lifestyle. By the end of Divergent, you wouldn't even know that Tris started out as a shy girl from Abnegation. The changes in Tris from Divergent to Allegiant are astonishing. Tris really breaks out of her shell and takes a position as one of the most comonly known people in this society. She has to learn to become a leader, and adapts well. She also has a lot more experience with weapons and has learned to kill, for better or for worse is a decision that you'll have to make. Throughout all these changes Tris really seems to become a whole new person. But don't take my word for it, see for yourself and read the Divergent Trilogy.

Real Life Issue in the Text

    Veronica Roth exaggerates the real world issues of division among people and the choices we make. The fact that there are 5 different factions to begin with really shows how people tend to group with people who have similar beliefs as them. This leads to division among society and in the Divergent Trilogy, violence and other social issues. The first thing i think of when relating this faction system to the real world is political parties. People will take a stance and choose their party, typically based on either their opinions or just how they were raised to be. Then when the time comes to make important decisions that could effect our country dramatically this division slows progress. For instance, the government shutdown that kept people out of work and lost billions of dollars for the government was caused by this division among politicians.

Text to Self Connection

    I'm not going to spoil anything with this aside from telling you that Tris is about to fly in a plane for the first time. This reminds me of my first plane ride. Before taking off, Tris is both nervous and excited. She never knew air travel was even possible so she doesn't really understand what being in a plane is like. I was very young on my first plane ride and, similar to Tris, was a little scared about the risks of flying, but more excited about what it would be like to be so high up in the air. As Tris lifted up in the air, she was speechless in awe of the experience that is flying. I don't remember being amazed to the point that she was because I have seen planes before and she hasn't, but I was very amazed by the feeling of taking off the ground. Seeing the view around me from so high up was an amazing experience as it was for Tris.

Krista Ramsey Introduction Activity

    I chose to blog about a column on teachers being trained to use guns in the case of an emergency. The article can be found here: http://www.cincinnati.com/story/opinion/columnists/krista-ramsey/2014/02/22/krista-the-very-poor-case-for-arming-teachers/5744065/.
This column complains about a new local effort being put into place that requires teachers to not only be trained on how to use a firearm, but to have one ready during the school day in the rare chance a hostile intruder were to threaten the school.

    A line that I think is well written is where she says, "Then comes the issue of responding to an actual threat. The logistics will be confusing and the complications enormous." I like how she takes the scenario and finds its weaknesses so they can either rethink the training or improve the plan. She also makes good use of denotation and connotation by using the word enormous. This really emphasizes how problematic this situation could potentially be. Her writing style is both straight forward and in a way sarcastic. She seems to be critical and informative. An example of her being critical is when she says, "This is to let you know that there are many of us who do not consider the plan reasonable at all." This gives her opinion on the new rule being put into place.

    My three questions for Krista are:
        1. Where did you go to college and what was your major?
        2. How to you brainstorm ideas to write about?
        3. What are good ways to implement writing craft into a column or story?