Stephenie Meyer - The Twilight Saga Collection

I have never been the kind of girl to follow the crowd. Most fads are uninteresting to me. I loathe unending fashion trends and the constant changes in cliques and popularity. Paying attention to what is 'in' and 'out' of style, whether it be clothes, books, movies or even certain types of actions or people, automatically seems ridiculous to me. I started reading the twilight series well before i knew how explosive it really was, and for that I am extremely grateful. I fell in love with this series for many different reasons and I am proud to be one of the millions of fans.

Many critics have deemed Bella, the main character, as weak and frail. They claim that she is a bad example to the young and old women that are so passionately interested in the series. The same critics complain that Edward, another main character, is creating in the minds of the female readers an irrational expectation form "real men" to be as perfect he was created to be. My purpose in this review is to illustrate the value of the positive impact the Twilight Saga has on its readers.

FAMILY
In the first book of the series, Twilight, Bella Swan is, in fact, insecure and even clumsy. Yet with her weaker qualities at 17 years old she decides to move to Forks, Washington to live with her lonely father. She chose to move for one reason only, to make her mother's life easier and happier, to give her something back. While living in Forks, Bella takes care of her and her father by doing all the cleaning, cooking, shopping and laundry on top of her schoolwork.

ROMANCE
At school Bella sees Edward Cullen for the first time. Edward is a mysterious vampire that is, in essence, perfect. He's sexy, tall, beyond handsome, elegant and intelligent. And to top it off he's an excellent deer hunter, or a "vegetarian" vampire. Despite their differences and physical struggles, Edward and Bella fall deeply in love. Their love is impenetrable, they begin to live for each other, and in the complete sense of the phrase, "they were made for each other."

Cheesy, right? Of course it is. You must be asking yourself, how could someone as perfect as Edward love someone as awkward and feeble as Bella? But that's exactly why this saga is so appealing to it's readers. Edward wasn't blind, in fact, he had excellent vision. But even though he saw Bella's flaws, he still loved her more than anything else. While he was perfect to her she, in return, was perfect to him. As writer and scholar C.S. Lewis stated in his book A Grief Observed "This is one of the miracles of love; it gives a power of seeing through its own enchantments and yet not being disenchanted."

ACTION AND SACRIFICE
Further in the saga, an evil group of vampires comes to seek revenge on the Cullen family and to destroy Bella. Edward, in an attempt to protect his love, takes Bella to a secluded place in the mountains away from the predicted battle zone. The lead vampire, hell bent to kill Bella in revenge of her own deceased lover, follows Edward's scent to their camp. Upon arrival, she is met with a vicious fight. Edward fights this vampire and her assistant in a gruesome scene while Bella is forced to cower and watch as her Edward is put in danger on her behalf.

Remembering a native legend, Bella grabs a sharp rock that had just fallen from the cliff her back was against. Holding the rock to her wrist, Bella imagines the woman in the tale. In the legend, this woman watched as her beloved husband and sons fought an impossible battle against vampires and in a desperate attempt to save their lives, she sacrificed her own. The woman plunged her crude knife into her chest, spilling her blood therefore distracting the vampires, and ultimately saving the lives of her family. Bella pushed the rock deeper against her flesh, horrified by the likely possibility that Edward could be killed. But before she could spill her blood, and due to Edward's invincible strength and speed, he defeats the female vampire by ripping off her head and tearing her cold body in pieces. After which, using his mountain man skills, he creates a fire in the middle of winter and burns the chick.

LOVE
In the fourth and final book of the series, Breaking Dawn, Bella and Edward get married. While on their honeymoon, Bella becomes very unexpectedly pregnant. The fetus, half human and half vampire, is growing at a tremendous speed and is literally sucking the life from Bella in order to strive. Edward rushes Bella home to his father Carlisle, a doctor, in order to remove the fetus, which would result in its death, before it kills her. But Bella refuses to allow them to kill her baby in order to save her life. The rapidly growing baby not only thrived from Bella's life, it was also much stronger than her. The baby left many bruises tattooed across her pale skin and broke several of her feeble bones, yet Bella still wouldn't let anyone harm her child.

The character Bella Swan is definitely insecure, dependent and often clumsy. She is plain and perhaps even needy. But Bella is not weak. Bella's greatest quality is her love.

I believe that society and women in general, create and image of what the female sex should be and how that gender should act. Today it is a common belief that women should have a career, no family, and no man. Society pushes women to believe that utter independence is our ultimate goal and ultimate success. But the Twilight Saga illustrates with the character of Bella Swan that the greatest quality we can have as women is love.

Bella may have had faults but she loved her parents, she loved Edward, and she loved her daughter. She loved so deeply and profoundly that she was willing to sacrifice herself, in many different ways, to protect and care for those loved ones.

Society has fallen away from believing. Believing that there is a God, believing that true love exists, believing that an American dream can be realized, and even believing that something as sacred as marriage can last. Instead they believe that divorce is an answer, that pleasure is more important than God, that pain emanates from relationships and that reality overpowers dreams.

The Twilight Saga instills in women standards. Standards that you deserve true love, that it does exist and that it can last for eternity. It gives you the confidence to expect a good spouse, a man that is perfect for you. Someone to respect you, cherish you, and need you while you, in return, do the same. It inspires the drive to become better as a woman, a spouse, and a mother while giving you the incredible strength to believe and to love.