A Twilight Heroine

Sometimes I wondered if I was seeing the same things through my eyes that the rest of the world was seeing through theirs. Maybe there was a glitch in my brain.

                                                                                                -Isabella “Bella” Swan

Shy, loyal, loving, caring, responsible, stubborn, clumsy, smart and reserved – these are the common characteristics we know about Bella Swan. But there is more to see about Bella, she is quite interesting and an unedifying character I may call it. As humans we just keep getting habits and new additional traits that we absorbed, that of course influence on our personality.  Bella is constantly changing personality as any of us are. But something so magnificent about this character is that at 17 she’s responsible, more than any of us could say, and even if she has no confidence in herself she somehow manages herself to be true and sure about what is right for her, about what she wants and needs, that is Edward.

    

          Who could possibly be very certain about what you want about life when you’re 17? Of course when you find true love it is impossible to not know what is right for you, when you know you had been made for that person, and that person was made especially for you, when you find your soul mate at 17 you are sure about him about EVERYTHING that has to do with him,who could possibly be so lucky as Bella finding her true love at such a short age and having so self confidence about it? I wish I were. Being a seventeen such as Bella doesn’t sounds bad, it sounds about right. 

Isabella Swan holds a unique stance as well as quite socially awkward personality traits. She is a very reserved and shy person however is seen to contradict this trait through the use of her open-mindedness and ability to speak her mind if something is bothering her. Her character presents one of which is quite nurturing showing the ability to be caring, understanding and mature in both her reactions to incidences occurring around her and also within the borders of her own life. Some of her characteristics in which are distinct are just as the same as my personality, proving it to be at more responsible for the rounding of my character, these include my private mind, clumsiness and again stubbornness. As for the aspect of Bella’s interests it can be noted that they consist of Edward, Edward and more Edward and the constant necessity of being with him. Bella is seen to not conform to the personality of most teenagers, therefore articulating her individualistic nature.

Bella is a highly clumsy person who falls into accidents so much that even if she were walking, she would fall. She is also very stubborn when it comes to something that she decides and in the entire Twilight Saga, this is depicted very patiently. Just like me, when I decide on something, I do it without giving it a second thought.

Also Bella is a very bad liar. Unlike me, I guess that’s one of my advantages to Bella. She does not possess the ability to speak crisp clean lie and ends up getting caught, though when its the need of time, she can play well with the lie. This shows that Bella is an honest girl who loves to speak the truth, but when the truth is harsh, she knows how to get rid of it.

Bella’s personality is very loving and caring, but in whatever she does, she is extreme. Either she loves or she hates and there is just nothing in the mid.

She always under estimates her own abilities and skills. In the entire Twilight Saga she is seen to think herself to have below the average look which makes her feel that she is no match for Edward.

Most teenage girls are interested in boys and fashion. But Bella Swan is not your typical teen. She takes little interest in the gossip and trivialities that preoccupy her friends. Just more likely as me, I don’t care about being popular or having a social life and has to force myself to hang out with my friends. Preferring her own company (or ideally that of her vampire boyfriend), Bella Swan is quite content to sit in her garden reading a romance novel.

When it comes to fashion and style, Bella’s personality is simple and straight. She likes to wear anything comfortable and relaxing. Shoes with no heels and always flat. She does not like standing alone in the picture getting admired or looked on by others. She likes to stay in the crowd and as hidden as can be.

Much more like Bella I have little interest in music or movies and have few hobbies. I am clumsy and uncoordinated, which makes me really bad at sport, and is always falling over and hurting myself. I have absolutely no interest in my appearance. I hardly ever wears make-up, pays little interest to my hair and prefers wearing loose comfortable clothes to anything high fashion. 

 Bella Swan is definitely not the materialistic type. She can have anything she wants and yet she wants nothing – nothing that is, except for her vampire boyfriend Edward. She could care less about the luxurious life Edward can offer her. She refuses to let him buy her expensive gifts or to replace her banged up old truck with one of his slinky fast cars (at least until after she’s become a vampire). In fact, she barely tolerates him – or anyone - buying her anything at all. 

Like Bella Swan I’m matured, selfless and compassionate. I often put the feelings and interests of others before my own. More like Bella, she gives up her life with her mom in sunny Phoenix so that her mom can spend time alone with her new husband. She hides her occasional fear of Edward and his family (when their true vampire natures are revealed) to spare their feelings. And time and again when she’s in danger of being murdered by vampires, she risks her life to save the ones she loves.

Even when Edward leaves her, Bella tries to suppress her heartbreak to stop her father worrying about her. She copes with Edward’s absence by living in a kind of lifeless limbo, going through the motions of living while feeling dead inside. The only times she feels alive is when her life is at risk, which is why she takes to doing crazying things (like riding a motor-cycle and jumping off a cliff). At those times, she hears Edward’s voice scolding her for her carelessness.

The only thing that stops Bella Swan ending her life to escape her grief at losing Edward is the pain it would cause her parents. However, when she accidentally almost drowns, she feels relief and not distress at the prospect of death.

All of Bella’s Features, Characteristic and Personality make her an Over All vibrant, down to earth and strong yet polite person with enough spark of energy to achieve what she wishes.

And this makes her everyone’s favorite person.

TWILIGHT

About three things I was absolutely positive:
First, Edward was a vampire.
Second, there was a part of him–and I didn’t know how dominant that part might be–that thirsted for my blood.
And third, I was unconditionally and irrevocably in love with him.

The book Twilight is a teenage bestseller which is written by Stephanie Meyer and was first published in 2005. This book debuted as New York Times #5 within the month of its release and soon took the first place. What made this book such a success? This question intrigues me and so many people all over the world, but yet the mystery remains unsolved.

Deeply romantic and extraordinarily suspenseful, Twilight captures the struggle between defying my instincts and satisfying my desires. This is a love story with a bite.

Twilight is what it is. It's a teen romance with supernatural elements. That's it. Twilight satisfies my cravings for an entertaining vampire love story I can sink my teeth into.

Stephenie Meyer’s first book in the Twilight Saga quatrology takes an idea that has been stewing in the underbelly of fantasy thought, namely the idea that vampires can be rather excellent chaps when they’ve forced themselves to stop drinking human blood, and brings that idea into the shining, prismatic light of the bestseller list.

Twilight is a remarkably sensuous novel. Vampires are mysterious and alluring, with powers that alternately confirm and contradict traditional vampire lore. The sci-fi/ fantasy spectrum that surrounds the story is very intriguing and well captured. Another interesting fact about the book is that the cover of the book ties into the story. The apple on the cover represents the forbidden fruit from the book of Genesis. It symbolizes Bella's and Edward's love, which is forbidden, similar to the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, as is made obvious by the quote from Genesis 2:17 that opens the book; it also represents choice.

Now I know there are those who would say that the idea of “good” vampires has been around for at least a few decades, but the blood-sucking members on the side of the protagonist take this farther. They try to be good and peaceful. None of them draws a modified robotic katana and slays other vampires while taking hits of a human-blood drug replacement.

So, as I launch into the bloody meat of this reading log, let me start by saying that the humanity expressed in this book is more real than in a lot of other Fantasy novels with only human casts. Part of that realism comes from the fact that the “good” vampires in Twilight do not serve as a foil to the humanity of the non-vamps, but express incredible depths of humanity themselves.

Isabella Swan, Bella to both her bloodsucking and omnivorous friends, is forcing herself to live with her father in the remote town of Forks, Washington. Upon arriving in the spectacularly small town of Forks, where Bella’s dad is the chief of police, Bella is thrown into the cloak-and-dagger cut-and-thrust of small town society. If that sounded a little sarcastic, it was, but luckily Meyer quickly moves on to what is obviously the secondary focus of the book, the Cullen family. Comprised of five high-school age kids and their parents, the Cullen family children are stand-offish from rest of the student population, and Bella is advised by her newly minted friends to not even try getting acquainted, with the pale-complexioned, supermodel-esque Cullen children. Bella, of course, immediately notices a Cullen brother by the name of Edward, and sparks fly. But once she meets the mysterious and alluring Edward Cullen, Isabella's life takes a thrilling and terrifying turn. Bella summons all the cool and courage she can simultaneously muster, and is repeatedly snubbed.

Bella is almost killed in an accident in the school parking lot, but is saved by Edward, who seems to stop a car with his bare hands. This makes Bella even more interested in Edward, despite the fact that an old friend named Jacob Black makes Bella suspicious of the fact that the Cullen family might actually be vampires, a fact she confronts with and gets confirmed by Edward. In a moment of either spectacular love or ludicrous insanity, Bella decides she doesn’t care that Edward could kill her as easily as she can breathe, and sticks to her guns on that fact for the rest of the book. Edward, displaying amazing will power and sense of right, keeps trying to push Bella away for her safety but is irresistibly drawn to her as she is to him. Their relationship grows at astounding rates, and all seems well until some wandering, non-friendly vampires come in for a visit and try to make a snack out of Bella. Edward saves her, she ends up in the hospital and despite her undying love, and Edward seems unsettled by the sequence of events and wants to leave her for her protection.

Up until now, Edward has managed to keep his vampire identity a secret in the small community he lives in, but now nobody is safe, especially Isabella, the person Edward holds most dear. The lovers find themselves balanced precariously on the point of a knife -- between desire and danger.

At first, it seems as if the book is just about a stereotypical young girl’s life. Yet if you read deeper into the book, it is very well written to the point that it becomes more than trivial problems. Instead, I ache with Bella and muse over her agonies. In another instance, every inch of my body screams for Bella to run away from the evil, sadistic vampire that stalks her. I became engrossed in the book, only to step back and ask myself, why is this plot so mesmerizing? Its heartbreaking romance and suspenseful twists made it hard for me to put the book down.

          This book is well-suited for people like me who likes a story that focuses on feeling. While there is a general plot to this story, most of it more or less is built on the development of the emotion of each of the characters in the book. It also tells of the epic story of star crossed lovers. It’s interesting because I can clearly see the protagonists’ relationship blossom, as they try to learn about each other and to help each other throughout the novel. While this is mainly a romance novel, there is also some action aspects in it, and the discovery of a new world, one that is thought to be only supernatural.

          Emotionally, this book is a kick. So when I say how great the emotional and romantic portrayals are in this book, that’s me revealing that it cut straight to the hidden romantic in me, and used vampires to drag my action side along. The deep humanity this book shows is not through the reflection of normal humans against vampires, but also but also by the Cullens themselves. Somewhere between Bella’s reckless abandon and Edward’s experienced caution, deep, meaningful love takes place. In the end, love really does conquer all. No matter what you are. It was recognizable almost instantly for me, and words to describe it correctly are rare in the English language. I think it says enough to mention the way Bella and Edward act towards each other speak of mature affection rather than teenaged passion.

         Then there’s Edward’s wise restraint. Bella, for most of the book, practically throws herself at Edward in ways that suggest Edward has the self-control on Ghandi. I get to enjoy Edward's excruciating attempts to control his animal side, just to be able to stand near Bella, while the latter stubbornly resists any natural fear or sense of self-preservation, because, well, he's perfect. He starts popping up everywhere, with his inhuman speed, fascinated by Bella but unable to touch her until he is absolutely positive he can control himself. It is immediately obvious; however, that Edward’s control is not formed out of a desire to avoid detection as a vampire, but out of extreme concern for Bella. That is a level of care and compassion I have seen in very few human characters. Its almost as if, rather than losing his humanity over the near-century of his life, Edward’s humanity has only deepened.

As things progress, this becomes the only book in the world where, die-hard romantic or no, I find myself thinking wildly, "Oh my god...he touched her cheek!!"

In reality, despite how deeply Edward and Bella care for each other, Bella is a pale skinny, damsel-in-distress type who is choosing to hang out with people that nature made to suck human blood. There is always the feeling in the back of my mind that they’re waiting for the other shoe to drop; the first shoe being that Bella’s true love turns out to be a vampire. A vampire attack serves nicely as the other shoe.

On the other side, the connection between Bella and Edward is also a secret for Edward who realizes that he cannot apply his mind reading abilities on his beloved one. It seems as if two worlds are brought together in order to create a love of imaginable dimensions. This is why even though the target readers of the book are at the age of 15-25, Twilight remains a novel which crosses the age barriers and intrigues the souls of both children and adults. Even though the book is often claimed to have a simple style and plain storyline, the world that Stephanie Meyer draws with her pen is so vivid and real that often I see and hear every picture and every sound. The fast pace at which the action happens as well as the new perspective of supernatural powers brought into the mundane life of a normal girl, makes Twilight very entertaining and easy for me to read. On the other hand, the romance between Bella and Edward is intriguing and passionate, but also shows morality.

The book has an intimate way of writing that is provocative, humorous and incredibly addicting for me. From the preface I was immediately pulled in. I stayed up to 5 a.m. reading this book the first night. I was totally sucked into the book, especially the relationship between Edward and Bella. Twilight leaves me feeling satisfied but hungry for more. Twilight claims the idea of passionate love that conquers all adversities.

The ending of “Twilight” serves as both a good resolution, and as a foreshadow of things to come. This book earns top marks from me, because the book grabs my emotions from page one and never lets go until I’ve finished at some ungodly hour of the morning.