Wednesday 24 June 2009

TwiSaga: Breaking Dawn story line

~ Twilight ~ New Moon ~ Eclipse ~

***WARNING: Lots and Lots of Plot Spoilers Ahead***

Breaking Dawn

This book is written in thirds. In the first third, Bella is married to Edward with her father's grudging permission. They honeymoon in privacy on "Isle Esme", off the South American coast, but when they first make love Edward finds his vampire strength is too much for him to adequately control, and he leaves her bruised, with feathers everywhere from the pillows he bit to keep from biting her. [The details of the event are not given in any detail: it begins with Bella's thoughts of shyness for being naked with her new husband, skips over the next bit, and is completed with her waking to find Edward stewing over hurting her, although she feels only a bit stiff and sore. More of a discussion on passion in the Twisaga in another post, probably.] Their honeymoon ends when Bella realises that despite all their assumptions that Edward must be infertile, given his vampire status of "immortality", he has indeed impregnated Bella, and the baby is growing fast within her.

The second section, unlike the rest of the series, is written from Jacob's point of view. Jacob is determined to kill Edward for hurting Bella when he finds out she has returned and is "sick" at the Cullen's house. But when he finds out she is pregnant, he sees her having a torturous time of it carrying a baby that is growing at an astonishing rate and already has her appearing to be in her last trimester. He finds that Edward had wanted the baby aborted to save Bella's life, but Bella is determined to keep it and has enlisted Rosalie's help in protecting her throughout. Jacob tells his wolf pack leader, Sam, of the pregnancy, and Sam decides the monster-baby must be destroyed, but Jacob defects from the pack, followed by Seth and later Leah, and takes the role of guard dog, protecting the Cullen's from attack by the other Quileute werewolves. On Jacob's suggestion Bella is given human blood to drink and this satisfies the growing baby's nutritional needs, but as it continues to grow, it's enormous strength leads to several broken ribs. Bella stumbles and the placenta detaches, leading to an emergency caesarian (Edward apparently must cut into the vampire-strong uterus with his teeth) and with a shocking loss of blood, Bella is doomed to die. At the last moment, with Jacob's agreement that in "saving" Bella's life he will not be in contravention of the Quileute pact, Edward injects his venom directly into Bella's heart and begins the process of her burning conversion to become a vampire.

The third section begins with Bella's immense burning pain as her body is healed but also turned to vampire stone. On waking as a vampire, Bella is astounded by her magnified senses and new grace and beauty. She is also introduced to her new daughter, Renesmee, who continues to grow at an astonishing rate and whom Jacob has imprinted upon. Irina, a Denali vampire, sees Renesmee playing in the distance and assumes she is a forbidden "immortal child" and travels to the Volturi to tell them of the Cullen's secret. With Alice's premonition to warn them, the Cullens seek out other vampires to witness to the Volturi that Renesmee is something other than what she appears (she has a heart that beats, along with the gift of being able to draw pictures in other people's minds at the touch of her hand). When the Volturi do come, it is apparent that they are not seeking justice but an opportunity to acquire the particular gifts of Alice, Edward and Bella. Only the use of Bella's gift of mind-prtection and the fortuitous return of Alice and Jasper with another half-vampire boy, who demonstrates the lack of threat from Renesmee's existence, persuade the Volturi to stand down from their grab for more power. The book closes with Bella and Edward secure in the knowledge that Renesmee will stop growing when she reaches maturity (after about seven years) and they will all be immortal together.

~ Midnight Sun ~

8 comments:

Mrs. Edwards said...

Just to let you know I'm still reading all of these posts, but don't really know what to say about them. I'm looking forward to your analysis.

I really have never read or watched vampire stories, so the whole genre is pretty foreign to me. (Not so with the love of my life, Mr. Edwards, but I'm not sure these vampire stories would appeal to him.)

Judging only from the bare plot, I'm hard-pressed to see the appeal for all the millions of fans. Is it the serial-novel aspect that keeps readers hanging on for what happens next?

Sharon said...

I think part of it is that there is lots that happens - I found it quite hard to condense all the events into a synopsis without making it absolutely bare bones thus: "Bella marries Edward, has a half-vampire baby and almost dies so is changed into a vampire, the Volturi are defeated thanks to her new vampire powers." The action moves swiftly and I think it is well paced; I think part of its appeal comes from the similarity in pacing to an action adventure movie, especially for the IT generation, but of course with the twist of romance.

However, I think the major appeal comes from the characters. Critics have said that Bella is written as a "blank slate": there aren't many details of her appearance, character or thoughts about things other than the events of the novel. For the critics (particularly feminist critics) this is a negative, because this means that Bella is a "weak" character. However, from the point of view of selling books, it means that all the teen girls who are reading can imagine their own details where Bella's are not given, and I think most teen female readers would feel a strong affinity with Bella, particularly with her awkwardness and uncomfortable feelings in social and romantic situations (a typical experience for teens learning their place with their peers). What teen girl hasn't wondered if the boy she is attracted to is interested in her, and felt frustration at not knowing what he is thinking? Other readers end up hating the books for the sake of Bella's "weak" character, but this polarity of responses does indicate the level of strong emotion engendered in most readers.

Likewise, Edward and Jacob are classic characters who fit very easily within the bad-boy-who-is-good-for-me romance story stereotype. More on this one in a complete post, I think.

~ Sharon

Mrs. Edwards said...

I suspected as much about Bella, which makes perfect sense to me. I'm enjoying these posts...
Blessings,
Amy

Sharon said...

This critical response from a reader discusses the reasons for Twilight's popularity concisely:

http://cleolinda.livejournal.com/602881.html.

~ Sharon

Mrs. Edwards said...

It reminds me of Anne's line in the movie Anne of Green Gables (it could be in the book as well, but I don't remember for sure), in which she says something like, "I want a man who could be wicked, but isn't."

Sharon said...

Interesting that you mention that because one of the critical responses that I have read made the exact same connection. From memory, the line in the book is slightly different. I don't think I will be able to find the link, though, sorry. I have found reading critical responses to the books far more fascinating than the books themselves, to be quite honest, and my history links are starting to get ridiculously long.

~ Sharon

Sharon said...

Oh look I found it after all!

http://eugenewoodbury.blogspot.com/2008/12/anne-shirley-explains-twilight.html

~ Sharon

Mrs. Edwards said...

Although I readily admit I devoured the Anne books as a starry-eyed teen for the romance, not the literary excellence, I was surprised that post called Anne of the Island the weakest of the books.

If only I had the time to re-read all the Anne books just now. Now that I'm a wife and mom, I especially enjoy Anne of Ingleside.

But, now suddenly we aren't talking about Twilight anymore! I am looking forward to your critique. Like you, I think the analysis of a book can be more fun that the book sometimes.