Why Not Rant?

~ The Hunger Games and Divergent ~

Katniss! (how's life with Peeta? Have you seen The Starving Games? Seriously, it's hilarious)

Tris! (why did you have to die?! Oh and can I have Four?)

Can I hear The Hunger Games fans?

Divergent fans?

The Hunger Games and Divergent. Two of the most sought-after, and famous books of the YA book genre.

Honestly, this sort-of competition between the two books has grown more and more prominent as more and more people read the books and watch the movies.

Which is completely, utterly understandable.

But. . .

This rant is about pointing out the DIVERGENCE between Divergent and The Hunger Games. Just because they're both YA(young adult book genre) and famous, it doesn't actually mean that there just has to be competition and stuff. The competition part was expected- it's in human nature to compare and contrast things that seem so similar. But why don't a number of people compare Divergent and The Maze Runner? Or The Hunger Games and Legend? Why is it that the most evident and prominent contrast is between Divergent and The Hunger Games? I mean, sure they're both dystopian, but there is a HUGE diference. Not just on the storyline, but also the values signified in each book.

I just want to rant about what I think makes Divergent and The Hunger Games different. No hate, okay?

Here it is:

1) The characters.
Katniss and Tris.
In The Hunger Games, Katniss is motivated to insurge against the Capitol not because she wants to fight for what makes her different, but because she wants to fight for what makes everyone else the same. This means that Katniss is like everyone else; she's starving, she's street-smart, she's living in cruelty from the Capitol. Only thing is that she actually has the fire in her to fight that. She's like everyone else-and she wants to fight for that. She doesn't want to fight because she's different- she wants to fight because she's living under the same mercy and cruelty from the Capitol. She has what fire everyone else lacks in her to be the Girl on Fire- to be the Mockingjay. Tris, on the other hand, is fighting for what makes her different; her mindset cannot be controlled, she is divergent, and she wants to fight because she is different.

Peeta and Tobias.
They are both the love interests of the leading female protagonists. But they are really, tremendously different.

Katniss, in The Hunger Games, explains why she chose Peeta over Gale. Because Katniss is already the strong, raging fire. She needs a dandelion; she needs the breeze in the summer, not the storm in the rain. She needs something to soften up her flame, and that is Peeta. Gale is already too much of a fire, and she already has that fire in herself. What she needs is the calm in the wind; Peeta.

Tris, on the other hand, is also a flame. She is also that kind of strong woman that sometimes you tend to forget what gentleness she has. Four is so much like her. Strong. Willed. Determined. But Tris has a gentleness in her that Four could love more than her strength; it is like Tris and Four need eachother. Sure, opposites attract, but Tris is strong with a gentleness, and Tobias is just yearning to see a gentleness within the strength; and that's what he sees in Tris. They tame eachother.

2) The setting.
Katniss is in a cruel, unequal, no-freaking-mercy-until-you-die place. Absolutely no sentiment. I mean, the freaking president has some creepy fetish with roses and is obsessed with twelve-year olds killing eachothers butts out! But seriously though, Katniss's life? Way, way, miles harder than Tris's. I mean, Tris has a house! Food! She doesn't need to hunt and ask for food. In fact, Tris does the exact opposite. She gives food. She gives stuff away for the sake of Abnegation's selflessness values. The only thing is that Tris's setting in Chicago a hundred years or so from now is manipulated. Too manipulated actually. Too manipulating about virtues and stuff.

3) The values that the story have.
In The Hunger Games, the value is actually so fierce, courageous, and daring in every way. It signifies the determination to fight for what is right, the courage to speak up, and most of all. . . the hope to conquer the fear. Like President Snow said, hope is the only thing stronger than fear. The Hunger Games teaches us that in the face of every problem, in the dawn of every crisis, in the wake of every hurt and fear, there is and always will be hope- because hope is born with fear. Hope is engraved in fear as there is fear to hope. They're like twins. It just depends which one you put your faith in. I think, personally, that Katniss was one of the strongest female leads I know- she is that fire whose hope only increases every time fear presents itself to her nature. She is forced into cruelty yet not once has she taken the spit of the Capitol on her shoes. She's that kind of girl who fights with courage and determination, she protects everyone important to her even if it means losing herself, and- she just deserves, more than deserves, to be the Girl on Fire.

Divergent, on the other hand, teaches us that there is nothing wrong with being your own kind of different. In fact, in Insurgent(spoiler alert for those who haven't watched the movies or read the book yet), it is actually revealed that Divergence is in fact the key to opening the society to a beautiful kind of order- the world. I mean, a person can't be just one thing(right, Four? I love you.). You can't be. You can't be just intelligent, or just selfless, or just brave. You can always be more than one characteristic. Divergent, for me, asks you this question, "Would you let society define you? Or would you let you define yourself?" Since Tris was Divergent, her mind can't settle and be compatible with just one thing- she wants to be more than what society is forcing her to be. She's not at liberty. And she did something about that. At first she ignored it, but as things happened and chapters progressed, she realized that there is nothing wrong with her- there's just something more to her. She realized that what society wants her to be isn't what she wants herself to be. And she fought not only for her cause, but she fought for the liberty of her whole city to be open to the world. Is it bad to want to be who you are? Is that wrong? No. It's not. And Tris proved that in the best way she can.

For me, they have their similarities. But I just wanted to point out their differences as well.

P.S. Sorry if this rant is too long. Haha.