Tris is Important

Have you ever felt torn or confused? A lot of people have; it’s a common feeling to have. Personally, this is one of the feelings I experience quite often. A lot of things happen where I have to choose between doing what I want to do and doing what my loved ones are doing. Yes, usually my loved ones do what is right, but sometimes they don’t, and that’s when I feel very torn. But I always do what my loved ones do because I feel safe when I know I’m choosing something other people I love are choosing too. This is where Tris, the main character of Veronica Roth’s Insurgent, and me disagree completely.

         Tris almost always does what she wants to do, no matter the cost. She throws herself in situations where she most certainly will die. She thinks she can discover secrets by thrusting herself in the enemy’s way. In one part, she races after Jeanine, the bad guy, and almost gets herself shot in the head by friend-turned-traitor Peter, if Tobias, her boyfriend, hadn’t been there to drag her away. This is not the first time something like this has happened. Tris attacks Peter in the Amity compound for stealing her hard drive, getting herself drugged with powerful laughing gas as a result. She turns herself in to the Erudite, the bad guys, and the result is her immediate execution, in which she lives with a very impressive turn of events as Peter is found out to be the one who saved her. Who knew he was not completely bad!

         After all these near-death experiences, she risks losing the most important person to her out of everyone: Tobias. He tells her “if you throw yourself into one more dangerous situation, without thinking, you and I are through.” This hits home with Tris because he is the one person she always thought would be there by her side. I think Tris needs to think before she acts and realize that these situations end in certain death. And not just for her: if she dies, Tobias’s heart is crushed, and so is the Dauntless faction because she is like a leader to them. She is the bravest out of Dauntless, and that makes her a really important person. She doesn’t know how many lives she will destroy if she dies. She doesn’t know how many people will be heartbroken if she dies. I think she doesn’t know how important she really is. That’s why she throws herself into these situations, and is shocked when things like her almost brake up with Tobias happen. She doesn’t think she means anything. I think she needs to realize that she does.

         Tris needs to realize how important she is. If she doesn’t realize this now, she is eventually going to die and that will throw the world into chaos. Tris needs to think, and think hard, about what she could lose and what she will lose if she dies, because she will lose both. I think this is Tris’s greatest weakness. Not knowing the power she holds over people. I think eventually it will bring her down.