It’s like we have some kind of need, once we feel that we have changed, for people to call us something different. Is it for us, to suit the way we see ourselves? Or is it for them, to force them to think of us differently? Or a combination of both?It’s these musings about names that led to the Tobias/Four divide in the first place. Four views Tobias as the name of a helpless little boy, so he chooses Four as the name of his adult self in an attempt to leave the pain behind him. It signifies his strength rather than his weakness. But what he finds is that he can’t ignore his past; it keeps creeping up on him, especially in his fear landscape. So in DIVERGENT, he “gives” Tris his old identity—he trusts her to know his vulnerable side, the side of the child and not the man. She recognizes the significance of this, which is why she starts to call him Tobias. It’s the name he gave to her, the one he trusted her with, and she begins to treasure it for that reason.Tobias is the name she chooses for him, because it represents his secret self, the one he showed her and her alone. She calls him Four when she’s with other people, to help him keep his secrets, but in her head, he’s always Tobias.
Читать далее