Decisions have tremendous impact. One good decision can save your life; however, just one bad one can also destroy your life. It is made by everyone in their everyday life. How people are making decisions though are very interesting. It had attracted the attention of researchers, scientists, and mostly authors. Two authors, Veronica Roth (author of “Divergent”) and James Dashner (author of “The Maze Runner”), are both interested in the topic but have rather different perspective of the process of decisions making.
In the beginning of “The Maze Runner”, Dasher illustrated how people make decisions by their instinct. Thomas, the protagonist who lived in the dystopian world of the maze, instinctively ran outside the gate at sunset to help Minho and Alby from the danger that is outside even knowing that he too would be trapped outside in the maze and face the same danger. (The gate closes at sunset and at night in the maze there are the mechanical beast called “The Griever” that can”stung” you to death.) Even while being trapped in the maze, Thomas didn't panic because his instinct told him not to and he even saved Alby’s life by tying him to the ivy leaves on the wall of the maze. He himself also escaped the danger by instinctively working with his momentum and the Grievers’ momentum to escape them, if he just run without deciding to do anything because his rational mind told him that if he failed his own momentum he would tripped and then the Griever would kill him, he would've been killed.
On the other hand, in “Divergent”, Roth demonstrated that different people make different decisions. She is doing that by categorising the people in the city. The Erudite make decisions based on logic, consequences and the big picture. The Candor make decisions based on the truth and only the truth. The Amity considered kindness, forgiveness, the truth and most of all peace before making a decision. The Dauntless make decisions based on justice, benefit, and reward, even it’s risky they'll take it. The Abnegation don’t think about themselves while making a decision, they think about other people and if the decisions that they are making will benefit people as a whole. The aptitude test also tells the reader that what you are define what you’ll do during the test. In the attack dog part of the test, Amity will pick chess as their weapon because they don’t believe in fighting with the dog, Dauntless will pick the knife because they want to take the risk and will fight for it if it’s justice; however, the Erudite won’t chose because they are curious about why do they need to choose one of the object and when the dog came they would lie down because they know the characteristic of the dog. Also when the dog attack the little girl Dauntless and Abnegation would sacrifice themselves and jump in front of her to save her while other factions would just stand there. One more part of the aptitude test is the bus. There is a man in the bus asking the tester if they know the wanted man that would kill the man on the bus, the tester will feel like they know the man in the picture. The Candor will tell the truth in that situation no matter what and the Abnegation would tell the truth too because that mean they can save the man’s life; however, other factions wouldn’t tell the truth.
Throughout the book “The Maze Runner”, Dashner uses third person narration to elaborate further that everybody trust their instinct. “He knew he should run into the Maze and help, but the rule about not leaving the Glade was seared into his mind.” (Excerpt From: James Dashner. “The Maze Runner.” iBooks.) This line worked very well because it clearly shown instinct is telling Thomas what to do if it’s in first person, it would be like “I should run into the Maze and help but the rule about not leaving the Glade is seared into my mind. However, in “Divergent” Roth uses first person narration because it signified that people are different and so are the decisions they are making. “I am not Abnegation. I am not Dauntless. I am Divergent.”(Excerpt From: Veronica Roth. “Divergent.” iBooks.) this moment of realization clearly had done the job well because If she uses third person narration, it would be: She is not Abnegation. She is not Dauntless. She is Divergent. It wouldn’t have sound as strong as the first person narration.
Some people might argue that in “The Maze Runner” Dashner want to illustrate how people act on their rational instead of instinct because at the end of the book Dashner demonstrated how a group of people act on their instinct and produce disastrous result and if they had just use their rational mind they would’ve figured out that they are not scientist and they can’t solve the problem and they can’t restore the world condition. However, their instinct may also told them that if they rescue the kids they can just let the kids live on with their life and there will be a generation with the immunity to the disease; therefore, solve the problem instead of putting the kids live in danger and watching how they react every seconds. In “Divergent” some people might also argue that people in “Divergent” make those decisions not because they are different type of people, they make those decisions because they are under peer pressure. For instance, when each family want their child to choose the same faction as theirs because they want their child to stay with them and when Caleb told Beatrice “We should think of our family.” “But. But we must also think of ourselves.”(Excerpt From: Veronica Roth. “Divergent.” iBooks.) Maybe Beatrice pick Dauntless because those words that Caleb said push her not to take Abnegation. However, this line “My mother told me to save them. Because of that, and because I am Dauntless”(Excerpt From: Veronica Roth. “Divergent.” iBooks.) clearly stated that she picked Dauntless because she is Dauntless not because of Caleb’s word or anybody’s.
In life, decision is an important aspect. Choosing your job, your school subjects… just because people around you or your friends pick History doesn’t mean you have to pick History. Everybody is different, you make your own decisions, they make theirs. Don’t fall to the peer pressure, be like Dauntless and fight it, be like Abnegation and help other around you to make decisions that they want to make, be like Amity and forgive your friends and be kind to them, be like Candor and never lie to your friends, and most of all be like Erudite, be smart and live your life but don’t ever forget about your instinct.
By Sewen
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