The Twilight Saga by Stephanie Meyer - Essay Example

?The Twilight Saga is a series of books published by American Stephanie Meyer, which quickly became a rage all over the world. In this paper,the genre and narrative conventions of Twilight have been studied. When Stephanie Meyer first gave Twilight to publishers; she called it a “suspense horror romance comedy”. Furthermore, she also stated in an interview that according to her romance is an integral part of her novel, but the novel is just not limited to that. She said that although it’s hard to pinpoint the romance; it’s generally the favourite part of any book or novel, because it reigns supreme amongst all the other emotions. Essentially Twilight is a romantic novel at heart. It’s also frequently referred as Young Adult Literature, although there are many people who oppose that view. It was published by Little, Brown and Co in their Young Adult fiction collection. It was only much later when adults started shouting that this isn’t just for teens. Twilight wasn’t written by Stephanie Meyer with the notion that it’s just for young adults. Nonetheless, many assert that Twilight fits very well into the genre of young adult because it expertly tackles ‘coming of age’ elements. Bella Swan is a teenager who begins her very first romantic relationship. As a reader, one witnesses the significant changes in Bella’s life, her progress, her gradual onset into an adult and how she makes very crucial life and death choices. As far as life and death are concerned, Twilight does consist of some very dark themes and elements, which one can generally expect in a novel that has vampires. What’s interesting to note is that Meyer has created a mythology about her vampire characters, and she has also incorporated themes from previous vampire novels, with a few of her own creative modifications, additions and subtractions. Some of the most famous similarities can be seen with Bram Stoker’s Dracula and Anne Rice’s Vampire chronicles, which also includes Interview with the Vampire – later made into a movie, which brought Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt together. It’s highly amusing that after getting done with New Moon, which was the second novel in the twilight series, Meyer claimed that she had never actually given Dracula a read and had only watched Interview with the Vampire very briefly. Nonetheless, it was very interesting to compare Meyer’s portrayal of vampires with that of Rice and Stoker. For instance: “In Bram Stoker's 1897 classic Dracula, the vampire Count Dracula lives in an old, crumbling castle; garlic and crosses repel him; he goes "poof!" into a cloud of dust when someone drives a stake through his heart. We should also note that dracul means "devil" in Romanian, and Dracula's story is seriously gory and nightmarish. Count Dracula was not a nice fellow, and definitely not a "vegetarian." Meyer’s vampires bear a more potent resemblance to Anne Rice. Rice’s vampires have a very strong appeal, similar to that of the Cullens, and garlic, wooden stakes and crosses don’t appear as a threat to them. On the contrary, sunlight can kill some of Rice’s characters and the vampires in her novel do not have a very sparkling skin. A few of them do have a conscience and have conflicting ideas about feeding on novels. Furthermore, they all are very fast and strong and possess very strong senses. Edward as portrayed in Meyer’s novel is a member of the Cullen family; he has a very strong artistic sense and can also interpret and read minds. Rice’s vampires on the contrary possess both types of skills. In addition, they also have special talent. On the whole, Stephanie’s portrayal of vampires has a very strong resemblance with Rice’s vampires. The genre and narrative conventions in Twilight will be explained using a structural approach. Firstly it is important to note that Meyer makes the concept of being a vampire very romantic using vivid descriptions – the vampire skins glitters when exposed to the sunlight, diamonds that are embedded in their skin makes them different from humans when exposed to sunlight. This is the reason why the Cullens contemplate so much when going out for camping or for a vacation. Bella Swan is leading a serene and tranquil life in her school, and is in the state of equilibrium until she comes in an encounter with Edward. The tracker vampire, James acts as an evil force and continuously disrupts her life. Therefore, the Cullens eliminate James and in getting rid of this force, the movie transpires into the equilibrium where there is a threat to peace in the end of the movie. Twilight essentially has a linear structure. Isabella Swan who plays the female protagonist in the novel narrates her entire life from the scene where her mother and her step father will relocate from Phoenix to live their lives by the road. Bella goes to Fork Washington to reside with her had. She is welcomed by her dad’s friend and his son, Jacob and she takes admission in a new school and makes new friends. During a scene in the cafeteria, she sees a group of students entering, who seem a bit unsettling to her. Consequently, she asks her friends who the new group of students are. They reply back saying that it’s the Cullen group of mysterious students. Bella finds The Cullens very intriguing. During her Biology class, she seats herself besides Edward Cullen and much to her sheer confusion; he appears to be very disgusted by her. He disappears mysteriously for weeks and when he comes back, Bella asks him where he had been, but receives a vague response. One day, Bella is hit by a van and Edward comes suddenly and manages to stop the vehicle with his hand. Despite Bella asking him incessantly, he refuses to provide any explanation for his act and also warns her of becoming friends with him. While in school, Bella and Edward have another encounter and she asks him to come with her to the beach. However, he does not show up. She learns from Jacob that the Cullens do not generally go to such places, and he also informs her about the treaty between the two groups: The Cullens and the Blacks i.e. the American Indians who devour blood. When Bella hears of this, she researches extensively and goes to a bookstore when she can buy a book that tells her about this legend. While going to the bookstore, she is molested by some men. Again Edward mysteriously arrives in his car and manages to save her. They both dine together in a restaurant where he reveals a few things about himself to her, but does not explicitly tell her that he’s a vampire. She starts to observe and becomes increasingly suspicious of f him. Furthermore, she also begins to research on “cold blooded beings”. When she is in school the next days, Bella looks at Edward in an odd way without saying anything explicitly. Edward follows Bella in the forest and she confirms her doubts of his true identity. In addition, Edward also challenges Bella’s acceptance of his identity by asserting that he is the most deadly predator on earth. However, Bella is positive that he won’t hurt her and she invests her full trust in him. He confesses to Bella about his condition and also tells her that he and his family feast on the blood of animals. Some days later, Edward brings Bella to his own house and has her meet his temporary foster family. Edward also goes to Charlie’s house and tells him that Bella will be coming to play to baseball with the Cullens regularly. The three nomadic vampires, James, Lauren and Victoria arrive and put Bella’s life in some serious danger. James, who is a tracker vampire is very mystified by Edward’s protectiveness over a human and makes up his mind to search her for sport. Meanwhile, Edward and his family put themselves in jeopardy in order to safeguard Bella, but James puts Bella into a trap by convincing her that he has her mother held as hostage. He attacks Bella and also bites her wrist viciously, but before he can kill her, Edward and his family arrives. Consequently, James is destroyed and Edward also manages to extract the venom out of Bella’s wrist, which prevents her from turning into a vampire. She is severely injured as a result of which, she is taken to the hospital, so that she can recuperate. On her return to Forks, Bella and Edward go to the prom and Bella says that she wants to become a vampire, which Edward does not allow to let happen. The film ends on the note that Victoria is at the prom and is watching Edward and Bella dance, and is plotting to avenge the murder of James. The structure of narration is very interesting. The movie is essentially told from the perspective of Bella Swan. Also, it is noted that Bella is a very reliable narrator. The movie is told from a first person’s point of view. The Twilight book as reiterated earlier has a number of genres, which include the likes of action, fantasy and romance. Genre essentially is a very relative classification. This is because if two books are being compared because they stand as horror novels, then it’s likely that those features will be focused on, which are more commonly associated with horror novels. However, if a book is being compared with another romantic novel, then definitely the romantic features of the book will be focused on. Sometimes readers can also make out certain similarities and formulate an ad-hoc genre, which is based on their observations. It marks the inception of a classic vampire novel, because vampires otherwise are not considered to be loners. Their supernatural nature is accepted and the characters or the protagonist are not infatuated with searching for them or killing them. This idea was first introduced with the onset of Anne Rice’s novels, and paved the way for imitators to write for romance-starved audiences. It is very useful for young students to keep their focus limited to only some very chief features of genres. By pairing and comparing with other books, this classification can be elaborated. But this will not prepare one for the intricacy with which one practices the genre. Twilight is very perplexing, because it does not fit properly into the genre of “thrillers”, therefore it is a very contemporary and new genre. But very often, thrillers often combine the elements of sub-genres and stable genres, in order to remain as fresh as possible. When heavy romantic novels and the presence of vampires are taken into account, the story can become very hazy and puzzling (Juric, 2010). Love and Romance are major themes of the Twilight series in the sense that two people get attracted to each other and consequently become mates. Although, the main characters, Bella and Edward are the pairing that readers mainly focus on, there are others who serve as a contrast to augment this idea. Furthermore, change and risk are also two major themes i.e. the way that people make choices, which places them in jeopardy. Horror, supernatural, humanity and mortality are also very significant themes of the novel. Family is another very important theme, which paves the way for people to bond, although the conventional familiar structure is very obscure in the novel, and in the sense of obligation, also leads to a lot of conflicts. Furthermore, popularity is also a very important theme of the novel because it investigates the way in which people develop relationships and hierarchies. Another theme is beauty. The mood of the novel is sometimes very grave and intense, and at others also very dramatic. This is in keeping with both the horror and romance genres that Twilight consists of. Apart from the extensive incorporation of fantasy, another very crucial characteristic of the novel is the confronting and solving of the problem, by undertaking a quest. The quest in the novel includes Bella’s mission to find out what Edward is and this is another very important theme that reigns supreme in the latter part of the novel. It is also interesting to note that the protagonist is a young person, who is on the search of a mate. Bella’s mission is to get close to Edward and when she moves to Fork, her entire life begins to revolve around Edward. The very fibre of her being is plagued by his thoughts. Apart from the characteristics and attributes mentioned above, there is also a third attribute. This includes the protagonist of the novel trying to solve a problem and overcome obstacles, so as to reach a happy ending which happens in Twilight. Firstly, Bella is desperately trying to find what Edward is hiding from her, so that they can be together. The second time is when both of them finally come together, but again they have to overcome a major problem and obstacle in the form of three evil vampires, out of which one is evilly obsessed with Bella. Thankfully, both the times they succeed in overcoming the problems that exist between her and Edward. Apart from the use of different genres, there are other things about Twilight that account for the novel‘s huge popularity. The author’s creation of two very different characters and individuals who fall in love, complete each other and also represent what the reader is looking for is very captivating and endearing. Furthermore, what entices the reader the most is that the author has used a very simple protagonist, who falls in the love with the hero of her dreams. This is sure to be the wish of many girls. In this way, she also draws striking parallels with other works of literature such as Romeo and Juliet and Wuthering Heights. There is also criticism surrounding Twilight and particularly how Bella has been showed, but this hasn’t hampered the popularity in any way. Meyer has proved that love existing between humans, supernatural creatures and conservative manners are a very winning concept in a vampire story. When we look back in history; it’s very evident that vampires have been present for several years and have fascinated people in numerous ways. They have been popular in literature and the outlook of vampires has changed considerably over the years. Twilight represents a very different and unique sort of vampire fiction where both humans and vampires interact in a completely different sort of a way, which are poles apart from the conventional relationships between a vampire and human. Consequently, Twilight has managed to garner a major fan following. This is because the novel at the core is a love story, a genre which is generally known to appeal to females. It also has certain elements of gothic genre and fairy tale, which is very different from the typical vampire fiction. All these combined together properly form a very progressive vampire novel (Nedeau, 2009). References Juric Sandra, The use of different genres in Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight, Published in 2010, http://lup.lub.lu.se/luur/download?func=downloadFile&recordOId=1784184&fileOId=1784185, Accessed 8th January, 2012 Nedeau, Jeann, Twilight: A Feminist Nightmare, Published in 2009, http://news.change.org/stories/twilight-a-feminist-nightmare, Accessed 8th January, 2012 Read More