In post-apocalyptic Chicago, Beatrice Prior, or Tris, survived an invasion that resulted in an entire army taking over different factions that control different parts of the city. This invasion killed many from Abnegation, the faction both Tris and Tobias, her boyfriend, came from. With Abnegation in ruins, only four factions are left, being Candor with one half from Dauntless, Amity, and Erudite with the other half of Dauntless. Erudite and half of Dauntless, the antagonist factions, want to maintain control of everyone, but the rest of the factions want freedom. As a result, war starts to brew between sides, and Tris has to decide whether she is going to save her friends, or herself.

There are a couple of themes that both Tris and Tobias face in Insurgent. When Tobias finds out about an organization within the city, he and Tris have loyalty issues. When they leave the Amity headquarters, they have to decide what faction to be loyal to. And when they leave that one, they choose to be loyal to another group. Their divergence could have something to do with this, because being Divergent means that they have characteristics for different factions, whereas many only have one. “Don't you think someone with the aptitude for multiple factions might have a loyalty problem?” (Roth 104).

The other theme is identity, which is again what Tris and Tobias have a hard time trying to find for themselves. In the previous book, Tris went from Abnegation to Dauntless. Then she accepted being Divergent, a mixture of Abnegation, Dauntless, and Erudite. In Insurgent, she tries to find out what she really is, whether it is Divergent or something else. For Tobias, he found himself thinking he is a coward but is actually braver than he thought. Look at how Tris explained it, “then Tobias beat up Marcus—publicly, where all the Dauntless could see it. Why? To salvage his pride? It can't be. It was far too intentional for that” (Roth 40).

The many themes in Insurgent, such as violence, guilt, and death, are for mature readers. I wouldn’t recommend Insurgent to a young audience due to some content in the book. Divergent Trilogy presents many messages about who you are and what you want to do, which are good messages for teens and young adults to enjoy alike.