Note: I am not and will never be a Twi-hard, but I am vested with a Bachelor of English degree, and am highly qualified to teach Language Arts up through high school.

There’s a lot of negativity surrounding the Twilight book series–most people seem to think it is a waste of time, a teenybopper’s read, perhaps, rather than true engrossing or enlightening fiction.  And for most people, Bella Swan is a huge Mary-Sue character (a character created more as the author’s fictional avatar rather than a character in her own right).

I admit, the book series was an interesting and yet not filling read for me, rather like eating cotton candy for dinner.  But I was 24 when I picked up the series, as a way to know what my middle-school students were reading, since almost all my students, male and female, were reading and enjoying the series.  If I had been 14 instead of 24 when I read Twilight, I would be a Twi-hard, and I freely acknowledge that.

Bella = Me at 14

Why would I have been a Twi-hard as a teen?  Because I WAS Bella Swan at 14.  I thought very little of myself; I considered myself to be nobody spectacular, nobody worth anyone else’s time.  I had unrequited crushes galore, a very unhealthy body image, and supremely low self-esteem.  These are all the things that Bella Swan suffers from, as a character.  I would have resonated with her like a plucked guitar string, at 14.

Hermione & Bella: Both Valid Pictures of Humanity

Image from Come Closer…Can You Hear It?

This recent viral image comparing Hermione and Bella brought this whole issue up for me, comparing the two female characters and heavily implying that Bella is a terrible female role model for young girls.  I disagree wholeheartedly.  Hermione depicts the heroic female; Bella depicts the depressive female.  BOTH are human, BOTH are realistic, and BOTH are necessary for young women to see, even if the latter is painful.

Yes, women and men ARE capable of being superhuman enough to push aside sloppy unwanted emotions, just like Hermione.  But we are also capable of wallowing in grief for years and doing highly irrational things, just like Bella.  To glorify the former way of living life and vilify the latter is to tell our children, “You have to be superhuman and smiling and wonderful ALL THE TIME, and do everything JUST RIGHT, or we won’t love you anymore.”  When we trivialize suffering in any form, we trivialize the human lives who are going through it. 

Suffering and its aftermath are natural to human existence, and every person reacts differently to it.  I had so many people tell me to “just think positive” while I was suffering depression this last time around, and their insensitive advice slapped me in the face.  “If it was that darned easy, I would have done it already,” I thought.  Sometimes, it’s just not possible to pull yourself out of the black tar pits of depression.  Sometimes, you just want to end the dim blankness of your life by finding a convenient cliff, as Bella tries to in New Moon. More important than Bella’s suicide attempt is the rush of support she gets afterward, and her willingness to finally accept that support instead of further isolating herself. THAT is what young women of today must see: that real people must support each other and accept support from others, not try to battle out their problems all alone.

Twilight: Not Just About Love, but About Depression (and Surviving It)

No, it’s not healthy to live your life as Bella does in much of the series, especially in New Moon.  Speaking of which, that book has the clearest and most cogent picture of depression I HAVE EVER SEEN IN LITERATURE.  Those pages with just the month names on them?  I’ve LIVED months like that, in the 16 years since I first began suffering depression myself.  I’ve LIVED like that, where nothing seemed to matter except the fact that I had no boyfriend, or the one I loved did not return my love, and time was nothing to me.  Real humans, at every stage and age of life, go through emotional crises just like Bella’s fictional one every day.  I bet either Stephenie Meyer herself or someone close to her has experienced depression–that’s how accurate the description was.

Bella’s story, as self-pitying and crazily emotional as it is, proves that you can rise from feeling like you’re nobody to becoming somebody, simply by discovering your own strengths and working to build on them.  By the end of Breaking Dawn, she has more confidence in her abilities, and her ability to mind-shield saves the lives of those she loves.  She does not start out as heroic as Hermione, but is encouraged to become heroic over the course of the four books.  She conquers depression slowly, painfully, and with a lot of help from family and friends, just like real depression sufferers do.

Bella as a Picture of Realistic Human Insecurity

Bella may not be a strong character emotionally, but she is perfectly human; she is insecurity personified, and haven’t we all been insecure at one time, especially in our teenage years?  To repudiate her character is to repudiate our own human suffering as a valid part of growing up.  We all went through our whiny years, our emo years, perhaps.  To pretend we’ve always been as strong as we are now is to LIE to ourselves.  Bella, by being a weak, unstable, and uncomfortable heroine, reminds us of where we’ve been, or perhaps where we are; she evolves slowly into a character faintly resembling Hermione, whose strength, stability, and confidence reminds us of what we can become.  Most of us, however, are stuck between the two archetypal extremes, and there is no shame in that, either.

We Don’t Need to Get Rid of the Bellas in Our Society

I don’t like much of the negative commentary about the books, mainly because the trash-talking transcends the books and begins railing about the concept of REAL PEOPLE who behave like Bella and how worthless they are to human society (focusing on Twi-hards young and old).  This is dangerous territory, full of logical fallacies, and it threatens to turn us into a modern Sparta, getting rid of the “weak” ones.  As if the “strong” ones are the only humans who deserve to live! 

I’m one of the weak ones, and I freely admit it.  I am not emotionally strong, not #1 at anything, and I’m certainly not unbreakable.  I whine, I retreat into myself when I’m sad, and I suffer out loud.  Sorry if that makes me unworthy to live in the anti-Twilight superhuman world, where everyone’s happy and smiling and wonderful at absolutely everything, and never have pain or suffering of any sort (at least, not any that they would be willing to ADMIT). 

But I do contribute art and help others, because I’m sympathetic and sensitive.  I serve a purpose.  That sensitivity makes me a much more generous and caring person as much as it makes me weaker to pain and emotional upsets. I’m worth something even if I’m not a shining hero.

The Bellas in our society may not be the most uplifting people to be around all the time, but they also balance the strong and silent types.  Bella’s character structure proves that even though humans can feel weak, they are able to change and grow like the organisms they are, and become stronger over time.  Where I come from, it’s called “growing up.”

Conclusion:  Twilight Serves a Purpose

It may not be the best literature ever produced, technically speaking.  Heck, maybe it was written for money more than love.  And for certain, it’s not a super-challenging academic read.  But it serves a purpose: it is a highly-relatable story with a central character who is more human than most critics would ever attempt to acknowledge.  And it is a story of how an everywoman becomes something slightly more, which is along the lines of just about every Disney Princess movie ever made.  We all want to feel that we are bound for something a little greater than what we are now; the Twilight series lets us realize that just as much as the Harry Potter series or any other literature out there. The series gives hope to those who might be ready to jump off a cliff, like Bella.

End Note for Those Who Aren’t Convinced

If you still think the Twilight series is a waste of time, nobody’s forcing the books into your hands.  Let those who enjoy it do so, without judging them; if you feel that you can write better and more fulfilling literature, then do so, and market it so that other people who want to read more enlightening literature may enjoy it. There’s a place for all books in today’s literary world, and a place for all preferences.

And if your kids like the book series and you don’t approve of them reading it, talk to them about why you believe it’s not appropriate. Combat the negative influences that you see in the book by actually interfacing with your children and showing them books to read that you believe to be better for them.  Whining about how “society/literature/TV/music/etc. are going to trash” isn’t solving anything. You must make the choices that you believe are responsible for YOUR life, and through that action start the change you would like to see.