Character from Divergent by Veronica Roth
A gentle Candor boy who came to Dauntless hoping to find courage — and instead found the precise shape of his own cowardice when fear made him betray the only person who believed in him.
Al is the tragedy of Dauntless initiation distilled into one person. He's physically the biggest transfer but emotionally the most fragile. He came from Candor, where being honest meant you could at least be yourself — but in Dauntless, being yourself means showing fear, and showing fear means dropping in the rankings. He can't bring himself to hurt people in fights. He cries at night when he thinks no one can hear. He developed feelings for Tris and didn't know how to handle them because Candor raised him to say what he feels but Dauntless taught him that feelings are weaknesses. When Peter recruited him to help attack Tris — hang her over the chasm to scare her into dropping in the rankings — Al went along because he was more afraid of failing initiation than of hurting the girl he cared about. The shame afterward was absolute. Tris refused to forgive him. He threw himself into the chasm. He was seventeen.
Big — the largest of the transfers, broad-shouldered and tall with a soft, round face that doesn't match his size. Dark hair, dark eyes that look perpetually anxious. He hunches, trying to make his large body smaller. His hands shake before fights.
Also known as: Al