The aptitude test given to the candidates is supposed to show each subject the faction for which they best fit. The subject is given a small amount of fluid to drink and strapped into a bed and connected to the simulation machine. The fluid and the machine cause the subject to enter into a trance-like state where they are placed into a simulation. There choices in this simulation determine which of the actions that they are best suited for. When Trish’s test becomes inconclusive, she is warned by her tester; “ … I mean you should never share them with anyone, ever, no matter what happens. Divergence is extremely dangerous. You understand?” Being divergent means that the simulations and thus mind control will not work on the subject. This places the life of the divergent in danger because when power cannot control the subject, power fears the subject.
In this world to be factionless is to be divorced from power. Not belonging to one of the five factions means that the subjects will live in the wild parts of the city in poverty and are not allowed to do occupations of the factions nor live in their quarters Being factionless is so terrible not because its freedom, but alienation from power. This alienation from society terrifies most. This is how power entrenches itself, wrapping itself in the fear of alienation. 
Ultimately, power seeks to make subjects out of all, and subjects are best controlled when they become willing participants in their own subjugation. In Divergent, the faction system, the factionless, and the initiations into the factions all serve as tools to this end. This system of power functions much like the systems of power in modern representative democracies. In these democracies power gives the subjects the power to vote for their representatives, representatives that, once in power, have no legal obligations to keep any of the promises that they made while campaigning, and the subjects surrender all power over to their elected representatives.  
