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It's the biggest debate in the Twilight series--should Bella be with Edward or Jacob? Yes, most Twilight haters can talk about how shallow the story is and what a cliche love triangle it creates. But those unbiased thinkers who take time to inquire and learn from it will find something entirely different. It is a love triangle--but it doesn't just resemble who loves who and who in the world will Bella make up her mind to spend the rest of her life with. It's actually a deep inquiry into the question that many of us face in life--the question of destiny.
There are important things in life that look like they're perfect for us--the perfect man, the perfect answer, the perfect path. I've often been known to said that the reason we don't marry perfect or walk a perfect path is because we wouldn't need God if we had perfect. It's the imperfection in our lives that create the beautiful picture--a paint blotch here or there that taught us how to improve our technique, a dark spot hit by the light because no true painful trial goes without His healing glory. How many of us look back ten years and say, "Wow, I could have NEVER foreseen myself here now!" Perfect is not only impossible--it's boring. Imperfection is a journey, and it's one we all take. That's what makes life known as life.
Bella is a normal highschooler who has lived the normal highschool life--until meeting Jacob and Edward, of course. But vampires and werewolves aside, Jacob is Bella's "Perfect." She would remain living the life she's lived forever--she'd spend her endless energy on living in the Indian clan and marry the man who makes her heart quiver. She wouldn't have to change anything--motorcycles, Indian story-gatherings and a man her age who is dark haired, macho and buff--that's exactly where Bella Swann would be headed--had her life's "Imperfect" not come along. Don't we hate it when that happens?! Yes, but no--no, no, and no. It lies in the difference between what we want--and what we need.
Goodness knows, Edward Cullen is everything Bella shouldn't want but all she really needs. Bella is undeniably drawn to Edward--he is the abstract mystery her life has been yearning for. Nothing about having "normal" divorced parents or living in Forks, Washington, has fulfilled the void that Edward satisfies.
Edward and Bella are completely different, yet they absolutely satisfy eachother. Bella is a headstrong risk-taker with spunk and an attitude of discontent. Edward is so completely protective that he breaks his word in order to keep her from danger. He is shy and also discontent in his life--being 17 forever was never his choice. Bella completes him in ways neither of them imagined possible. Bella is the difference that changes Edward's thirst for true human love. Edward is the mystery that Bella's discontentment longs for and the safety she's never had. She's lived her entire life being fairly lonely--and for the first time, she finds someone who needs her as much as he needs air to breathe.
Jacob doesn't need Bella; he wants her. Edward never wanted Bella, but through their love story they find that there is nothing else they need but eachother. Jacob allows Bella to be the incomplete person she's always been--marrying Edward Cullen is a decision that will change Bella's entire life into something so remarkably different than her imagination could ever comprehend.
Why does she still struggle between the two paths? Bella hates the perfection she sees in Jacob, yet sees how easy life would be living with her best friend. Bella is drawn to Edward because she knows that however queer it seems, she is meant to be with him. It is destiny that grabs hold of Bella's life and shows itself in personal form. The decisions she makes are heart wrenching, but they are everything Bella's destiny demanded. She finds herself in a place she never necessarily wanted to be yet needed to be--but, as destiny always goes--in the end, what we needed was exactly what we wanted all along.
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"You'll always be My Bella--My Bella, just less fragile." -Edward Cullen
At last, I have gotten this piece of thought off my mind.
Really good...I especially like you putting emphasis on it being a question of what Bella needs instead of what she wants. And even though Jacob and her are best friends, its clear she's destined for Edward.
ReplyDeleteBut I remain Team Jacob.
JACOB FOREVER!!!!!!!!
I saw the first Twilight movie for the first time last night, actually. Then seeing your post subject, I knew this was meant for me to read, and I love your take on this! The concept of the Twilight series, to me, is altogether weird and abstract, but still SO creative! Just like Lord of the Rings, The Da Vinci Code, or Harry Potter, Twilight is imagination on a movie screen. I really loved the abstinence morals that underline the movie. But haha I just admit, being a makeup NERD (i am crazy in love with makeup!!), I loved the makeup creativity as well as the story line creativity. That and your post makes me want to see the next movie... and soon!
ReplyDeleteOh, so good! I love it! I love the need versus want dynamic, and that Jacob was essential as the foil to Edward. The perfect versus the imperfect, impossible versus the possible. I love the point you're making, destiny.
ReplyDeleteI'm with Elsie though, still Team Jacob :)
But for me, not for Bella, she can have edward.
That was quite fantastic. You and I share a similar viewpoint on her life. The differences between wants and needs tend to tear our soul apart and confuse us. It's very difficult to choose between the two as well. We're creatures that want what we want, and sometimes tend to deny what we truly need. But I'm a firm believer that your true love in life is the person that completes you, and that's exactly who Edward is to Bella. Jacob can give her a perfect life, one that's relatively normal, but Edward truly is the other half to her heart and the one thing she needs in her life.
ReplyDeleteTeam Edward FTW!