I was raised Catholic, but to be honest it didn’t really stick. I’m just not really a religious person, it’s not how my brain works. While I’d realized this pretty early on in my childhood/teen years, that didn’t stop my parents from sending me to CCD once a week, taking me to church, and reading me bible stories as bedtime stories. And while this annoyed me at the time (which I made sure to verbalize very obnoxiously to my parents) I have to appreciate it now that I ended up as an English major. Biblical allusions show up everywhere in literature, even in places you might least expect it. And thanks to my Catholic upbringing, I am primed and ready to recognize this allusions, references, and allegories.
So when I reread Harry Potter as a teenager I realized that Harry is like, basically wizard Jesus. And reading Divergent, I came to the same conclusion about Tris Prior. I mean, she’s not a wizard, but she’s like, dystopian future Jesus. Here’s the thing though: I love the Harry Potter books, and I haaaate the Divergent series. I hated Tris, I thought Four was extraordinarily uninteresting, the only characters I actually cared about at all died in the first book and I thought the whole premise of the society was so contrived and idiotic it made me want to scream. Now, this post is not meant to be a bash on Divergent, and if you like Divergent, I completely respect your feelings towards the series. This is a personal thing. In fact, the only reason I bring it up is because I think this issue of the Christ figure allegory explains so much about why I don’t like the series, and why I do like Harry Potter as much as I do (which is a lot. Like so much. Probably a little too much, honestly, but what can you do). I think that the preparation necessary to pull of a successful Christ allegory is done really well in Harry Potter, and really poorly in Divergent— and because this setup is really integrated into the worldbuilding as a whole, which I will discuss, I think it’s kind of a good litmus test for how successful I personally find the plotting, pacing, character development, and again, worldbuilding.
Firstly, I think it’s important to establish that I think both of these series are heavily influenced by Christian principles, and I would go so far as to call both of them Christian texts. I’m not saying that they’re evangelical in any way, but I think a lot of the concepts that you find in both of these series is very Christian. Take the way death is displayed in Harry Potter, for example.
It’s pretty clear from the first book in the series that something happens to you after you die. Dumbledore describes death as “the next great adventure,” we see ghosts and spirits, we know that there is an option to go “on,” as one ghost describes it. And when Harry dies, he’s sent to what could easily be described as purgatory— an in between space that is neither heaven or hell. And while the afterlife is never described in such explicit terms, I think the existence of purgatory sort of implies that the dichotomy exists.
Harry speaks to Dumbledore in the story's quasi-purgatory, Kings Cross Station
Regardless, you go somewhere. Something happens to you. You have a soul which is separate from your mortal body. In short, the concept of death and the afterlife is very Christian.
Here we see Sirius' soul leave his body
Divergent isn’t quite as overt as Harry Potter in terms of death and all, but in fairness they aren’t working on the same plane of existence. Divergent doesn’t have magic, or ghosts, or physical manifestations of depression that literally suck out your soul. However, other elements of the text suggest a Christian influence. The entire Abnegation faction, for example, is pretty much core tenets of Christianity on steroids. They live off very little, give what excess they have to others, work to be selfless and humble (even to the point of only looking at themselves in the mirror one time per year) and are meant to be both righteous and merciful. Although Tris feels she doesn’t belong in Abnegation, they’re generally portrayed as the best of the factions in the sense that they do the least messed up stuff and are generally presented as victims of the other factions’ shenanigans.
Tris looks in the mirror on the one occasion she is allowed in Abnegation
And although I’m generally pretty pro death of the author (especially when it comes to JK Rowling) I think it’s also worth noting that both of these authors- JK Rowling and Veronica Roth, are self-professed Christians. Roth goes as far as to thank God in her dedication page, so I don’t really think it’s that far of a stretch to think that her faith inspired some elements and messages in the book.
The first third of Roth's acknowledgement page for Divergent
Now onto the actual Jesus stuff. Christ figures are pretty popular in pretty much every type of media: books, movies, TV shows, you name it. In the most basic sense, a Christ figure is a character that well… acts like Christ. Some examples of Christ-y stuff a character could do/exemplify include: “performance of miracles, manifestation of divine qualities, healing others, displaying kindness and forgiveness, fighting for justice, being guided by the spirit of the character's father, and the character's own death and resurrection.” (it’s worth noting that in postmodern literature Christ figures are often just martyrs and not resurrected). Some examples might help: Aslan from Narnia, Luke from Cool Hand Luke, The Doctor from Doctor Who, Simon in Lord of the Flies and of course, our very own Harry from the Harry Potter series.
Some really obvious christ imagery in Cool Hand Luke- Luke just "sacrificed" himself for the rest of the prsoners by eating a bunch of eggs.
Harry ticks a fair few of these boxes, including performance of miracles (his wand acts in a way it’s not supposed to which is never fully explained— I think this kind of counts), displaying kindness and forgiveness (Harry has always been kind and willing to forgive— we see this when he gets into fights with his friends and then forgives them for doing wrong by him), fighting for justice (Harry’s whole schtick is fighting Voldemort who thinks there should be a hierarchy in the wizard community), being guided by the spirit of his father (Harry’s father is kind of a god-like figure in his mind who Harry looks up to and tries to emulate. Also in Deathly Hallows Harry is literally guided to his death by the spirit of his father), and of course, Harry dies and is resurrected. All in all I’d say he fits this trope pretty well.
The spirit of James Potter guides Harry into the Forest again
Tris from Divergent displays a few of these qualities, but I think her single biggest Christ Figure moment is when she sacrifices herself to save her brother. So essentially, Tris and Caleb (her brother) go on a mission to stop some evil people from wiping everyone’s memories and restarting the faction social experiment. For context, her brother has always been a kind of villain in the story: choosing Erudite as his faction and going along with their plan of murdering the Abnegation faction (which included his parents) and going along with other evil experimentation Erudite wanted to on Divergents and others. So they’re on this mission to stop the memory wipe, and there’s a part of the mission that’s essentially suicide to do. It had already been decided that Caleb would do this part, but at the last minute, Tris does it instead to save him. She ends up dying, having completed the mission successfully and saving her brother’s life.
Due to production issues having to do with losing funding after splitting the last book into two films, Tris doesn't actually die in the films. However, if she had it would've been this scene where she's on a mission with Caleb
I think it’s worth noting that of the people whose lives she could have saved, Caleb probably deserved it the least. He chose the "evilest" faction, went along with their schemes, indirectly got their parents killed and tried to kill Tris as well. By all intents and purposes, he’s a sinner. And Tris dies to save his life. In doing so, she also saves the entire society, who in the two years later flashback at the end of the book, has dissolved the factions and lives peacefully among themselves. I think that if you look at this aspect of the book through a Christian lens, it’s difficult to not see the parallels between Jesus and Tris. And having already established that the author is Christian, I don’t think it’s a stretch to say it was intentional.
Tris and her brother Caleb on the final mission
The problem I have with Tris’s Christ figure status is that I don’t think it was set up very well. In fairness, I don’t think any aspect of the series was set up well, but this in particular doesn’t make sense to me, and I know I’m not alone in that sentiment. The general consensus upon reading Allegiant, at least in my friend group and what I saw online, was that Tris’s death was way too contrived and way too sudden.
And beyond that, Tris doesn’t really show herself to be a Christlike figure in any other way— basically the only other part of the trope she fulfills is fighting for justice, which frankly is kind of a stretch to begin with seeing as Tris was all too happy to go along with the “evil” plan of restarting the faction experiment for like three quarters of the last book. Meanwhile in Harry Potter, Harry’s role as wizard Jesus extends beyond him simply dying and being resurrected. There’s the elements we’ve already discussed, but there’s also a lot to be said about the context and results of his sacrifice, and how it’s literally been set up literally since the first book in the series.
One of my favorite elements of Harry’s death and resurrection is how it affects everyone beyond Harry and Voldemort. I think we can fairly call Voldy the wizard devil to Harry’s wizard Jesus, since he encourages murder, wizard racism, torture, extending life beyond its means and generally just bad stuff. When Harry walks into the forest to be murdered by Voldemort, it’s completely voluntary.
Remember again how Harry survived the killing curse the first time– his mother, who Snape had convinced Voldemort to spare, refused to stand aside and let Voldemort kill Harry.
She didn't need to die. This differentiates her death from James’, who Voldemort always had the intention of killing and who would have died either way. He still sacrificed himself for his family, make no mistake, however his death did not protect Harry or Lily because he was going to die whether he sacrificed himself or not. Harry’s walk into the forest is akin to his mother’s sacrifice: he did not have to give himself up voluntarily. He could have continued fighting at Hogwarts, however he made the conscious decision to let Voldemort kill him in order to destroy the Horcrux, and to prevent Voldemort from continuing the battle of Hogwarts. True, Voldemort wanted to kill him either way, however the fact that he did not defend himself and again, gave himself up voluntarily, was the key.
After Harry is killed, Voldemort is unable to cast binding spells on any of the defenders of Hogwarts. This is something that I missed the first dozen or so times I read the books, even though Harry points it out pretty explicitly: "They’re protected from you. Haven’t you noticed how none of
the spells you put on them are binding? You can’t torture them. You can’t touch them."
Voldemort's spells are unable to hold on Neville or the rest of the defenders of Hogwarts
This is one of the clearest examples of Harry being distinctly Jesus-y. It’s not just that he was resurrected from the dead, it’s the fact that his sacrifice protects his friends and fellow fighters from Voldemort, aka the wizard devil. He died to save them from “sin”: Voldemort’s attempt to recruit them to the dark side and his attacks against them.
If we want to take this sin allegory a step further, we could examine the horcrux in Harry as a sort of metaphor for sin. It’s literally a piece of Voldemort, wizard devil, that’s hanging out inside Harry and giving him killer migraines. Jesus died, according to Christians, to save us from sin. Harry’s death and the subsequent “death” or cleansing of the Horcrux, helps to rid the world of the big sin that is Voldemort himself and his regime. Additionally, when Harry is “reborn” so to speak, it is without the horcrux. His death wiped the sin away.
The Horcux in Kings Cross purgatory
To further the Christ allegory, we have the conversation Harry has with Voldemort before their duel. In it, Harry essentially tells Voldemort that he can be saved from death if he repents and feels genuinely sorry for what he’s done. I mean if that’s not Jesus-y I don’t know what is. It’s so explicit. But at the same time, it doesn’t feel forced.
The thing I love about this series is that it prepares so methodically for literally everything, this conversation included. I mean, Harry’s entire personality and character development through seven books has led us to this conversation, which in the context of both those things makes perfect sense. Harry has always shown us that he values courage, friendship, and love. That’s why he was sorted into Gryffindor, and those values inform every major action he performs. Going to save Sirius at the ministry, for example, or going after the Sorcerers Stone in the first book. We’ve known from the very beginning what type of person Harry is. So of course Harry, who has just had several epiphanies about his life and the power of love and forgiveness as factors on it, would offer the same to Tom Riddle, his greatest enemy. Even if he knows Riddle will never accept it, Harry offers him the chance to redeem himself.
And all this is SO CHRISTIAN! But it also totally works in the context of the story and Harry’s character!
For me, this is where Divergent goes astray. If Roth’s intention was to make Tris a sort of Christ figure, she just did not nail it the same way JK Rowling did. I think a lot of this leads back to the worldbuilding in Divergent, which you have probably gathered I dislike immensely.
This is going to seem off topic, but I promise I have a point. Let's look at the Dauntless faction and the Gryffindor house side-by-side.
Both of our heroes have self selected to be in this group (remember Harry begs the sorting hat to not put him in Slytherin after it had rejected the other two houses), whose primary characteristic is “Brave.” But the distinction is that the Dauntless faction is brave simply for the sake of being brave, whereas Gryffindors are brave with purpose. Think about every brave but stupid thing we’ve seen a Gryffindor do in this series: with very few exceptions (I literally could not even think of one but I’m sure one exists) every stupid and brave thing they’ve done has had a distinct goal behind it. Harry rushing to the Ministry of Magic without exhausting all methods of communication with the Order of the Phoenix was stupid, but he did it to try and save Sirius. Colin Creevey staying on to fight at the Battle of Hogwarts despite being well underage was stupid, but he was trying to defend his home. The Marauders becoming illegal animagi at age 15 was simultaneously very smart and very boneheaded of them, but they did it to help their friend. Meanwhile, the Dauntless faction in Divergent does brave stuff for… really no reason at all? Just to prove they can? They jump out of trains and off buildings and zip line across stuff just to show that they’re not wimps. That’s it! Their motivations behind being brave aren’t noble, self-sacrificial, or even particularly useful. They’re just impulsive for the sake of being impulsive.
You could argue that this is because they’re genetically designed to be brave and only brave, because of that weird genetic mutation plotline we see in Allegiant. However, we see that members of the Dauntless faction are capable of being selfless, intelligent, honest, and a whole host of other personality traits. For example, when Edward leaves after being stabbed in the eye, his girlfriend Maya leaves with him. This was incredibly selfless of her, since leaving the initiation means that they will become factionless, but she does it anyways in support of Edward. That was the most purposefully brave thing anyone in Dauntless has ever done and it’s done when someone is leaving the faction.
All this might seem irrelevant, but I think it makes a huge difference in how Tris and Harry are characterized. Harry’s status as a Gryffindor repeatedly shows us that he’s prepared to put his safety, and even his life on the line to protect his friends. Whereas Tris choosing to be Dauntless really just shows us that she was kind of fed up with Abnegation. Nothing about her choice to value bravery gives us any indication that she would be willing to sacrifice herself to help anyone else. In fact, she kills her friend in self defense at the end of the first book rather than really trying to help him. And yeah, I know the point is that she’s Divergent or whatever and so doesn’t fit into any of the factions; but her decision to choose Dauntless should matter. It should matter to her character and to the wider story arch that she chose to be brave. But it ends up being pointless. Harry Potter on the other hand, places a huge emphasis on the power of choice; starting from Harry’s parents sacrifice and continuing on with Harry’s choice to accept the prophecy, and eventually his choice to sacrifice himself. I would go as far as to say that choice is the second most prominent theme in the Harry Potter series (preceded by love and closely followed by redemption). This emphasis on choices and the constant, conscious decisions to be brave makes Harry’s final choice to sacrifice himself in the forest much more impactful than Tris’s decision to sacrifice herself could ever dream to be.
The reason I’m harping so much on choice and the power of choice is because choice is so important in the whole biblical description of Jesus’s sacrifice. Judas makes the choice to betray Jesus. Jesus makes the choice to remain in the garden. He chooses not to fight back against the romans. He chooses to die to save humanity from their sins. In Harry Potter the power and significance of choice is demonstrated repeatedly. In Divergent, we don’t really see choice playing a genuine role in the story.
Here’s the thing: Divergent tells us time and time again that choices matter and choices are important. I mean, the tagline of the books is literally “One choice will define you.” But it never shows us any of that. Caleb encourages Tris to make her own decision at the choosing ceremony, which she does. Because Tris is Divergent, she has 3 options that she could fit into (Abnegation, Erudite, and Dauntless) and she chooses Dauntless. That choice is displayed to us as if it is important. And it is important plot wise. But in terms of character, what does it tell us? Only that Tris is “brave” in the loosest sense of the word. That she’s willing to jump off a building or onto a train or go ziplining (all of which is done for her own benefit, btw). Because Dauntless lacks focus, and because all of this bravery Tris displays lacks purpose, it doesn’t mean that much to her character at all. I think Divergent missed a real opportunity to say something about how agency and choice makes a difference, no matter what our destiny is.
Which isn’t to say Tris didn’t make a distinct choice of self sacrifice. She did. I’m just saying that the text doesn’t really support that choice in terms of Tris’s values and character up until this point, nor does it place value on any other choices she made previously. If her character development suggested that she was willing to make this sacrifice, then she would have volunteered to do it in the first place instead of letting Caleb do it. Her fleeting self-reflection before sparing his life isn’t enough to convince me that she genuinely cares enough about Caleb to spare his life. Adding onto that, her internal rejection of all the factions and her position as Divergent is genuinely meaningless. Rejecting being Divergent doesn’t do anything to change who she is. If anything, being Divergent allows for this sacrifice that is being presented as a subversion of her Divergent identity. She is brave and smart and selfless. All three of these traits were necessary to make the sacrifice she did, and all three traits are ones that have been coded into her genes instead of being traits she developed over time because of her experiences. Apparently nobody else is capable of having more than one character trait at a time, so nobody else could have had both the bravery and the selflessness and the logic necessary to make the sacrifice. In this way her “choice” to take the sacrifice from Caleb is predetermined. It doesn’t matter if she rejected her Divergence, it’s not something that can go away. It’s in her genes! The whole concept of being Divergent or not Divergent takes away the power of her agency and boils her sacrifice down to her being genetically special, instead of her deliberately choosing to be brave and selfless at all costs. Her destiny is decided by her genetics, whereas Harry’s is decided by his choices.
Both Tris and Harry are clearly meant to be Christ figures. But Harry Potter executes the trope with more finesse and skill, whereas Divergent struggles to justify the allegory at all.
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