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Instead, it really says more about the asker: Ironic hipster? Geriatric pickup artist in a retirement community? Time traveler from the 1970s? (If you’re wondering, I am a Capricorn. According to astrologists, this means I’m industrious, hardworking, ambitious, pragmatic, and tend to be conventional and possibly egotistical. ) Even people who don’t check their horoscope daily sometimes use zodiac signs as a sort of psychological shorthand to describe people—including themselves. Back in college, my BFF (science major, D&D player, fellow Capricorn) explained why two of our social circle couldn’t get along: “They’re both Leos.

Why would we ever cry real tears for people we know are make-believe? One answer that scientists have come up with to this question is that fictional stories are simulations—and, yes, they do use that exact word. Even though we know these fictional stories are not real, we feel like they are. ” And yet, despite knowing that the simulation isn’t real, Tris’ reactions to it are, as she puts it, “visceral” (Divergent). So, too, are our reactions as readers. My goal for this essay is to dig beneath the surface of the simulation, with an eye to what the psychological sciences can tell us about the books.

And stone is, after all, part of the earth. Earth types can sometimes become stagnant rather than just steady, or dull more than dependable. Taken to the extreme, Abnegation can come off as joyless and colorless—as “stiff” as their nickname implies. On the other hand, the faction’s capacity for self-sacrifice for the greater good—like the sacrifices made by many Abnegation leaders, including Tris’ parents, to protect the Edith Prior video—shows the strength of this “grounded” element. Fire In Chinese astrology, fire types are all about adventure and excitement.