Stuff

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{\*\generator Msftedit 5.41.15.1515;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\f0\fs20 *The book choice looks like it sucks (and it does) but what I say about it is just amazing and hilarious and true.\par
*If there are any unfinished sentences that randomly stop, ignore them. I got lazy and didn't finish my thought, but I will eventually. xD\par
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Breaking Dawn\par
by Stephenie Meyer\par
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1. How are the characters developing?  Do I dislike certain characters?  Are some characters dynamic?  Are some flat?  Do the characters change over the course of the story?  How are the events or other characters influencing or motivating the characters?\par
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Throughout the entire novel of Breaking Dawn, it appears that not a single character really develops in a positive way. Meyer leads the reader to believe there is character development in that her characters undergo numerous life-changing events, but this is misleading; from her significant characters to her insignificant characters, there is little to no development in this novel.\par
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The protagonist, Bella Swan, is portrayed as an empty shell that lacks personality and deep description, other than that she is clumsy and awkward, two traits that anyone who went through puberty can relate to. This does not change in Breaking Dawn, even after Bella is transformed from human to vampire, her annoying "personality" (if one could call it that) does not change. Bella represents every typical clich\'e9d novel with a protagonist that represents the "girl-next-door". A seemingly "average" girl with nothing remarkably wonderful about her, and yet all of the boys in the story, be they minor or major characters, seem to love her, all of the girls seem to be jealous of her, and she gets good grades and lives happily ever after. This "girl-next-door" is merely a type of character that has no actual personality backing their actions and decisions. Bella is not an individual in her own right. Bella is selfish and she seems to harbor attention from what seems to be countless boys that have romantic feelings for her from the most insignificant of characters (Mike Newton) to major protagonists (Jacob Black), and it also appears that Bella takes advantage of the fact that boys pine after her. She cares little for the feelings of those around her, other than her husband, Edward, as she is often denying and breaking the hearts of the poor boys around her. The biggest "change" Bella undergoes is the transition from human to vampire, and yet little else develops within her other than the fact that she is no longer clinically considered alive. Throughout the novel, Stephenie Meyer portrays her vampires as perfect demigods, and yet Bella remains clumsy and awkward as ever before. Even as Bella becomes a mother, she still remains an immature high school girl, who cannot comprehend the concept of maturity and growth. Bella is also an outlandish masochist; she still marries Edward, despite the fact that the idea itself is not safe, practical, or a good idea. She is plagued by the choice of being with Edward, someone who is just as dangerous for her as running with scissors, for the rest of her life, or Jacob, who is pretty much perfect for her in every way. I have an extreme distaste for Bella Swan's character.\par
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Another entirely static character is Edward Cullen, Bella's husband and another protagonist in the novel. Edward remains what he was in the first three novels: creepy, masochistic and abusive. Edward, like Bella, is selfish and cares little for the feelings of those around him, other than Bella's. Edward is portrayed as a hopeless old-fashioned romantic and masochistically asks Jacob to kill him should Bella's heart ever stop beating. Edward is fully aware of the entrancement he has put Bella under and he manipulates the fact that she is irrevocably and hopelessly in love with him. He manipulates Bella into marrying him. He threatens her by saying, "I won't have sex with you until we are married." As sweet and wonderful as that is amongst all of the current teen sex and pregnancies, whether they are married or not does not change the fact that Bella and Edward have decades of years between their age difference, despite the fact that Edward looks to be eighteen. A few years is one thing, but when age differences in a relationship span into the decades, it is more than creepy to watch. Edward also threatens suicide when Bella does one foolish thing that could have killed her. Regardless of how in love a pair is, one party should never even think about suicide if the other one dies, or is close to it. Edward is jealous and domineering, and he disallows Bella from seeing Jacob, her best friend, in numerous ways, two of which being that he removes the engine from her car and has Alice "kidnap" her and hang out with her so that Bella could not spend time with Jacob. Although it's obvious that Bella and Edward's relationship cannot be described as the textbook definition of "normal", Edward's personality and characteristics show a plethora of signs leading to an emotionally abusive relationship. Edward is another character I have a strong dislike for.\par
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One character that is easy to have quite a lot of sympathy and love for is poor Jacob Black. Jacob is the third and final protagonist in the novel. Jacob grows up an unbelievable amount in Breaking Dawn, and it is eminent that he is the character that develops and matures most in the novel. In Breaking Dawn, Jacob makes many difficult and painful decisions that prove to the reader and other characters in the story that he develops and grows from a boy into a mature adult. Jacob finally gives up the unrealistic dream of Bella ever loving him the way he loves her and he realizes that he can still love her, but instead he loves her as a close, best friend, almost as if she was family. This is the readers' first sign that Jacob has grown considerably since the beginning of the series. Jacob also leaves his wolf pack, an unspeakable taboo to the other members of the pack, in order to keep Bella alive for as long as he can. Turning his back on his "brothers" and "sister" in order to save his best friend is a selfless act of Jacob to commit. The most painful decision Jacob makes is when he allows Edward to change Bella into a vampire against his better judgment, even if it breaks his heart doing so. Jacob is compassionate, caring and protective, but he is never obsessive or abusive not only to Bella, but to his other peers around him. Jacob selflessly devotes himself to those he loves regardless of the situation he is put into.\par
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2. Are there recurring themes, ideas, images, and symbols?  Do I think they are important to the characters and / or plot?\par
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The main theme of Breaking Dawn was very different from Stephenie Meyer's past novels. The first three novels in the Twilight saga bore themes of love, sacrifice, and choice, along with the consequences that come with choices made, while Breaking Dawn's main theme is the fight for true love. Each character fights valiantly for what they love most. Bella fights for her life to keep herself alive long enough to birth her child, and Edward fights against all vampire "laws" and norms to keep his wife and child alive, while Jacob fights against his wolf pack to keep Bella alive at whatever cost. At the end of the novel, each of the characters, significant and insignificant come together to fight against the Volturi to keep baby Renesmee (an amalgamation of Renee and Esme, pronounced Ruh-nez-may) alive, as well. This theme is important to the novel and characters because each significant character and even many insignificant within the novel fights for someone they love or their true love. Each of Stephenie Meyer's novels attain themes of finding true love, losing true love, and choosing true love, and she concludes her saga with Breaking Dawn's theme of fighting for true love. \par
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There are few symbols throughout the entire novel, however, the most prominent and important symbol is not on the pages of the book, but on the book's cover. The cover bears a white chess piece, a queen, large and prominent while a small red pawn is off in the distance. The fact that chess pieces are used implies that there is a struggle, or need for strategy. The red pawn represents Bella as a human, weak and warm, with blood in her veins as opposed to venom, while the white chess piece represents her as a vampire, a strong, cold, and powerful snow white queen. The cover itself indicates the transition from human to vampire which is crucially important to the characters and novel, considering Bella's change is the basis of the entire story.\par
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Within the actual pages, there is one main recurring symbol and image found within Bella's thoughts, and that is children. Bella often dreams of a beautiful unknown child, whose life is often threatened and in danger by her enemies, the Volturi coven. Bella wakes up sweating and paranoid, and she realizes that she loves this unknown newborn. Her dreams then shift to include her protecting the baby. The reader realizes that this symbol is critically important, because it indicates that Bella is pregnant with Edward's child, which happens to be one of the biggest and most influential events within the novel. \par
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3. Who is the narrator of the book? From what point of view is the story told? Does this type of narration help or hurt the book? Would a different narrator or different narration improve the book?\par
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The first part of the novel is told through Bella's eyes, and that is a familiar path for the reader to travel, as the first three novels in the saga are also told by Bella. However, Meyer throws an unfamiliar curve ball in the story by switching perspectives. Meyer begins to write from Jacob's perspective shortly after Bella falls pregnant, which is intriguing, as the reader hears of Jacob's pain and triumph, but never truly sees it for themselves. Jacob's description of what went on around him brought a new light to the events that occurred in the novel. \par
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Jacob's narration is very different and refreshing from Bella's point of view. Although the novel is being written by the same person, Jacob's point of view is so drastically different from Bella's that it almost seems as if someone else is writing as Jacob, and not Meyer herself. Jacob brings a new light and a humorous way of looking at an unfortunate situation to the novel. His description of the life and surroundings that he engulfs himself in \par
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Although Bella Swan is the main focal point of the novel, her point of view more often than not becomes annoying, and there are many other points of view that are just as vital to the novel as Bella's.\par
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I believe that Jacob's narration of his brief portion of the novel does not hinder the story in any way. In fact, it helps create a diversion away from Bella's melodramatic point of view.\par
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Jacob is upbeat and very positive, despite the position he has been put in by the other protagonists in the novel. Although he suspects Bella is going to die if she gives birth to this taboo child, he does not dwell on it; he makes the most of his days with his best friend and does not cry and whine about it, as opposed to Bella's frequent whiny trades about how sad and hard her life is. Jacob's point of view is a refreshing distraction from Bella.\par
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4. Evaluate the writing style of the author.  What are the sentences, word choice, descriptions like?  Does the style help the story line?  Could the style be improved? How?\par
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While many critical readers would classify Stephenie Meyer as a wonderful writer, my personal opinion of Meyer's writing style does not agree with the aforementioned statement. \par
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Stephenie Meyer's writing style is not entirely awful, per say, it is just underdeveloped. Meyer is repetitive in her descriptions, sentences and word choice. She masks her particular writing style by writing each of her novels in first-person perspective, which makes her style of writing easier to accept as it is disguised as the narrator of the novel's thoughts.\par
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Meyer has a very colorful word choice. Although she uses many "big words", they are not difficult to understand for even the most basic of readers. However, usage of "big words" does not make someone a great writer; Meyer describes Edward as beautiful a few hundred times, and no, I am not exaggerating. Meyer's descriptions of the vampires is nauseating. Within the first few chapters, the reader fully understands that Edward is beautiful, and further description is unnecessary. \par
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The reader begins to discover that they know more about how pretty Edward is and how warm Jacob is, and less about the events that unfold around her god-like characters.\par
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Good writers use as few words as possible to describe something as vivid as can be, and Stephenie Meyer's excessive descriptions and repetition takes away from the plot and events occurring in the novel. Instead, Meyer should have focused more on the development of her characters and her plot and events rather than her character's physical descriptions. \par
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5. What are the conflicts in the book?  Why are these conflicts developing? Are these conflicts internal (within the characters) or external (from outside sources)?\par
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The conflicts within the novel are perceived to be fairly more complex than what they seem. Meyer also included too many conflicts within the story, and that makes it hard to decipher what the main conflict of the novel is.\par
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A good portion of the novel is spent watching Bella's health deteriorate as she houses the hybrid spawn within her uterus. Per usual, Bella is every character's main focus, whether they are one of the vampires, doing all they can to protect her and keep her alive, or one of the wolves, planning to kill her and protect themselves from Bella and Edward's child, a potential threat to their kind. For the time being, this is the novel's main conflict. \par
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This conflict could be seen as both internal and external. The conflict is internal within Bella, and also watching Bella die is an internal conflict within Edward and Jacob, but to all of the other characters, it is external, as the problem does not lie within them, but within Bella.\par
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However, after Bella's miracle birth and Renesmee is born, another conflict lies just around the corner. The Volturi, a clan of vampire "royalty" who enforce and protect all ancient vampire laws and rules, believe Renesmee is a threat to their existence, and wish to eliminate her. Now, vampires and werewolves alike are doing all they can to save Renesmee and prove to the Volturi that Renesmee is nothing more than a child whom they all love and adore.\par
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This, too, is an internal conflict with all of the characters, whether they are aiming to destroy Renesmee or protect her. It is an especially difficult conflict for Bella and Edward, as Renesmee is their child and the love of their existence, and it is also difficult for Jacob as he "imprinted" upon her. All of the other characters aiming to protect "Nessie" obviously love her very much. However, the Volturi sees Renesmee as nothing more than an abomination and an anomaly to the vampire community and race. \par
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