Book Review: Twilight Series Is a Primer for the Mormon Religion and Is Boring.
Posted by Christine Cavalier in Readin', Writing Gems
That’s quite a title, I know. The fact that the Twilight Series is a fantasy series about vampires doesn’t distract from the heavy religiosity throughout the entire 4-book story. The series serves only one purpose: to inculcate teens into a christian morality, preferably Mormon. Let’s not pretend otherwise.
Plus, the repetitive and overly simple writing and transparent plot don’t hold a candle (or a fang) to Harry Potter. Not even close. But that’s plain to anyone who reads the first page. I’ll talk about what must be the appeal at the end of the post. Right now let’s look at the morality messages that pelt you at every turn of the page.
[SPOILER ALERT: Plot is revealed.]
First, we repeatedly see Bella’s and Edward’s “struggle” with staying virgins until they marry. Then they marry at age 18 and 17, respectively, having a child immediately. Plain statements supporting a christian theology, the basic beliefs of the Mormon faith (or, perhaps any conservative christian religion) are clearly outlined in the books. After a while, it becomes clear to the aware reader that the series’ purpose is to spread conservative christian theology and moral beliefs through the teens of the world. The Mormon author of the series, Stephenie Meyer, knew what she was doing.
Unfortunately, the constant hammer-over-the-head schtick gets old quick. Meyer makes no effort toward subtlety, and doesn’t offer any fodder for thought. You don’t have sex until you are married and that’s it. No controversy. No other options. The few days before your honeymoon night you are supposed to go to your parents for a frank talk about sex, or “physical love” as main character Edward called it (in a preachy diatribe about how marital sex is the only sex. It’s one of many religious speeches the characters make throughout the book.).
I’m not taking issue with Meyer’s beliefs. She can believe what she wants. But I would like to have people realize what Meyer’s purpose was. And once you see it, the plot is overly predictable. Knowing that she was a Mormon, and reading the morality in the first two books, I knew a child was coming. I slightly wondered how she would do it, but I know enough about the Mormon religion to see that a child would appear as soon as the honeymoon was over. In the case of Bella, the fetus appeared after only two nights of marital conjugation.
Meyer glazes over the faulty morality of the evil existence of vampires by making Edward and the Cullen family “vegetarians.” Many references are made to “the value of human life” by the characters in defense of their “lifestyle.” The true horror of the murders the various Cullen family members committed before they were “saved” hardly earned a passing mention. The message is clear that if you live a moral life, your “eternal soul” (which comes up in the pre-marital sex conversations between Bella and Ed) will be saved.
Stephenie Meyer, a graduate of the Mormon university Brigham Young, goes so far as to have an anti-science warning statement in the last book, Breaking Dawn:
Aro, page 715: ” ‘How ironic it is that as the humans advance, as their faith in science grows and controls their world, the more free we are from discovery.’ ”
The book would have been way more enjoyable if Meyer, as a responsible author, could get off her moral high horse for a bit and inject some ambivalence about the issues. She would have accomplished her mission to win people over to her moral perspective if she more effectively offered more than one view of an issue, and then ending the parable the way she wanted. Instead, she just hammers it in.
Her characterization suffers in result. Bella and the rest of the characters are annoying and irredeemable for the first three books. So utterly self-centered and controlling that it becomes hard to tolerate. The pacing in the first book, Twilight, is slow and boring. The same conversation happens repeatedly. The barely exciting chase scene doesn’t happen until the end. Most modern advice for authors is to put a chase scene or something exciting up front and peppered throughout the book. Meyer breaks this rule. There’s nothing worth reading in Twilight until the end, you’ve trudged through to get to that point, and the payoff is minimal. The only concession I will grant here is that young readers may not know a difference, because they are more focused on Edward and his dreaminess.
Another big problem I had with the characterization is that Edward’s controlling nature in the first two books is permitted and encouraged. The relationship turns sick with Edward’s control and Bella’s desire to come and go freely, that I fear that young people will think that is how loving relationships are supposed to be. No sound adult comes to reel Edward in. Edward enlists his sister Alice and his entire family to literally hold Bella hostage for days on end. Bella has to sneak away to see her friend Jacob. Jacob tries to win Bella over, but in the process he tries to get Bella to see how horrible and unfair Edward is acting. Bella refuses to see. Even after Bella enters a depression of severe proportions when Edward leaves her, no one around her does anything. They let her rot, hoping that she will get over it. Bella alienates her friends, she treats Jacob like a toy, and she loses her grip on reality. Still, no-one does anything. Bella doesn’t recover until Edward comes back. (I’ve heard strange things about Mormonism, how a female can’t enter Heaven unless their husband calls out the special name the husband made up for her from the other side. It makes me wonder exactly how closely the books follow Mormon doctrine. I’ll bet a lot more closely.)
All 4 books are too long. Half of the repetitive conversations could be cut out. The last book, Breaking Dawn, despite the presence of even more moral diatribes, is the best book of the series. Unfortunately, I can’t recommend that a person pick up the last book only, because, like the other 3 books, it can’t stand on it’s own. The true mark of a great series is that each and every book of the series has solitary merit; it can be read out of its series order and be perfectly enjoyable. Not even Twilight, the first book of the series, can claim that. Meyer’s descriptions don’t begin to paint a world like J.K. Rowling’s Hogwarts. The set designers for the Twilight movie deserve some type of award; they had banal and standard descriptions for inspiration and probably had to pull scenery out of the ether (After reading Twilight, you can imagine how dull and lifeless the movie was. Skip it).
Why, then, is this series so popular? The main readership is females between the ages of 10 and 42. Unlike Harry Potter where all sorts of children and adults of all genders and ages read the books voraciously, The Twilight Series is written purposefully for women. Edward Cullen, the main vampire, is painted as supernaturally handsome, insightful, and dedicated. His controlling nature would be seen by less mature eyes as devotion. He is strong, impenetrable, and he loves Bella more than himself. It’s an impossible standard that women dream about and men resent. The Edward character is the main draw for the series. Many of the suburban mommies I know are obsessed with the books and Edward. Facebook groups exist with titles like “Because of Edward Cullen, human boys have lost their charm.”
The Twilight Series obviously fills a need that many women are feeling lately. Maybe they want to be saved, or fall in love with a billionaire, or be strong and healthy forever. Bella has it all: An adoring and sexy husband, a beautiful daughter, and all the money and the time in the world. Follow the path, ladies. Stay virtuous and Stephenie Meyer promises that you will have it all, too.
UPDATE June 18 2009: Please take a look at “Talking Back to Twilight” in Ms. Magazine. This review does a great job at pointing out how Edward has to control Bella’s sexuality. It further illustrates my point that the books support the idea that salvation of women must always be through a man.
Tags: abusive relationship in twilight, morality and the twilight series, stephenie meyer is a mormon, twilight series is religious, virginity in twilight
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