Start with a perfect or utopian society,
usually formed after a rebellion that no one really remembers:
In Divergent everyone is divided
into factions based on their beliefs so “everyone fits in”. In Delirium people can’t
be possessed by passionate love, which is what destroys happiness
Add
in one breakthrough that occurs during the teen years:
In Divergent, everyone is given
an aptitude test and allowed to choose their faction at age 16. In Delirium, everyone
gets surgery to remove the deliria part of your brain at age 18.
Rules
by the government that no one thinks to question:
In Divergent, there is
technology to create serums that give the receiver lifelike simulations which
others are able to watch, but if you leave your faction, you cut off people
from your past life. In Delirium, you have to have the surgery so you cannot
love. To make sure people get the procedure, the government shows them videos
of people dying for love as a scare tactic.
Add in Words to enhance the illusion of a
future society:
In Divergent the main examples
are dauntless, erudite, candor, abnegation, and amity. In Delirium some
exapmles are, amor deliria nervosa, Invalid (uncured person), and the Book of
Shhh.
Mix
in a character that opens the main character’s eyes to the flaws of society and
is used as a love interest:
For Divergent that character is Four,
who teaches Tris about fighting and about being a Divergent and Tris falls in
love with throughout the book. In Delirium that person is Alex, who Lena falls
in love with just before her surgery.
Flaws
in society:
In Divergent, the factions
create friction. For Delirium, the government makes citizens easy controllable
with brain surgery and also the fact that people need love.
I`ve never read Divergent but everyone says its really good!
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