“Becoming fearless isn't the point. That's impossible. It's learning how to control your fear, and how to be free from it.” 

Here, Four explains that courage isn't the absence of fear but the ability to act decisively despite one's distress. When Tris becomes distraught after a fear simulation practice session, Four reminds her that fear is an intrinsic human emotion and that the initiate program was never designed to obliterate all fears. Instead, the simulations teach self-control as a coping strategy. Future Dauntless soldiers are trained to ignore their fears so that they do not flinch from danger in their efforts to protect the innocent and the defenseless. Four's words prove prescient: Tris is eventually forced to confront her fear of drowning when Jeanine cages her in a rapidly filling glass tank. By staying calm, Tris manages to remain calm until Natalie rescues her. 

"My first instinct is to push you until you break, just to see how hard I have to press . . . Fear doesn't shut you down; it wakes you up. I've seen it. It's fascinating . . . Sometimes I just . . . want to see it again. Want to see you awake.”

Four finds Tris fascinating because she does not react to fear as others do. Instead of paralyzing her, fear inspires Tris to act creatively, independently, and courageously. While her Abnegation peers flee to Amity, Tris prepares to return to her archenemy's sphere of control. Despite her near-death experience in a glass tank, Tris refuses to concede defeat. She gathers her allies and spearheads a daring mission to retrieve the diabolical simulation program that is controlling Dauntless soldiers. Tris's divergence compels her to act on behalf of countless innocents; Tobias is right that fear awakens Tris to action. We see glimpses of Tris's unique divergence from the very beginning. When a simulated dog threatens a little girl in her aptitude test, Tris launches herself at the dog. Her actions are at once intuitive, selfless, and courageous—all marks of her divergence. Through Tris and Tobias, Roth celebrates divergence as a symbol of human resilience and a positive trait that transcends the limitations of culture, tradition, and faction.

“I feel like someone breathed new air into my lungs. I am not Abnegation. I am not Dauntless. I am Divergent. And I can’t be controlled.”

After Natalie describes what divergents really are, Tris is relieved to know that she is normal. Those who cherish the right to autonomy recognize that there can be no freedom without the right to differentiate. In the five-faction system, variance is only tolerated if it adheres to prescribed rules. For example, Amity members can be peaceful, forgiving, and even kind. However, they are discouraged from displaying too much honesty (Candor) or audacity (Dauntless) in their actions. In Tris's dystopian world, each faction member must display only those tendencies that are associated with his or her faction. To do otherwise is to invite scrutiny, punishment, and even death. In this exchange between Tris and Natalie, Tris finally learns that her divergence is a gift rather than an anomaly to be feared. It is fitting that Roth chooses Natalie to explain divergence to Tris: Natalie's eventual death is both courageous and sacrificial in nature, perfectly illustrating the scope and power of divergence in a time of crisis.

“If you are really one of us, it won't matter to you that you might fail. And if it does, you are a coward.” 

Here, Eric describes his approach to training initiates. In Eric's world, "weakness" is so subjectively defined that initiates who object to beating up their peers...