Shed your Skin

Snakes shed their skin, but that doesn't mean they change what they are. In "Divergent" Beatrice and a few others switch factions on choosing day. They have to leave behind their old faction and immerse themselves into the new one in order to make it through initiation. This is especially true for Dauntless because if they are not in the top 10 out of all initiates then they become factionless. Beatrice goes back and forth in the struggle to become dauntless. She was the first to jump off the roof and she shed her old name almost immediately after. When she decided to become "Tris," I assumed that she would completely stop her old ways, but its not that simple. Tris cannot leave behind every part of Abnegation. That faction was 16 years of her life. The reader, and even her fellow initiates are able to see Abnegation poking through in the way that she reguards the slightest public display of affection. She then tries to immerse herself even more into Dauntless by wearing eyeliner, dressing in black and...GETTING A TATOO. It was the last thing expected from a plain jane from Abnegation, but she does it. Three little birds headed toward her heart. As a reader, I have to wonder is this just an act, just another way to try to lose herself in Dauntless? How could she ever completely shave off 16 years of her life. Caleb, Tris's brother, seemed to shed his selflessness the moment he decided on Erudite. Tris may seem more dauntless, but she's always been... divergent and I don't think that will completely change. She may shed her skin like a snake and grow a new one, but underneath it all a part of her will still be Beatrice.