Allegiant question

To put it both non-profanely and bluntly, the whole GP/GD thing is a bunch of baloney. There is no gene "for" selfishness, cowardice, dishonesty, et cetera, and genes aren't a simple on/off switch to begin with. For me (and it seems like a lot of other readers as well), the pseudo-genetics/eugenics plot point destroyed my suspension of disbelief to the story as a whole.

Yeah I'm pretty sure it would be highly unlikely that people's genes could even "heal" or change on their own as the generations pass. Once everyone's genes were altered, the children would inherit their parents' genes. And any mutations that could make someone become a GP couldn't really be predicted or counted on.
Also, I agree about the big secret being that all people were genetically altered was pretty anticlimactic.

No one really knows entirely what causes a person to exhibit specific personality traits. It's a combination of genes, personal experience, fetal development, childhood and adolescent growth, and probably a thousand other things that cause one person to act one way while another acts totally opposite.

If you suggest that genes are solely the cause, then identical twins should have identical personalities, but they don't. Some identical twins are complete opposites personality-wise.

But I will say, it is possible to alter certain traits. Science has discovered that the way a person thinks, physically changes their brain. So if you constantly think something such as 'I'm stupid', 'I'm ugly', etc. the physiology of your brain changes so that you almost can't help thinking that way. You become depressed, have eating disorders, or whatever it may be.

That's really the only scientific possibility in Roth's ideas. Which isn't really what she proposes at all. So, no, the theory in this series is in no way true.

But even neglecting science as an argument, there are tons of holes in the plot due to the GD/GP idea.

Isn't that pretty much the whole point of the story, though? The entire experiment in the book was based on bogus pseudo-scientific ideas, which was why Tris was so determined to end it. The "leaders" conducting the experiments were using the false science to control others and remain in power.

Faction members behaved the way they did because those were the values they were raised with. People will, for the most part, act in accordance with the expectations of the people who surround them. The fact that some switch factions at Choosing is evidence of free will and the false nature of the supposed genetic manipulation.

I suppose I don't have a real problem with the simple idea of people aligning themselves with certain personality traits because of a genetic predisposition. For science fiction purposes, that concept in itself is fine. There is no real, factual scientific basis to it, though there are enough ideas in that arena to lend enough credence to a sci-fi story. For example, Roth was correct in mentioning the "murder gene" - it's not scientifically proven to exist, but it is a real concept that is already explored and considered today.

So, I suppose I can accept, just from a logic standpoint, the genetic explanation for why the people in the city are one trait or another. I mean, it's not remotely interesting and it's a really lame cop-out of an explanation, but I can accept the science fiction of it.

Unfortunately, that's where the acceptance ends as far as the explanation goes. The larger experiment explanation makes no sense when you put it into context of the world and the factions and the way people live and how they act and what they do. Since when does it take multiple generations for genetic manipulations to manifest? Why are they trying to develop GPs by having a bunch of GDs breed with each other in isolation? What kind of modification are they doing to their behavior by instituting a system that emphasizes above all else the very behaviors they want to get rid of? There are so many loopholes and plot holes and inconsistencies in this that the whole thing just collapses on itself.

The problem with the genetic experiment explanation is that it just doesn't fit with the story. And the reason it doesn't fit is because Roth obviously did not have this explanation in mind when she came up with the original premise. It's likely she had NO backstory/reasoning/explanation in mind for the Divergent world when she wrote the first book. And then she got to the last book and realized, "Oh shit, this world makes no sense, I need to come up with an explanation for why these people live this way because I was just writing a fun story about a world where people are divided by personality traits and I didn't think any of it through long enough to realize that this premise doesn't actually make sense." Because the original premise of people just living in a world divided by factions was inherently illogical and implausible, even by fiction standards, but I was willing to play along ... until she went out of her way to "explain" everything with a completely nonsensical explanation. She would have been better off not explaining it at all. No explanation was better than stupidness.

After reading what Roth had to say about the ending, I have new respect for her, Tris, the story, and the whole trilogy. Read this, and maybe you too will understand.

http://veronicarothbooks.blogspot.com...