"Don't make me mad..."
There is a book called Twilight written by Stephenie Meyer that was published in 2005. In 2008, a movie was produced based on this book and the following years the sagas came out. In this book, the author writes about a girl named Bella Swan who falls in love with a boy named Edward Cullen who happens to be a vampire. She also has a best friend named Jacob Black. Jacob is a very fun and enthusiastic person who also has a big heart.
In the Twilight saga, New Moon, Edward leaves Bella with a broken heart. Thankfully, her best friend Jacob stays by her side for months and turns her frown upside down. Later in the book, Bella notices that Jacob's skin is very hot, as if he had a fever. Jacob runs home and Bella does not see him for weeks.The thing is, Jacob also has a secret like Edward. He is a werewolf. What happens is that Jacob finds out that when he gets angry his body becomes very hot and he turns into a giant wolf. After having been forced into the wolf pack, his attitude towards Bella changes. He suddenly becomes very aggressive and mean. Along with these changes, he also gets taller and much stronger.
When Jacob is angry, he cannot control himself. He becomes very dangerous as he is turned into a wolf. He could easily kill somebody because the anger inside of him takes over. That part of the story reminds me of Robert Louis Stevenson's book The strange case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Henry Jekyll is unable to control the monster inside of him. Although he tries to suppress it, it comes back and bites him when he least expects it. The same thing goes for Jacob. The minute the anger inside of him builds up, the Id comes out and takes over. That also reminds me of the Hulk who totally loses control as soon as something upsets him. Although, in New Moon there is a part where Jacob's superego acts up and signals him to stay away from Bella in order to keep her safe.
The young werewolf has a hard time dealing with his other side and refuses to accept himself for who he is. That part is like when Dr. Jekyll rejected the bad side of himself which led to the splitting of both sides. The only difference with Jacob Black is that at the end he overcomes his fear of becoming an angry wolf and is finally able to control himself. Later he starts to accept the fact that he is a werewolf and lets Bella in on the secret. That should have been the ending for Dr. Jekyll as well. He should have looked at his other half, Edward Hyde, and told him "You are me, I am you. We are one and I love you." in order to combine both sides. Unfortunately, that is not how the story ended.
The bottom line is that you should love yourself and accept yourself the way you are. No one is perfect in this world. Everyone has a bad side and a good side, but when you love someone, you learn to love both sides. Therefore when you love both good and bad sides, you start to see only the good in them. Although to be able to truly love another, one has to love themselves first. Who has been there for you the most? Who knows all your secrets? There is only one person who knows you as well as you do. Don't neglect that person. Care for yourself like you would care for your mother, sister or your best friend. Be your own best friend.
I like the connection you made between the two stories. However I find that your ideas were a little hard to follow.
ReplyDeleteI'm particularly interested in your comment about Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde where you mention that if Dr.Jekyll accepted his darker side the ending would've have ended much better in favour for Jekyll. I believe that in his own way he was trying to accept his other being. I don't think it's accurate to say that we was rejecting his other side if he purposely made a potion to become his other, darker side. but that's just my opinion on the topic. Good post.
I really liked your point in the last paragraph.I think by listening to everyone's negative comments we do infact turn into monsters, but it can be easily avoided and all we have to do is be ourselves and not care what other people think
ReplyDeleteI agreed with the whole "loving both sides", as both can and do have their appropriate place and times and only by learning to manage these two sides do we learn self-awareness and self-control.
ReplyDeleteOne the other hand, I disagree with you about how Dr. Jekyll's narrative should have ended; I've always loved a good crash-and-burn story ;)
Jeez, Bella must have some seriously bad karma. First a vampire, then a werewolf? No wonder nice guys sometimes feel they can't catch a break. (Hang in there--nice guys wear a whole lot better.)
ReplyDeleteThe Twilight saga sounds like allegory. The pack stands in for peer pressure, the effects of raging emotions get concretized as transformation into something wild, animalistic, uncontrollable and frightening. Happily, (if I understand them correctly) in these stories solutions are found, though some of them are perplexing. (Is it true that the message of the first Twilight book is "if sex is too arousing, just say no"?)
I like the connections you make among the Twilight series, Jekyll and Hyde, and our lives in this world. I hear echoes of Derek Walcott's "Love after Love," too.
Good post. People seem to be responding most strongly to the second part of your entry. Maybe you could have condensed the background to the stories and gotten right into the points you make later in the piece. I find that's where your own perspective comes out more clearly, and it's interesting.