Education in Fictional Dystopian Societies: The Case of Veronica Roth’s “Divergent”

Abstract

Dystopian fiction is evolving in one of the most interesting literary genres for youth. Education in “Divergent” constitutes a domain of the society which affects directly the citizens and turns to be a catalyst for the establishment of the regime. This article focuses on the role and aspects of education and portrays some representations of the educational system in force in “Divergent”, making possible associations with our social and educational worlds. Using the method of quantitative content analysis, we found that “ranking” and “training” have the most powerful presence in the novel. In this dystopian society, the concept and institution of education has a very different role of the one we would imagine in another more friendly and warless society. Based on our findings, we propose ways in which students can actually learn from dystopian fiction and make steps towards the change of their own educational system and society.