Tris Prior

     Let me just start out by saying that if you haven't read all three books in the Divergent series, and you plan to, stop reading now.  This post will spoil the ending for you, and trust me, you won't see it coming.

     In the start of Divergent, Beatrice was going on and on about how she wasn't selfless enough for her current faction.  She thinks to herself at the dinner table one night, "I am not sure I can live this life of obligation any longer.  I am not good enough" (Roth 35).  So, as we all know, she switched to Dauntless.  Sure, at that time she wasn't acting selfless, and it didn't come easy to her to help total strangers.  But by the end of the series, I think it's obvious that this is not true at all.

   

Tris helping Four through his fear landscape.

In the first book, she helps Four get through his fear landscape.  This was only a small act of selflessness, but it's where it started.  Even though it got a little bit uncomfortable for her, she still put him first and made sure he made it through the landscape okay.

     At the end of the first book, Caleb and Tris go to the compound where the attack was being controlled at.  She doesn't want her brother getting hurt so Tris goes into the control room, not knowing what was in there, and finds Tobias running the whole simulation.  She tries to snap him out of it, but she can't.  Tobias attacks her, and is about to kill her.  She accepts this, and right before she was about to die, Tobias fights the serum off and realizes what he's doing and stops.  The fact alone that she didn't let her brother go into the control room to make sure nothing happens to him, is enough proof of her selflessness.  Then, when she is willing to let Tobias kill her, so that she doesn't have to hurt him, is another selfless act.

     In the second book, Insurgent, Jeanine wants to run tests on all the Divergents. To get their attention, she makes people commit suicide unwillingly, by using a serum.  Tris decides that she can't just let lots of people die, so she turns herself in.  She knows that she is likely going to be killed, but knowing that she's saving more people, she is willing to die.  Once again, we see her being selfless.

     Again, in Insurgent, Tris makes selfless decisions.  When the characters were rebuilding the Dauntless faction, Tris was nominated to be leader.  She saw that Tobias wanted to be a leader, and thought he would be better at it, so she turned down her nomination.  Tris then nominated him for the position.

Tris has knives thrown at her so her friend doesn't get them thrown at him.

     Let's not forget Tris's most important act of selflessness.  At the end of Allegiant, Tris walks straight into the chamber with the Death Serum, so that her brother doesn't have to.  Caleb, her brother, the TRAITOR, volunteered to do it.  But no, she couldn't let him, instead she killed herself.  No, not almost killed herself, she actually did.  The serum she knowingly walked into, killed her.  Tris Prior killed herself, for her brother.  I tried to stop myself from chucking my e-reader across the room at this point, but it didn't work.  If that doesn't show how selfless she is, I don't know what does.