a feminist male college graduate reads “Twilight”: Chapter Ten-Interrogations

So Edward and Bella are like so totally together now. Yay. I can hardly contain my glee. This chapter finds Edward picking Bella for school, at which the two of them run the gauntlet of gossip and speculation. Edward, as we know, has the ability to read minds, which, I imagine, would be pretty much the fantasy of anyone in high school. He tells Bella that he was able to “hear what every human male in this school was thinking on your first day” (210). Narratively, this sort of cuts any tension that Meyer might construct between Bella and her classmates. Instead of mystery, Edward is able to flat out tell Bella what others are thinking about her, which, of course, gives Bella the advantages of knowing what everyone wants to hear. In tha sense Bella’s social interactions have the potential to becomes little more than a performance.

I talked a bit in a previous post about the forbidden love notion and the symbol of the apple that appears on the front of the book. Well careful readers, that apple comes back on page 207. Bella picks it up and rolls in between her hands just before they begin to talk about their budding relationship. Of course, this symbol works on the level of the forbidden fruit–Edward’s siblings obviously aren’t too pleased with Edward’s taste in women at this point, and Bella’s in love with a freakin’ vampire for chissakes. But that symbol also has freighted with it notions of the fallen woman–as everyone who attended even ten seconds of Sunday schools knows, original sin is tagged onto Eve in Genesis. Eve was the reason for Adam’s–and consequentially the human race’s–fall from grace. Now, whether or not a reader is a Christian or a Mormon or whatever, these symbols are a part of the cultural vocabulary. To add to this weird network of religious reference, Edward refers to himself as being like “a lion” (216). If Edward is the lion, then the obvious counterbalance to that is the lamb, who seems to be embodied in Bella. Edward is able to single-handedly take down a mountain lion, while Bella “can’t walk across a flat, stable surface without finding something to trip over” (212). This puts Bella is the position of someone who intrinsically needs protection. From exactly what we haven’t seen yet, but Edward keeps using cryptic language to allude to this, telling Bella that her number is up, or that he’s working against fate to keep her alive. How these symbols will play out is something yet to be seen, but, given Bella’s general treatment so far, I’m not exactly hopeful. Since the Port Angeles chapter, I’ve noticed Bella shift from a strong independent character to what Edward calls a magnet for trouble. But this trouble is not something she can stand against, so in swoops her supernatural protector who noms large indigenous felines.

Also weirdly, Edward makes a second overt reference to environmental issues. When discussing his family’s hunting he says, “Of course we have to be careful not to impact the environment with injudicious hunting” (215). Seriously? First he warns about burning fossil fuels and now he espouses responsible hunting practices? The hell is this? Why is there Al Gore all over my vampire romance all the sudden?

Bella laments about how plain she is, and Edward reminds her, no babe, you’re totally smokin’ and I love you, and when we go to Seattle, you better tell your dad you’re going with me so that I have “some small incentive to bring you back” (214). If I was Bella, I woulda been out of that cafeteria faster then you could say, “wanna see the inside of my van?”

Ben’s End of Chapter Awards

Best Indirect Description of a Torso: “It was a colossal tribute to his face that it kept my eyes away from his body” (197).

Best Word to Use to Evidence Your Posession of a Thesaurus: “Ostentatious, isn’t it” (199)?

Best Way to Underscore the Fact that Bella is Average While Edward is Smokin’ for the 83rd Time Since the Novel Began: “‘I’m absolutely ordinary–well, except for bad things like all the near-death experiences and being so clumsy that I’m almost disabled. And look at you.’ I waved my hand toward him and all his bewildering perfection” (210, emphasis mine).