Cultural Marxism In Divergent

The “Divergent” trilogy is a series of movies that display classic components of cultural Marxism. There are many aspects of “Divergent” that have comparisons to Western Civilization, and just as many instances of Cultural Marxism at play. On the surface, “Divergent” presents itself as a series in which its heroes defy expectation and go against the “norms” by breaking tradition, but underneath therein lie the seeds of Cultural Marxism, planted by the creators of the series. However, in order to understand “Divergent” as it is applied through the scope of Cultural Marxism, one must first understand what Cultural Marxism exemplifies.

Cultural Marxism is defined by William Lind as “Political Correctness”, or “Marxism translated from economic …show more content…
In this dystopic society, there are five “factions” or groups that all citizens belong to, that work in unison, making varying contributions to society based on their prospective faction’s values. These factions are: Candor, Abnegation, Erudite, Amity, and Dauntless. Candor values honesty and justice, Abnegation values selflessness and a prominent sense of duty, Erudite values intellect and ambition, Amity values peacefulness and provides for the agricultural needs of the city, and Dauntless values bravery and courage. This faction system depicted in “Divergent” has a strong correlation to specific communities in Western Civilizations as well. Candor’s values align with lawyers and judges, Abnegation’s with civil service workers, Erudite’s values position themselves with that of scientists and doctors, Amity’s with agricultural workers’, and Dauntless’ values coincide with that of police and the …show more content…
As the series progresses, tensions rise between Erudite and Abnegation, as Erudite believes they should be the true leaders of the government, and that Abnegation is too passive and doesn’t know how to make hard decisions for the “betterment” of the city. Cultural Marxism makes its mark here by establishing a conflict between classes, influencing the viewer to believe that a classless system is more beneficial to society that its current system of classes. The writers of “Divergent” also use Cultural Marxism to shape how they want the viewer to feel about certain factions/groups in order to conform the viewer’s thoughts to fit the storyline’s Culturally Marxist