Insurgent Theme

In the book Insurgent by Veronica Roth, there were a lot of lessons that could be learned from the characters throughout the story. Tris, the protagonist, had trouble telling the truth in the story. On page 424, it says, "He thinks I will be here, but I will be working against him, working with the father he despises. The lie - this lie is the worst I have ever told. I will never be able to take it back". She lied to the everyone - strangers, enemies, and the people who were most important to her. Tris believed that she was lying to protect the people she loved and she tried to convince herself she was doing the right thing. At some points, she was protecting them from enemies, like when Jeanine tried to kill the Dauntless, or when she kept Tobias away from his abusive dad. But other times, she lied to her friends thinking she was doing the right thing, but ended up hurting them later. When Tris teamed up with Marcus, Tobias's dad, Tobias ended up being really upset when he found out. I think a lesson Tris learned here was that telling the truth is best in the long run.

Another lesson Tris learned was to listen to what people tell you. She assumed that because of where people were from, who they were friends with, or thing that they did in the past, she shouldn't listen to or believe what they were saying. On page 413, Tris says, "'You like to be the only one that knows. You like that I don't know. It makes you feel important. That's why you won't tell me, not because it's indescribable'". If someone was from Erudite, a faction which was an enemy of her faction, she thought they couldn't be trusted. By the end of the book, some people who were the most helpful to her were from Erudite. Also, Marcus told her that he knew some valuable things, and that if she would listen to him, he could help her find it. This information could've saved her faction and kept the factions away from war, but since she had heard bad things about his past, she didn't want to listen to him. She ended up listening to what he said, and he was telling her the truth. If she would've had an open mind about all people and was willing to listen to what they had to say, she could have gotten help with a lot of things she needed.

Overall, Tris learned to tell the truth and listen to others. Both of these themes are thing that everyone can apply to their everyday lives.