Quote 55
In the hallway, it is easy to forget about Al and Molly's revenge and Peter's suspicious calm, and easy to pretend that what separates us as friends does not exist. But lingering at the back of my mind is the fact that Christina and Will are my competitors. If I want to fight my way to the top ten, I will have to beat them first. (16.90)
Ever notice how Tris has this habit of saying one thing and then saying kind of the opposite thing? Like here, she starts off saying "it is easy to forget" that we're competing; but in the very next sentence she notes that she's going to have to beat her friends. This is a pretty clear example of how friendship and competition are constantly tugging in her different directions (and getting her to say opposite things).
Quote 56
But what is so threatening about my ability to manipulate the simulations? Why would it matter to the representative of the Erudite, of all people?
I can't answer either question. But the look she gives me reminds me of the look in the attack dog's eyes in the aptitude test—a vicious, predatory stare. She wants to rip me to pieces. I can't lie down in submission now. I have become an attack dog too. (28.92-3)
All the competition with friends is complex and troubling. So it's almost a relief to get down to some competition with enemies. Here Tris is in a meeting with Jeanine Matthews, and by "in a meeting," we mean something like this. But even while Tris knows that Jeanine is "an attack dog," she doesn't understand why they are fighting. Which points to a larger theme of the book—are these factions and this system of government really worth all the hullabaloo?
Quote 57
I stare into my own eyes for a moment. Today is the day of the aptitude test that will show me which of the five factions I belong in. And tomorrow, at the Choosing Ceremony, I will decide on a faction; I will decide the rest of my life; I will decide to stay with my family or abandon them. (1.9)
This is the big choice that Tris faces; and luckily for her, she has some help in making that choice. Before she decides, she gets to go through the Sorting Hat—er, we mean the aptitude test. But even with that aptitude test, notice how big this choice is: it gets three repetitions of the phrase "I will decide." That's how we know it's important.