Yes, Breaking Dawn has a lot of problems. I'm going to counter them the same way Jez did. First, "Bella's willingness to marry her vampire lover Edward, even though it means becoming a vampire, leaving behind her family, and sacrificing any hope of a normal life." Okay. We knew the girl was bizarre when she almost sacrificed her mother for this kid. There was no chance for Bella since the beginning. And she always wanted to become a vampire too, so that she can stop the craziness happening to everyone.
Second, her pregnancy. As much as it disturbed the Jez readers, I can't help but know I'd feel the same way if I found myself pregnant. As much as know I'm too young to have a kid, and also in college, with no way to care for the thing, if I were to accidentally get pregnant, I would no doubt have the baby. I have a really strong maternal instinct. I'd feel guilty for the rest of my life if I had an abortion. However, I am pro-choice because I know that the choice is the important thing, even if I don't make that choice.
Yes, the baby kills her from the inside out. But we must also remember that this is a fantasy novel. I've got no other excuse for this but that you've got to remember that vampires and werewolves and mutant babies don't exist, and also Meyer needed to toss some conflict in there. Bella's life can't stay normal for long, sheesh.
Yeah, it's heteronormative, too. Underneath all the criticism, we must remember that Meyer is Mormon. She is MORMON. A Mormon author isn't exactly going to throw in Nora Roberts-style sex scenes, or gay anything, or sex before marriage, or abortion. She's conservative as it gets. So I tend to forgive her conservative writing like I tend to forgive the fact that it's not written particularly well.
I just love that shit anyway. We all have our guilty pleasures.
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