Outside Reading #1

The main characters in, "Twilight" by Stephenie Meyer are Bella, Edward, Alice, and James. Bella is a 17-year-old girl who moves to Forks, Washington to escape her mother's second marriage to live with her father, Charlie. At first she hates living in Forks, but eventually she meets Edward. The two fall in love, but there's a problem, Edward is a vampire and it's very hard for him to resist the scent of her blood. But because he loves her so much, he restrains himself and the couple learns to be careful. Alice is Edward's "sister" in his family of vampires which is more like a clan. The two arn't blood related they just live together. Alice accepts Bella before the rest of her family does which creates a growing friendship between the two. When Edward takes Bella to meet his family they decide to play baseball and the noise attracts three stranger vampires, one of which is James, a ruthless tracker who takes pleasure out of a good hunt which ends in his drinking human blood. James decides to track Bella and Edward, Alice, and the rest of his family have to figure out how to keep Bella safe until they find and inevitably kill James. Bella is motivated by Edward, Edward by Bella, Alice by her family and friends, and James by blood.
One major conflict I mentioned above is the struggle for Edward not to kill his love Bella. He explains to Bella how hard it was for him to resist her scent the first day he saw her, "The fragrance coming off your skin...I though it would make me deranged that first day," (Meyer 270). Edward had to decide to be with Bella and resist, or leave her and forever live wanting her. "Bella, I couldn't live with myself if I ever hurt you...You are the most important thing to me now," (Meyer 273). Edward learns that he can resist his thirst which is undoubtubly extremely powerful, but his love for Bella is even more so.

What types of things does Richard "hunger" for?

In my opinion, Richard hungers for knowledge, companionship, and food. There are definitly both positive and negative effects of his hungers. For example, when Richard yearned to hear about what the schoolteacher, Ella, was reading. He begged and begged and she finally gave in and told him the story of, "Bluebeard and His Seven Wives." Later that night Richard insulted his grandmother with words he didn't understand, and since Granny already disapproved of Ella filling his head with adventurous tales, she assumed he had learned the words from Ella through her biased attitude toward the poor girl. So Richard's hunger for knowledge back-fired and had a negative effect. Furthermore, when Richard joined a gang of boys and they began fighting with the white boys. One day Richard gets a deep cut from a broken bottle that was thrown at him. The wound was so bad he needed stitches, which is a negative effect of his hunger for companionship. Finally, just being hungry (for food) puts Richard in a bad mood and makes him miserable which is a negative effect in itself.
Although there are many negative effects of Richard's hungers, there are also several positive ones. For example, Richard's hunger for knowledge leads him to teach himself how to read. Also, when Richard lived in the Home at a young age it was a horrible experience, but he found companionship which helped him perservere and be able to talk to someone who shared his feelings about the Home. Finally, Richard's hunger for food lead him to want to get a job to earn money for food. It's true, his Granny wouldn't hear of it, but just the fact that he understood that he needed to get a job so he could fill his hunger shows his resourcefulness, which is a very positive trait in a person.

Is Richard a "bad" boy?

At first, I did think Richard was a "bad" boy because I felt like he just kept making mistakes; he made so many that I felt like his "mistakes" were becoming intentional. For example, when he said, " 'When you get through, kiss back there,' " (41) to his Granny. I didn't beleive it when he said those words, "slipped out of my mouth" (41). How can you just say something like that without even realizing it, how do you say anything at all without control over what comes out of your mouth? I mean I know he didn't know what the words meant, but how can they just spill from your lips?
Although I thought Richard was a "bad" boy right off the bat, I realized that the environment and the culture that he lives in, and at such a young age definitly influences all of the trouble he causes. So I beleive that behavior should be blamed on the person when they've got support and a good nurturing family, in other words when they live in a loving environment. Some of Richards "mistakes" are just due to curiosity, like when Richard wanted to know what was happening next door so he stood on a chair and looked through a slit in the door, "I was puzzeled. Was there something happening next door to where I lived that I did not know?" (62). And at other times he thought he was doing the right thing. For example, when Oskar hanged the kitten to prove a point to his father, "How could I hit back at him? Oh, yes...He had said to kill the kitten and I would kill it!" (11). Or sometimes Richard just made mistakes, which is normal, "The touchstone of fraternity was my feeling toward white people, how much hostility I held toward them, what degrees of value and honor I assigned to race," (78). When Richard joined up with the gang of black boys and they started insulting and declaring war against white ones, they were just continuing the cycle. Don't get me wrong, white people have been completly horrible to black people, but insulting white people further doesn't help anyone. In summary, I don't beleive that Richard is a "bad" boy.

Hi, I'm Haley, and I just created my blog. I'll be posting my opinions on books we're reading in class periodically. You're welcome to post your opinions...on my opinions...(if that makes sense). Anyways, I'd love to hear what you have to say, so please post on my blog. Can't wait to hear from you!