Page 7

Ah, seven. The most powerful magical number, according to Tom Riddle in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. OK, geek moment over.

On this page Bella continues to internally bitch about the truck, and she nags her poor, nervous father for details about the vehicle. Indecently, I'm beginning to wonder if this blog should have been called Charlie was Weak, since we've already well established that he allows his daughter to intimidate him to an alarming level.

About half way down the page, Charlie tells Bella that he had already bought the truck for her, at which point her opinion of the yet unseen vehicle takes a hair pin turn. Suddenly she's pleased, enthusiastic even.

To Bella's credit, she seemed quite sincere when she thanked her father for the gift. Unfortunately, the moment was ruined by the last sentence of the page:

"No need to add that my being happy in Forks is an impossibility. He didn't need to suffer along with me. And I never looked a free truck in the mouth - or engine."

Page 5

At this point I'm beginning to wonder why Charlie would want Bella to live with him.

In regards to Charlie, Bella says: "I knew he was more than a little confused by my decision - like my mother before me, I hadn't made a secret of my distaste for Forks."

Seriously, Charlie is aware that Bella hates Forks, and when she's not complaining out loud, she's complaining in her head. Does she ever smile?

More importantly, I wonder if Bella is capable of forming thoughts and opinions separate from those of her mother. We've seen no evidence thus far.

Page 3 - Chapter 1. First Sight

On page three, Bella begins to talk about her physical trip to Forks. Most of the text discusses the weather. Bella wore her favorite shirt as a "parting gesture", while bringing a parka on the plane as her carry-on item.

Bella describes Forks as an "inconsequential" town, but one particular line bothers me.

"It was from this town and its gloomy, omnipresent shade that my mother escaped with me when I was only a few months old. It was in this town that I had been compelled to spend a month every summer until I was fourteen."

Wow, poor Bella had her arm twisted into a pretzel until she agreed to travel to a prison cell disguised as a town to spend some time with her father occasionally. Don't we feel sorry for her?

One could argue that this attitude could be attributed to adolescent angst, but I wonder how stung Bella's father would have been if he had known how she felt about the situation. The very wording implies that Bella agrees that her mother was absolutely right to "escape" from her life and while we don't know enough about the marriage of Bella's parents to form intelligent opinions, it's fairly clear that her father is not abusive, and therefor the use of the word "escape is disrespectful and unnecessary.

Bella's mother is later described as "erratic" and "harebrained", and the fact that she had been unable to remain in Forks and keep her family together supports her flighty personality. Bella's description of Forks on page three strongly implies that her feelings about the town and the situation are the same as her mother's. What does that say about Bella?

Bella was Weak - A Twilight Blog

What's my beef with Bella Swan? She sets women back a hundred years!

First off, let me introduce myself. My name is Cheryl, and I'm a 27 year old writer from Ontario, Canada. I am a wife, and mother of two children (a five year old son, and a six year old daughter).

I like to read. I'll read nearly anything. Fantasy books, horror novels, dramas, the completely obscure and the super popular. Lately I've been really enjoying the popular stuff.

I'm an insane Harry Potter fan - you know, one of those people who buy the merchandise and see each movie a dozen times in the theatres and WB even richer (as of last night I've seen HBP eight times in theatres).

Anyway, about a year ago, the hype for the first Twilight movie alerted me to the existence of this book series. Headlines like "Move Over Harry Potter", and "The Next J.K. Rowling" kept me on the edge of my seat as I read, waiting for the great finale that would blow me away.

Here's my honest opinion of the Twilight series. I have read the entire series through once, and I enjoyed it. I view the books as a series of light, fluffy, Sunday afternoon reads. Not particularly thought provoking, and certainly not something that should be mentioned in the same sentence as Harry Potter. I did enjoy the books. Honestly I do, though I strongly believe that they're drastically over rated.

But the hype for the series persists, and one element of the story stuck with me, and has festered like an infected wound. The element is this: While the majority of the preteen female population aspires to grow up to be swept off her feet by a glittering vampire, the main character, Bella Swan, is not a person I would want my daughter to view as a role model.

In this blog I intend to prove that on each and every page of the first Twilight novel Bella sets a pathetic example for our young girls by acting the part of the 1950's housewife, willing to sacrifice everything for her man.

I will read one page of the first Twilight novel each day and discuss Bella's actions or thoughts, or the actions of her role models. Some pages, of course, will be more difficult than others. Some will probably be a stretch. It will take well over a year to complete this task, but I'm up for the challenge.

Tomorrow is the first day back at school for my children. I will post my analysis for the first page then, and again each following day.

One last thing. The purpose of this blog is to analyze Bella's character, and not to compare Twilight to Harry Potter. I will do my best to limit such comparisons, but make no promises. I have to admit that all of the "Next J.K. Rowling" crap is starting to irk the hell out of me.