Tooth and Nail

There are millions of cultures and sub cultures all around the world. Some are more popular than others, some are unknown to those not involved. Some mistake culture as being a factor of religious beliefs, however culture is something quite different. For instance, in Stephanie Meyers, Eclipse, there are 3 prominent cultures present in the small town of Forks,and these cultures are prone to clashing. First are the Vampires. The Vampires that reside in Forks are friendly, ununlike some of their more violent counterparts, and have made a life long oath not to drink the blood of humans. Secondly come the Werewolves, the werewolf clan lives right outside of Forks on an Indian Reservation called La Push. It is the werewolves inept responsibility from birth to protect humans from the Vampires, so therefore, even amidst the fact that the Forks Vampires are vegetarians, the werewolves aren't to kindly towards their paler neighbors. Humans, such as Bella Swan, fall right in the middle. Most humans, however, are blatantly unaware of the fact that either Vampires or Werewolves exist at all, not to mention that they might be living next door to one. Bella Swan the love interest of one vampire, Edward Cullen, and best friend of werewolf, Jacob Black, has quite the predicament on her hands. Clashing cultures never serve well in close proximity to one another.

Changing Times

There has been a lot of recent change in Forks, the small town setting for the Twilight novels. First of all there has been a change in Edward Cullen's attitude. He has always been protective of Bella, his one true love, but lately he's been a little over protective. He is so adamant on the idea that she is not to talk or make contact with her former best friend Jacob Black, a were wolf, that he disables her car in the middle of the night so she can't drive to Jacob's house. Edward, in my view, has gone from loving to kind of creepy. He shouldn't have control over every aspect of Bella's life. another character change that has recently occurred in the novel is Charlie's attitude towards Bella and Edward. Charlie despises Edward for the hardship he put Bella through when he left, but in the past few chapters Charlie has become more and more outwardly accepting of Edward, although no one knows if his polite behavior is only to please Bella. Charlie even allows, however reluctantly, Edward to accompany Bella on a trip to Florida to visit her Mother. many characters in Twilight have been changing, for the good or for the bad, no one can be sure.

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Hoping for Eternity

Last night, I read the next couple of chapters in Stephanie Meyers Eclipse, the third installment of the Twilight series. In the reading, I noticed a reoccurring theme of hope to be present throughout the novel thus far. One ongoing example of hope within Twilight is Bella's continuing hopefulness that she will one day be turned into a vampire so she will be able to live with her lover, Edward Cullen, for eternity. Bella begs and pleads with Edward to allow her to make the painful transformation but Edward refuses. He loves Bella so much that, indifferent to her wishes, he cannot bear the thought of letting her become a monster like himself. Although, in the past couple chapters a ray of reality appeared at the end of Bella's tunnel of hope. The Cullen family put the matter of transforming Bella to a vote and it came out in her favor. Edward was furious but, i believe, a little relieved with the thought that he would never have to lose Bella to death. This text shows that if you pursue something with enough hope and determination, you will mostly always be successful. Without Bella's consistency she would have never overcome Edward's opinion.

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Crossing Beliefs

Coincidentally, as I was reading Eclipse, the third book in the acclaimed Twilight series, last night I came across a passage about the difference in vampire and human beliefs about the afterlife. Edward, the vampire vantage point, expressed his beliefs that vampires do not go the the human heaven, or hell. Instead, he believes vampires are sent into another realm, like a state of non being, because he believes their soul is already lost in the process of vampire-fication. Bella, partly because she cannot stand the thought of being without him, believes that they must end up in the same place after they die. Vampires are, however, immortal and cannot die unless they are literally torn apart and burned, hence their supposed soullessness. Edward looks down on his own kind so much that he thinks of them as a kind of monster and cannot imagine that he would join the humans in the afterlife, since his kind hunt them in this life. The twilight series adequetly illustrates a profound difference in spiritual beliefs in the afterlife and present life.

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Bringing Home the Bacon

I've recently read a very interesting article called A Breadwinner Rethinks Gender Roles, by  M.P. DUNLEAVEY. This article was primarily about a women's thoughts on the concept of gender roles in marriage. In this brief editorial, a woman expresses her first feelings of happiness followed by feelings of uncertainty when she discovers tat she is pregnant and that her husband will have to quit his job and remain at home with the baby, while she is out earning the real money to support the family. The author of this article first states that her views on marriage are based solely on the idea on equality, although later she confesses that she felt uncomfortable being the prime monetary support in the family. She states that men in today's society are brought up with a sense of esteem and responsibility that women are not.  Although men are traditionally thought to be the breadwinners of the family, a recent survey shows that about a third of wives in today's society earn more money than their husbands, and about 43% of overall household income was earned by women.

A Breadwinner Rethinks Gender Role

Vampire Culture

In Stephine Meyer's Twilight series, the main character, Bella Swan, is exposed to a completely different culture from her own. The culture is that of the Cullen's, a family of vampires. In these novels there are vampires all over the world, and all of these vampires have a culture completely different from everyone else. The vampire people do not live together in clans they travel in pairs of ones and twos mostly because they have a kind of animalesque quality about them which keeps them from living civilized lives, and instead living as hunters. When Bella is exposed and drawn into this alien vampire sultures she is also putting her life at risk. The vampires, for the most part, are not in control of their senses as human beings, they are attracted to the scent of blood and follow it like a predetor to its prey. They rarely contemplate the outsome of their actions and live by impulse. The Cullen family is the one exeption to these culture guidelines. They live as civilized as possible and refrain from eating humans as their migrating counterparts do. Carlisle, the father of the family is even a doctor, which forces him to be exposed to human blood for long periods of time. The Cullens, and the vampire culture show us that for culture, race or grouping there are some exeptions.

The Trouble with Vampires...

In the city of Forks, where the unlikely romance depicted in Stephanie Meyers Twilight series, takes place, there is no shortage of trouble. To start off with, Bella Swan, an ordinary highschool girl from Arizona is madly in love with a deadly, dangerous, and moody vampire named Edward Cullen, not to mention he's crazy for her too. Secondly, Bella's best friend, Jacob Black, was morphed into a werewolf during the second book, and therefore became a sworn enemy and hunter of Edward and any other vampires. I have just begun to read the third installment of the novels, Eclipse, where the continuing story line starts right were it left off. With pure and interuppted struggle. This time around, Bella is struggling to overcome her dad's harsh grounding rules, which include being away from her beloved Edward during the afternoons. Howver, like any other troubles the couple faces, they seem to easily overcome it. Edward just sneaks up through Bella's window every night and puts to use his keen (almost batlike!) abilities to detect Charlie's movements and thoughts. Bella and Edward's addiction to one another, however romantic, will only lead to more struggle and strife in my opinion. I believe it will cause Bella to unknowingly cut herself off from the rest of the world, which is a dangerous place to be when your in a relationship with someone who could eat you.

Citation of Eclipse:

Meyer, Stephanie. Eclipse. New York:
Little, Brown and Company, 2007.

Stormy Weather

In the next few chapters of the book Im currently reading called New Moon by Stephanie Meyer, Bella encounters a natural disaster in the form of a storm. Bella decides to go cliff driving for the thrill of it, and partly to hear her beloved Edwards voice tell her not to jump. She plunges into the water and is soon greeted by stormy seas and dangerous waves. She struggles to survive in the tumultuous waters for several minutes and is then dragged under water. Water fills her lungs and she is thought to be dead. This intense part of the book shows that any natural disaster can turn a fun and safe activity into a deadly disaster. Bella was unfortunately the victim in this natural disaster and was almost killed because of it. Luckily she was saved by her best friend, and wearwolf, Jacob Black. Without Jacob's help, Bella would have been a victem of the storm.

Citation of New Moon:

Meyer, Stephanie. New Moon. New York:
Little, Brown and Company, 2005.