Twilight, written by Stephenie Meyer, has become an obsession in our culture for all ages. It has taken our society by storm with its intense love story of a human girl and a mystical vampire. Twilight is a popular book in today’s society that reflects the values and the attitudes of our culture through the characters that could tell students in the future about our society. One value present in Twilight is this idea that love is capable of changing who a person is and sometimes for better and sometimes for worse. So why are people of all ages and genders obsessed with Twilight? What is so appealing to our culture about a human/vampire love story? What are the values in Twilight that reflect today’s world? There is more to Twilight than a love story, there is the universal battle of good versus evil within an individual and also this idea of how love is a natural force, making a person do things in life that they never though they would do, and also binding people to people. Students learn about society and see how the society has developed over the years by studying and analyzing books, movies, and more from different time periods. Twilight is a book from this time period that students can study and analyze now and in the future to what our society today values in life and in their daily lives.
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Twilight is the story about a girl, Bella Swan, who moves to a small town called Forks to live with her dad when her mother gets remarried. The rainy town has no appeal for the independent and quiet Bella until she meets Edward Cullen, a mysterious boy at Forks High School. Though they try desperately to avoid each other, they are drawn inexplicably together by fate. As Bella and Edward continuously grow closer, Bella learns a deadly secret about Edward and his family: They are vampires. The Twilight Saga follows Bella and Edward’s struggle to stay together despite Edward’s natural thirst for Bella and all the dangers that seem to be attracted to Bella. She is known as “a danger magnet” to the Cullens and her own family. Their adventure leads them to constant danger and peril (especially for Bella), but their love for each other is strong enough that it allows them to conquer all the obstacles fate throws their way. They learn that true love is something that really lasts forever.
Twilight was published in 2005 and was a relatively unknown book until 2008 when word got out about the upcoming movie. Fans watched the movie’s suspenseful trailer and rushed to buy and read the book almost instantly. Since 2008, the Twilight phenomenon has exploded and taken over our culture. Between an unknown book and a low-budget film, Twilight has created the biggest franchise since J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter. “Together the three Twilight books have sold more than 5.3 million copies in the U.S., 4 million in the past 12 months alone. They’ve spent a combined 143 weeks on the New York Times best-seller list; when Eclipse was released last August, it bumped the final Harry Potter book out of the top spot on some lists even though it came out only 2 1/2 weeks later.” [See Appendix 1 for article]. And that was only last year before the movie and the 4th book came out. Sales for the series are incredible, Twilight had 3.3 million in print hardcover & paperback, New Moon had 2.6 million in print hardcover & paperback, Eclipse had 1.6 million in print hardcover, and Breaking Dawn had 3.2 million to be printed as of July 11, 2008 [See Appendix 2 for sales]. Twilight has become a national and worldwide fixation, growing every month and reaching fans of all ages.
Twilight is a story that develops many morals and values that are present throughout the Saga. One of the most prominent morals is that love changes who a person is forever. Whether it changes a person for the better or the worse depends on what a person makes with it. In Twilight, Bella and Edward become inseparable and it literally causes Bella pain when Edward leaves Bella in New Moon. Their love has managed to morph both physically, emotionally, and mentally. Edward becomes a happier and more emotional person, while Bella becomes more feminine and embarks on a journey of self-discovery. “‘You can’t see the changes that we see, we who have been with him for so long. Do you think any of us want to look into his eyes for the next hundred years if he loses you? ‘” (Meyer).Their love for each has such passion behind it that they can not stand being apart, it changes them and becomes a physical force in nature, propelling them in life to be together. In our society, true love is valued so high but it so rare to find. Everyone wants it but only a few people find it. One reason our love of Twilight has reached the height of popularity is because it gives the reader a true love story with a bit of the supernatural to spice it up. It is a fantasy set in modern times that has a heroine who is not describe well, intentionally done by Meyer, so the reader can place themselves in Bella’s shoes and have their own adventure. Twilight lets the reader come into the story and go along for the ride; it shows how true love changes who someone is as a person.
Although Twilight is adored by millions upon millions of fans, there’s always some critics right behind those fans. Twilight has been abused by critics who say that Twilight the morals of the books are sketchy and pushy on teens and younger children. One critic says, “The more you examine author Stephenie Meyer’s themes, the more obvious it becomes that her books are a thinly-veiled religious screed against teen sex…Is the Twilight series pushing its own kind of morality along with its love story? I think so- and it is an element that parents and teachers need to be aware of in the books.” [See Appendix 3 for article]. Although this book is against teen sex until marriage, so are many people in the world. Authors write about what they know and create characters, who sometimes share the author’s opinions, it’s what authors do. There are millions of authors out in the world who have their own style of writing and each author incorporates their own version of what they believe or what they think. Twilight does promote abstinence until marriage but it also promotes a person making decisions for themselves. During Eclipse, Bella tries to convince Edward to marry her and do things she wouldn’t normally do because she is stressed about Victoria, an enemy vampire, trying to kill her. Bella believes she doesn’t have enough time to do all the things she wants to do and tries to rush. “Graduation was only a few weeks away, but I wondered if it wasn’t a little foolish to sit around, weak and tasty, waiting for the next disaster. It seemed too dangerous to be human – just begging for trouble. Someone like me shouldn’t be human. Someone with my luck ought to be a little less helpless.” (Meyer) Edward helps Bella and tells her to relax and wait, to wait until she’s completely ready to make any life-altering decisions and life-threatening situations should not push her to rush to make important decisions. The moral is to learn to wait until a person knows that they are ready, to learn how to not let anyone rush a person into something or do something that person is not ready to do. Although Twilight promotes abstinence on the outside, on the inside it is really promoting a person’s choice about anything in life.
Another moral/value in Twilight is our society’s moral views. Most teenagers are not very religious and do not like going to church, synagogue, etc. Edward on the other hand does not think he has a soul and even if he did he feels that being a vampire has made him evil. “But what if I’m not the hero? What if I’m the bad guy?” (Hardwicke). Throughout the series, the reader sees Edward’s struggle to decide if he has a soul or not because of his being a vampire. He is convinced that he is damned to hell on earth for all eternity and will never reach Heaven. Edward has an internal struggle to determine if he is good or evil, that being a vampire whether a ‘vegetarian’ or not can not change that he is ‘evil’. In society today, most adults and even teens think about an afterlife or what will happen when they die. Twilight gives a view of how a vampire, who has tried to be good, thinks about this. The books address Edward’s struggle to decide his religious beliefs which many teens face at some point in their life. In the future, this value of moving into a religious belief (or disbelief for some) as teens today are growing up and learning more about themselves can teach students how some teens struggled with their beliefs. Religion has been around for centuries and is always a controversy in all parts of the world. Our society values religion whether everyone has a belief or not.
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Twilight shows how society could be like. No sex, drama, and inappropriate clothing, etc. This story is more about a teen couple really getting to know each other and learning as much as they can. They restrain themselves (well, Edward mostly) from sex and in Edward’s case, drinking blood. “As Bella gets to know him [Edward], what’s irresistible to her is that he promises not a blood consummation but its very opposite: a refusal to give in to the hunger that tempts him most.” [See Appendix 4 for review]. This story teaches readers not only to wait until marriage to have sex but teaches restraint in a relationship. Most of the intimate moments in the series are their discussions with one another. The reader sees a new side to relationships that our society does not show us most of the time. In our society today, proactive clothing, language, and more are used and sometimes encouraged to promote business. Twilight takes a relationship deeper and shows love not lust between a vampire and a human. It is a book that promotes a different view of society that most books do not print, one where love is spending time together and getting to know each other not jumping ahead and marrying a guy because he says he ‘loves’ a girl. Our society promotes inappropriate materials but as a society we do not necessarily approve of all these promotions and Twilight shows the other side of how a relationship can be. Our society values love and waiting until a person is personally ready to make big decisions and not let anyone pressure that person into a decision.
Another moral present in Twilight is love conquers all. Throughout the series, Bella and Edward struggle to stay together. They have to fight enemy vampire clans, their friends and families, and their desires. Edward’s struggle is one example of the difficulty that they face. Edward is a vampire and thirsts for Bella’s blood like a starved man, “Yes, you are exactly my brand of heroin.” (Meyer).Edward’s love for Bella conquers his natural thirst for her blood. Their love for each other can conquer the natural impulses of their natural forms. Edward as a vampire is drawn to blood, especially Bella’s, and Bella as a human should have a natural instinct to stay away from vampires, but she is drawn closer to him. This love that they have found in each other causes major changes in their own society. In a normal vampire world, vampires and werewolves are enemies, they do not get along no matter what, and it is in their blood. During Twilight, Edward and Jacob, a werewolf, both love Bella in their own ways. Throughout the series, they are fighting with each other but they learn to work together to save Bella and Rensemee. Their love for Bella and her daughter force their natural instincts to be put aside and they work together to achieve Bella and Rensemee’s safety. The love in this book shows how love can conquer all forces and all obstacles thrown their way. In our society, love can conquer all. Love is a force outside our understanding that we value above everything else in our lives. Our love for our families, friends, significant other, and even our pets is so powerful that it is impossible to ignore. We value our capability to love, it is what makes us human.
Twilight will teach future students about our society today through its morals and values that the characters display. Twilight shows how our society values how love can change a person, a person’s religious belief (or disbelief), and our love for finding true love. Future students will need to understand our society to learn how theirs was created, where it came from. By studying and analyzing books, movies, and more from different time periods, students can learn about the society of that time and see how the society has developed over the years to get where it is. For example, students today learn how women and African Americans gained equal rights. This shows why our society is the way it is, people stood up and made a change so now our society has changed. Twilight shows how in our society we value true love and finding true love, in the future the society might change and our values now could change. Students can learn how the society they live in is the way it is and gain a better understanding of their history, society, and the world around them. Twilight is just one example of our society’s values shown through books and movies. Twilight gives a reader a better understanding our society and our quest in life to find true love, no matter how rare we know it is.
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