Not so Good Literature Essay

Almost half of the population of young people have read and have heard about Stephenie Meyer’s book â€Å"Twilight,† a story about Bella Swan, an average girl borne of a broken marriage and who fell in love with a vampire, Edward Cullen. The book enjoyed much hype among young school girls and some boys as well, especially those in high school. It has provided young hearts and minds with ideals of fairytale love stories and superficial view of love and sacrifice. Twilight has received much popularity, but the question of whether it is a good piece of literature or not has not been given much attention amidst all this hype. Well, let me give you the answer for this: the Twilight books are bad literature, or to fulfill the requirement of the essay, they are not good for literary study. By literature, we mean, â€Å"the class of writings distinguished for beauty of style or expression, as poetry, essays, or history, in distinction from scientific treatises and works which contain positive knowledge; belles-lettres† (Brainymedia. com). Thus, bad literature means not passing the standards of literature from its definition which provides mentions it as â€Å"a class of writings distinguished for its beauty of style or expression† (Brainymedia. com). This paper would justify why Twilight is not good literature on the level of its form: the plot, style, characters, and content: the morals and lessons in life that it can give us. Good literature presents to the readers a complex and realistic plot, a certain literary style employing good use of figurative language and imagery and non-typical original characters. These elements define literary standards which distinguish literature from other forms of written works that claim themselves to be Literature. It adds to the enjoyment of reading and upliftment of the human soul. A good book must then enlighten us with lessons that are useful for us to grow in all aspects, with characters that are positive for us all to emulate. The oldest literary critics have told us to learn how to â€Å"teach and delight† (Plato). Literature is not only there to entertain but also to enlighten human minds about the workings of this life. Books that pass up these criteria can also be shelved with the likes of Charles Dickens, Khalil Gibran, Anne Rice, C. S. Lewis, JRR Tolkien, and Pablo Neruda, to name a few (Pearl). Twilight Does not do Away with the Form Let me go over the form of the novel. That novel did not do much when it comes to plot. It is too obvious and simple: a girl meets a guy. Both belong to different worlds, and both learn to accept each other and come up with sort of a stereotyped â€Å"love against all odds† kind of a relationship. There is nothing new in this kind of story. Next, the literary style used by the author can pass up for an amateur writer’s story book. About three things I was absolutely positive: First, Edward was a vampire; Second, there was a part of him — and I didn’t know how dominant that part might be — that thirsted for my blood; And third, I was unconditionally and irrevocably in love with him. (Meyer qtd. in Goodreads Inc. ) This is a quote from Bella’s narration of Twilight. This would sound more of a giggling girl’s journal entry than that of a respected literary disciple. It is too explicit and superfluous. There are other ways to depict these thoughts. It could be by using images or situations and the like. Another alarming fact here is that Meyer had the inclination to distort archetypes in a not so refined manner. Let us take Edward Cullen as an example. He took off the typical human blood-hungry image of a vampire. It could be credited as a good idea. However, the way Meyer has transformed him into a teenybopper boy-next-door type of character is definitely out of the question. Moreover, it is somehow impossible that an inhuman character like himself can go through the process of falling in love without much justification or establishment that yes, a vampire can also love a human being. In Yahoo answers, one of the members said that â€Å"Edward just tells Bella love lines and [stares] at her, blah. † Twilight Possess Content that Does Not Hit Off to Belong to the Average Thinking Person What lesson can we learn from Twilight? Twilight raucously presents us with the concept that infatuation mistaken for love should be the center of our universe. Bella has met Edward for only quite a time, and they cannot just say that they would want to live with each other forever. It seemed that the love story has been sped up to have itself called a real love story. Bella cannot just walk up to Edward and say that she loves him given the fact that they only had little to no interaction at all when Bella arrived at Forks. What can we learn from Bella? She became a stereotyped damsel in distress who would need to depend upon Edward with her life. I am appalled at how Bella reacts especially on the thought that she will be separated from Edward. Even a Twilight fan made mention of how she did not like this portrayal of Bella as a damsel in distress, and that Bella’s character is also a bad influence among young women (Lichens). It is just a stereotyped fairytale love story. There is nothing much that we can learn from it in both love and life. Khalil Gibran speaks much about love and relationships as thus: But let there be spaces in your togetherness, And let the winds of the heavens dance between you. Love one another but make not a bond of love: Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls. Fill each other’s cup but drink not from one cup. Give your hearts, but not into each other’s keeping. For only the hand of Life can contain your hearts. And stand together, yet not too near together: For the pillars of the temple stand apart, And the oak tree and the cypress grow not in each other’s shadow. (Gibran) Love is standing strong together and not being together all the time. It is a concept too far away from what Bella Swan and Edward Cullen shared with each other. The book basically entertains with a limited readership of first-time book readers. Not everyone can take these words with ease. The book was able to deceive not a few fans but a large multitude. You can actually locate not a few but many quotes from the novel which you think might disprove my claim that the book lacks good use of figurative language, one of which is indicated right here. Nevertheless, the timeliness or relevance of these quotes was not well-established, and aside from being cliche, they seemed to have been inserted to untimely situations in the novel, and they do not seem so natural anymore. Take this quote for example: â€Å"When life offers you a dream so far beyond any of your expectations, is it not reasonable to grieve when it comes to an end? † (Meyer qtd. in Goodreads Inc. ); or this: â€Å"I’ll be back so soon you won’t have time to miss me. Look after my heart – I’ve left it with you† (Meyer qtd. in Goodreads Inc. ). One may also claim that Twilight teaches us good lessons such as being selfless and being willing to sacrifice for love. Let us throw this question back: are the sacrifices that they have made necessary? We cannot expect that the public possesses considerable amount of literariness. Even people present in literary circles hail it as the very best. First-time readers might appreciate it, but there is a strong need to reeducate and process them that there are far more useful books than Twilight. There are books that can follow literary standards and are more substantial. Let us just see how long this book can withstand the test of time and the criticisms of people in the mainstream. Works Cited BrainyMedia. com. â€Å"Definition of Literature. † BrainyQuote. com. 2009. 1 April 2009 . Gibran, Khalil. â€Å"Chapter 3: Marriage. † The Prophet. n. d. Cypress Online: The Psychic Digest. 1 April 2009 . Goodreads Inc. â€Å"Quotes by Stephenie Meyer. † Good Reads. 2009. 1 April 2009 . Lichens, S. â€Å"A Unique Book in the Trilogy — In All A Mix Between [Vastly] Disappointing and [Tragically] Romantic. † Rev. of Eclipse, by Stephenie Meyer. Amazon. com. 13 August 2007. 1 April 2009 . Plato. The Republic. Trans. Benjamin Jowett. South Australia: University of Adelaide, 2005. 1 April 2009 . Pearl, Nancy. â€Å"Book Lust. † USA: Sasquatch Books, 2003.