Allegiant (Divergent, #3)

by Veronica Roth

born. It takes several generations for any kind of genetic manipulation to manifest, but people were selected from the general population in large numbers, according to their backgrounds or behavior, and they were given the option to give a gift to our future generations, a genetic alteration that would make their descendants just a little bit better.”

I did some research on genetic engineering for this book, most notably on “knockout mice.” A lot of that information has since disappeared from my brain, but basically, knockout mice are genetically altered mice, in which a particular gene has been rendered inactive so that we can study them. The mice will also be given a “marker gene,” which might be a gene that produces an observable change—a change in color, for example—so that you can kind of trace the genetic alteration over time. (Disclaimer: I’m not a scientist, so I could be a. wrong or b. explaining this poorly!) In these books, Divergence is just a marker gene—something you can observe that tells you a different gene has been altered. I loved the idea of Divergence, something that feels so important in the first book, is actually just a sign of something else, and thus not an important identity at all. Because that’s what often what becoming an adult involves—letting go of the things you no longer want to or need to be, so that you can become something else. Tris “comes of age” by letting her Divergence go.