~Its September the 4th, 2008. You are walking down the street, approaching your local bookstore to acquire perhaps more bookmarks or a new pen. To your dismay, two blocks away from you destination you see a massive line stretching all the way down the street. As you continue onward you notice that all the members of the line are females, from young teens to middle aged women. After a few moments, you notice the excessive amount of twilight-orientated apparel and such, and then as if in answer to your question, you see a large banner suspended from the upper levels reading; “BREAKING DAWN RELEASE 9/4/08”. All the world makes sense now.~



The twilight saga has become a widespread obsession in a frighteningly short amount of time. Excessively erratic fans across the world have crammed book stores for the most recent installment in the series. And most recently they have gone literally insane over the movie. I predict even greater reaction to the newest movie coming in November. The series of novels has it's pros and cons, but mostly it has grown into a deep negative influence, by distorting teen girls vision of love in ways like; Creating divine characters, making it look like rules can be broken for love, and purely defiling the name of love.

Edward Cullen. A perfect, noble, and ‘godlike’ being. Has become an extreme focus of teen girl obsession in recent years. Almost every girl who has dared to open a copy of twilight, has instantly been sucked into the world of divine men who are locked in a state of permanence. He and his ‘family’ are of a predatory race, given the name of vampires. This is a very enticing setup, as they are a group of ‘vegetarian’ vampires, you can see scattered across the media and you-tube the horrifying obsession this has grown into. As I know, there was truly no vile intent behind the creation of this novel. It really has to do more with the affect of her fantasies. These ‘perfect’ beings, she has created, they cloud the minds of teen girls. A deep effect that this is taking, is raising the expectation's of these girls to impossible heights. They may not know it but, many girls will be searching for that ‘Edward’. As I am a teen girl as well, I know that we want to feel important and necessary to a man. At one point I did enjoy this book. It is very enchanting in simply how she writes it. Really it shows it in such a way that it must be right and perfect. But, Edward in particular his level of affection is ridiculous and should be detested. For it could and normally did lead to violent outcomes on himself and his unfortunate partner Bella. One examples of his ‘divinity’ is that he could not live without her to the point that he would kill himself, when (and if at this point) she died, he would follow suit. That is not what we want. Furthermore, It seems that from the text of these books that love truly does conquer all. Right? No Obstacle should stand in the way of our own personal fulfillment, nothing else matters. But, let us look deeper into that. Really, is love all that matters?

Love is a very common subject of books. Not only today but throughout history. Many of these portray love as a final destination, a final goal. A fulfillment of the human heart. If Love is so great then why do we see so many divorces and marital horror these days? In the twilight saga, all that we see of love is obsession, devotion, and passion. It irritatingly highlights the significance of physical appearance, as these 'beings' are extremely beautiful. It only heavies the burden of physical appearance on teen girls. But, there is a flicker of hope! Edward doesn't seem to care that Bella is ‘ugly’. But, her blood smells really tasty to him! That's not totally creepy and revolting apparently. They don't seem to find it slightly disturbing that the only reason he was attracted to her is because he wants to eat her? This love affair can easily be seen as unhealthy and nearly lawless in its own sense. Of course they are in love, all that matters is that they can be together. Its not hard to see what drew her to him. He was utterly omnipresent, seemingly. He would not and could not leave her. Thats all that she wanted. But only after the little rut in book two was the promise fulfilled. Utter dictation of her existence.

Lastly, as I touched on earlier. This novel to me simply shows a side of love that is horrifyingly ghastly. We as teenage girls want a lover to protect us and love us for who we are. I suppose that's why many girls adore this series is because Edward breaks all the rules to be with Bella and protect her. These 'beings' of this exiled race, are beasts that feed upon human blood. Not only that, but apparently they live for sex with a chosen partner. It seems divine and sweet but, when that's all you live for it's rather disturbing. This modern society has made love out to be merely a pleasure rig, making morals seem inconsequential. I only see more of the same thing within these pages. Edward seemed to have simply sauntered into her life and gave her what she had always wanted. Is this love? Complete and utter domination of your life? Captivity of your body and emotions? Brutal and desperate desire? This seems more as utter blackening of this beloved idea. It lowers it to the point of simple instinct. For these vampires are more animal than human. Selfish and greedy.

In conclusion. As I have shown. These novels are nothing more than extra baggage on the minds and hearts of the young woman. It only adds to the ravaging flames of the media that burns and chars all morals and teachings from our parents. This has been done by; Creating divine characters. Making it look like rules can be broken for love, and defiling the name of love. I have plainly proven to you the bad effect that the twilight saga has had upon teen girls’ vision of love. It is really nothing more than a wave of bad images that flood our lives in this new age. I only wish that there was more I could do to make this side more known and accepted. But for now let eyes be opened.