Post 4: Book 1 Project: Fan Experience

Natalie Prior’s Journal

Allegiant

This is a one in a lifetime opportunity- read the entire journal of Natalie Prior from the book Allegiant by Veronica Roth! Go into the mind of Natalie Prior as she tells you her experiences of moving from one "experiment" to another. Fans could either buy a hard copy of Natalie’s journal, or download it onto an electronic devise, the same way Tris Prior read her mother’s journal in the story. Fans would also receive a copy of Natalie Prior’s death certificate (found in the back of the journal) as well as every letter written to David as Natalie begins her new life in Chicago. It will include the sections available in the book as well as those not in Allegiant.

In Allegiant (the third and final book of the Divergent series) after Tobias, Tris, Christina, Cara, Uriah, Tori, Peter, and Caleb escape the city and find the Bureau of Genetic Welfare, the seven are welcomed into Bureau (Tori is killed on the way). Matthew, a friend Tris makes at the Bureau, introduces Tris to David, the leader of the Bureau. Tris soon learns that David knew-even fell in love with- Natalie Prior when they were younger. Inevitably Tris learns the truth about her mother.

Through her mother’s journal, which David gives her to help her cope with her mother's death, Tris learns that her mother was not actually born in the isolated city that Tris grew up in. Tris learns that her mother was sent there on a mission, a mission Tris never would have suspected while growing up.

Her mother sacrificed herself to save Tris, something Tris would never forget. Throughout the story she struggled with the concept of sacrifice. After her mother’s death, this journal was the only thing she had left of her other than memory. When Tris first opened the journal, “[her] hands tremble as [she] open the file labeled ‘Journal’” (187).The journal had such an impact on Trish that she would “clutch the screen to [her] chest” (189). Because all of her family, except her brother who was a traitor, was dead, Tris cherished this last tangible thing she had of her mother’s.

Tris has a hard time deciding whether or not to share this sacred journal with her brother, Caleb, who Tris believed betrayed his family. She would keep the journal, which was on an electronic screen similar to a Tablet, hidden under her pillow so no one could find it. In the end she was able to recognized that the journal was not hers to keep, and was able to give it up, leaving only the memory of what her mother had written in her head.  The only other person who knew she had this journal at first was her boyfriend, Tobias.

“I keep one hand clamped over my ear and slide my other hand under my pillow to pick up the screen with my mother’s journal on it” (205).

By being able to read the journal of Natalie Prior, fans would get to understand all that Natalie had to go through in order to start a family and escape the terrors of The Fringe (an experiment that had previously failed). Although Veronica Roth wrote sections of Natalie’s journal in Allegiant, she did not give the entire journal. By giving readers the entire journal, their views Natalie Prior and the sacrifices she made would 

change. Although the trilogy is finished, this will allow readers to stay connected with the story and keep the message of Natalie’s sacrifice in their memory. 

 

Those who read this journal without reading Allegiant would be motivated to read the entire Divergent series to understand why Natalie would have to leave a “failed experiment” and why these experiments were taking place to begin with.