Twilight

My first impression:

I hadn't seen the film or read the book yet, so I really didn't know what to expect. I heard different things about this book. Some people really loved it and some despised it. So I wasn't sure if I would like it, because as I told you before I'm not much of a reader. The book started a bit slow, with Bella moving to her father's place and going to school in Forks. I still didn't really know what to expect, I thought this wasn't very interesting. So at first I thought I would not like the book at all. But then, when the things got more mysterious like; The moments the Cullens were described as outsiders and the moments they were absent without any reason, made me more curious. I really like vampire stories but because of all the things I already heard about this book, I wasn't sure if this would be a story I would like. But eventually I did. I'm not very romantic myself but I love to read romantic stories. And this is definitely a romantic story. A bit of a cliché but I loved it.  

In Class/Theory:

In Class we talked about Erikson again, in the stage of the adolescent, which is; Identity versus role confusion. Who am I right now and what do I want to be in the future? How do I fit in? Where am I going? These are things young adults struggle with. This is exactly what happens in the book with Bella. She moves to another place where she has to start all over again, new friends, new school and besides that she’s at an age where Identity and role confusion normally is one of the main problems. This differs per person, because not everybody is in the same stage at the same age, but you can tell Bella is.

At this same age idealism, “The divided self” (Unique feelings), Isolation and new emotions are coming up are important. We talked about what this means.  The idealism of other people being better than you are. Unique feeling you only have and nobody else, so others don’t understands you because this is your feeling. Isolation, you want to be alone to protect yourself, because if you are alone nobody will hurt you. And new emotions like love.

We also talked about the theory about the reader as a thinker. Which has 3 elements; Identification, realism and thinking.

Identification

At the age of the young adults, identification is very important for them. They want to relate to other adolescents, like their friends in a sports club or an orchestra. They are searching for their own identity so they question authority, examine their future in terms of their relationships with their parents and peers, which can often lead to feelings of confusion to figure out how they will fit in. (Fisher, 2013)

In the book you see Bella searching for her identity. She doesn’t really know where she wants to fit in and if she wants to fit in or if she will decide to isolate herself from everybody. She is kind of an outsider.

With Identification the plot is subordinate to the unfolding of the character, there’s a complex structure- interrelationships between characters, an intense emotional involvement and the reader and characters can reflect on their own behaviour. If we relate this to the book, you see that all these things come across.

Realism

Is it realistic what you read? And is it realistic to young adults in this case? Characters have to reflect reader’s experiences, it has to have a bit of tragedy and an individual making wrong choices. The world of an adolescent is dark and dangerous, so a good adolescent book bares this in mind. The real world is not ideal, so this has to be the case in the book. In Twilight it is about vampires, which is unrealistic, but Stephenie Meyer wrote it as it could’ve happened in the real world. She used daily problems teenager have to cope with, like the feelings she describes between Bella and Edward.

Thinking

An adolescent is a reader who’s aware of its own thoughts as he/she reads, they think about the deeper meaning of a story.

After we talked about this theory we had to discuss the books and fill in a form, to compare the books. We had to write down who the main characters were, what the nature of the attraction, what problems they face, how they solve them, the role models, what was realistic and what wasn’t. I sat in a group where everybody had read Twilight, so we could only compare our answers.

Controversial? At the end of the class discussion we had to tell whether Twiligt, Cal or Forever are controversial. I will discuss this in the “Age suitability” part,

Age suitability:

If we look at the theory I already mentioned (Erikson’s Identity versus role confusion) I think we can say that this book is suitable for 12 year old children. This depends on what stage they are in, but generally it would be perfect for 12 year olds. All the things young adults struggle with are also mentioned in the book, so children can relate to the characters, which is important for children who are in the ‘Identity versus role confusion’ stage. The book is written very realistic and reflects on a life of a young adult. For example, Bella is feeling very insecure and is somewhat clumsy, which most children around 12 are dealing with. A child around the age of 12 is capable of thinking about the deeper meaning of a story and is aware of his or her own thoughts. So I think 12 is a suitable age based on the theory we discussed in class.

As I said, in our class discussion we talked about the controversial thing about the books we read. Twilight could be controversial because of the vampire and werewolves part. This doesn’t exist and isn’t acceptable for religious people.  Besides that Edward is a hundred years old and Bella is a teenager. And she is changing her whole life for him. Some people even say it is an abusive relationship they have. If you bare this in mind, you could say the books aren’t suitable for 12 year olds. But I think that if they are capable of reflecting on their own behaviour, it shouldn’t be a problem at all.

Fun thing to know:

There even is a site where they explain parents what Twilight is about, to give them the opportunity to choose whether they will allow their children to read the books. (Reelz, 2013)

Bibliografie

Fisher, N. (2013, October 6). Global post. October 6, 2013, from Every day life: http://everydaylife.globalpost.com/stages-development-adolescents-2410.html

Reelz. (2013, October 6). October 6, 2013, from 10 things parents should know about Twilight: http://www.reelz.com/article/754/10-things-parents-should-know-about-twilight/