These books were easy to read, simple to understand, and had easily identified protagonists and antagonists. As a woman who was a white, middle-class, high school student who felt like and outcast, this book was easy to relate to as well. Granted, lesbians aren’t represented in these conservative books but the concepts of finding a place to fit into society and a soul-mate to love was easy to embrace. Notwithstanding the myriad of stereotypes both social and gender, this was a feel-good series. Meyer could have broadened her reach by adding some representation of more diverse races in her primary and secondary characters. Additionally adding a character that was anything but heterosexual would have been welcome and refreshing. For a book that was set in the 21st century the author may have wanted …show more content…
The first book, Twilight sets the stage for the audience by making the main character’s life seem plausible and as the series progress the protagonist’s life resembled fantasy more than reality. If the point of these books was to be an escape from reality it seemed distressing to see Bella Swan, the lead character, playing a nauseating female stereotype. Not only is the character actually nauseated by blood, she seemed modeled after a 1950s housewife. At nearly every mention or conversation with Charlie, Bella’s father, it was indicated that he could not cook for himself, “Charlie needs me. He's just all alone up there, and he can't cook at all.”[5] Even when Bella was on her death bed she worried about who would cook for her father. As Ward Cleaver from Leave it to Beaver said, “A woman’s place is in the home and as long as she is in the home she might as well be in the
In bite me or don’t: twilight as abstinence porn, Christine Seifert from Westminster college in Utah, analyzes the twilight saga. Describing twilight saga as an abstinence porn saga. Christine agrees with twilight fans about the lost of abstinence and sexual tension in breaking dawn. Christine is a feminist writer from the Bitch magazine she emphasizes most of her critics towards Bella describing her as weak and with no control over her body (348). Seifert believes that Edward is in control of Bella’s protection, humanity and virginity.(348)Christine uses rhetorical strategies during her discussion, persuading the reader about the life of Bella as a teenage mom and how twilight transmits a message of abstinence.
How does religion push people? How does it give people hope? Is there an extent to it? Elie Wiesel’s book Night he showed how through his experience on how tragedy can shape your faith in religion. While in Auschwitz his faith was beyond tested,it was stretched,lost then found. Elie uses faith in Night to show how it is key to survival whether it’s in god or other people.
The Holocaust survivor Abel Herzberg has said, “ There were not six million Jews murdered; there was one murder, six million times.” The Holocaust is one of the most horrific events in the history of mankind, consisting of the genocide of Jews, homosexuals, gypsies, mentally handicapped and many others during World War II. Adolf Hitler was the leader of Nazi Germany, and his army of Nazis and SS troops carried out the terrible proceedings of the Holocaust. Elie Wiesel is a Jewish survivor of the Nazi death camps, and suffers a relentless “night” of terror and torture in which humans were treated as animals. Wiesel discovers the “Kingdom of Night” (118), in which the history of the Jewish people is altered. This is Wiesel’s “dark time of life” and through his journey into night he can’t see the “light” at the end of the tunnel, only continuous dread and darkness. Night is a memoir that is written in the style of a bildungsroman, a loss of innocence and a sad coming of age. This memoir reveals how Eliezer (Elie Wiesel) gradually loses his faith and his relationships with both his father (dad), and his Father (God). Sickened by the torment he must endure, Wiesel questions if God really exists, “Why, but why should I bless him? Because he in his great might, had created Auschwitz, Birkenau, Buna, and so many other factories of death? (67). Throughout the Holocaust, Wiesel’s faith is not permanently shattered. Although after his father dies, his faith in god and religion is shaken to the core, and arguably gone. Wiesel, along with most prisoners, lose their faith in God. Wiesel’s loss of religion becomes the loss of identity, humanity, selfishness, and decency.
Vampires have been viewed with fear and fascination for centuries. Of all the vampires in literature, Bram Stoker’s Count Dracula is probably the most prominent vampire. Recently, there has been an upsurge of public interest in socially acceptable vampires, like the Cullens in the Twilight series by Stephanie Meyer. This essay will contrast Stoker’s Dracula with Carlisle Cullen, one of the newer vampires from the Twilight series. They will be examined in terms of their origins and how they dealt with immortality.
In the famous novel and movie series, Twilight by Stephenie Meyer, an average teenage girl, Bella Swan, is forced to move from Arizona (where she lived with her mother) to Washington to start an almost new life with her father. She attends a small-town high school with mostly average people, besides one family, the Cullens. As Bella and Edward Cullen get closer, she uncovers a deep secret about him and his family. Their relationship faces many hard challenges and conflicts as the story develops. Both the novel and movie share very similar storylines, however, differ in many ways. From themes to author’s craft, or to relationships, these important parts of the story highlight the significant differences and similarities of Twilight.
In Bram Stoker's Dracula, the most blatant and powerful symbol is blood. He takes the blood that means so much to the believers of this legend and has it represent more than even they could imagine. Blood is the main object associated with vampires and vampirism. From a mythical standpoint, it is the basis of life for the vampires as they feed off of the blood of young, vibrant souls. From a more scientific standpoint blood is what would drip out of the corpse's mouth when family members would dig up their dead kin to check for the dreaded disease. Stoker takes the significance of this symbol and puts his own unique twist to the meaning of blood. He combines the traditional folklore of vampirism and the immense sexual undertones of the Victorian era to create a simply horrific tale which completely confuses the emotions of his readers. Stoker knew bloods importance in vampire history and used the overwhelming symbolism to convey his own personal lust and sexual obsessions. The scenes where Lucy is receiving transfusions; first from Holmwood, then from Seward, and the unforgettable vampire baptism between Dracula and Mina all have these very erotic, sexual feelings associated with them. What makes these so powerful is the combination of violence and sex. As a reader, you know that what Dracula is doing are horrific and wrong, but because they are so sexually described and associated you think you should enjoy them, but you can't. This is the confusion which stoker implements into his readers minds, especially ones of the Victorian era. This is why stoker used blood as the most important symbol in the novel; to create an intense horror that was not just in the words of the book, but in the minds of the reader.
Writer Natalie Wilson approaches the topic of race as what appears to be “unexamined” to many in the movie Twilight. In her article “Civilized Vampires Versus Savage Werewolves: Race and Ethnicity in the Twilight Series”, she points out many interesting details that support her opinion that Twilight depicts some sort of racial differences and biases amongst the characters. The movie is based on the storyline of diverse relationships between Bella Swan and a group of werewolves and vampires, including Jacob Black and Edward Cullen. The difference between the depiction of Edward and Jacob are very contrasting as Jacob is associated with savagery while Edward on the other hand is described as wealthy, talented, and smart. Jacob and his tribe are Native American and those who pertain to the Cullen family are white; some consider this
In Twilight, Edward Cullen presents the question; “ But what if I’m not the hero? What if I’m the bad guy?” The role of vampires is very controversial. Back in the day they were evil, soulless monsters and people genuinely feared them. However, in the present day it seems that we have grown to love them and even hope to one day be them. There are a plethora of vampire stories and many of them have become immense hits. With so many vampire stories, it is not uncommon that readers are able to identify a vast amount of similarities. Although similar in aspects, there are still many differences between the classic and modern day vampires. Two highly popular stories, in which we can easily identify similarities and differences, are Bram Stoker’s Dracula and Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight.
The “Otherness” Dracula possesses reinforces our own norms and beliefs through his transgression that separates him from society and the polarity to Western norms and ideals makes him an effective device for extorting revulsion and horror. Stoker’s novel employs Gothic tradition, providing “the principle embodiments and evocations of cultural anxieties” from which the very Gothic mood and horror is produced, establishing the baseline used to distinguish the modern vampires, as part of vampire mythology within the Gothic (Botting Aftergothic 280). Differences Between Dracula and Twilight The similarities between the two novels are namely Gothic imagery and theme, but the Gothic mood predominates in Dracula over Twilight and it is this difference that makes Twilight not belong in the vampire canon. Horror is the element that Dracula possesses that Edward does not, and it is crucial in the interplay between transgression and limit.
In Case's article “Tasting the Original Apple,” it talks about the role that now the new woman has and how it comes into conflict with how men react towards it as stated “Dracula is often read as a largely reactionary response to the threat of autonomous female sexuality posed by the phenomenon of the "New Woman," with its anxieties about female sexuality being most clearly visible in Lucy Westenra's story. Particularly once she has been "vamped," Lucy's sexual assertiveness seems to link her with the New Woman. But Lucy's actions as a vampire, like those of the "awful women" (42) Jonathan encounters at Dracula's castle, perhaps owe less to the specific threat posed by the New Woman's insistence on sexual autonomy than to the ambivalences built into the model of Victorian womanhood from the start. Since ideal womanhood (and the ground of male desire) was characterized by a combination of total sexual purity and at least the potential for passionate devotion to a man, this model...
The holocaust was a time the Jewish community faced a very troubling era. In the book "Night", a man named Elie Wiesel, was the author and a survivor of this tragic incident. He explained throughout the book about his life as a child going through the holocaust. Although he survived that terrible time, he lost the ones closest to him such as his family. The Nazis took away the humanity of the inmates in the concentration camps, how the inmates maintain their humanity, and how the inmates used religion as a metaphor for humanity. Even though Elie survived what he went through he would never be the same.
Religion is sold to the masses daily. In 1925 it was sold to the masses in the form of printed material by Bruce Barton. In 1960 it was sold to the masses by way of a film entitled Elmer Gantry. Bruce Barton sold a different idea of Jesus than most people were familiar with. In the film, Elmer Gantry sold religion with bravado and arrogance which was not the typical way of selling religion either. In each work, religion is being sold but Elmer is a more exciting and relatable character than Bruce Barton’s Jesus. Elmer Gantry sold religion in a similar way to Barton’s Jesus but did so in a more relatable manner.
This fetish has been manifested in the movies I view, the television shows I watch, and the books I read. When my obsession with reading is crossed with my obsession with monsters, the result is a bookshelf containing more vampire novels than most people would consider healthy. I have discovered that every vampire novel varies vastly; no two books are ever alike. For example, the Twilight Series, the Anita Blake Series and the Vampire Chronicles Series have different legends and lore, different relationships between vampires and society, and different genres, theme, and purpose; this array of novels displays most clearly the range of audience the vampire genre can cater. The Twilight series is a bestselling series written by Stephanie Meyer that has captivated millions of teenage girls.
Regarding the story of characters and interpersonal communication attributes movies; especially those with a strong theme of love have become a mainstream culture and a household commodity for analysis. The movie twilight was recently adapted from being a novel to a film in the year 2005 under the same title with the original idea from Stephanie Meyer. Through the 17 year old girl’s narration, the movie espouses a love story about a forbidden love (Blasingame et al. 50). The forbidden love is between the two protagonists, Edward and Bella, where their relationship depicts varied interpersonal characteristics. Through their interactions, the two protagonists develop among each other both positive and negative connotations of interpersonal communication.
This quote addresses directly the primary difficulty of the issue. The terms gay and lesbian are useful in literature in that they allow a group of people who have been marginalised and even persecuted to become visible. They enable a way of life and a set of identities, harmonious or conflicting, to be presented, to be questioned, to be understood and accepted. As categories they create ‘space’ in which there may develop a more evolved understanding of texts and they also create a genre within which many lesbian and gay writers are comfortable with being placed. A gendered reading of a text can reveal undercurrents and depths which might otherwise not be apparent. These categories also make ‘space’ for the author within the text which leads to a closer tie between the author and the reader in the reading process.