Uncompromizing Selflessness In Elie Wiesel's 'Twilight'

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A major theme in Twilight is uncompromising selflessness and making sacrifices for other people. Many characters in the book display this theme, specifically the main character, Bella. In the beginning of the book, she displays selflessness before the book even begins by deciding to move to Forks. Bella’s mother, Renné, had recently gotten remarried to a minor league baseball player named Phil. At that time, Bella had lived with her mom in Phoenix, Arizona, where it was sunny and warm. She loved it there. However, Phil’s job as a baseball player required him to travel a lot; this caused a conflict for Renné because she really wanted to travel with her newlywed, but she also did not want to drag her daughter away from her home so frequently. …show more content…

That is why, when she’d first explained her situation to Edward in Chapter 2, he had assumed it was Renné who sent Bella away so she could travel more freely with Phil. However, Bella insisted that it was completely her decision to go to Forks, even though it made her unhappy; “ ‘She stayed with me at first … but she missed him. It made her unhappy… so I decided to spend some quality time with Charlie. ‘ “(33). Throughout the book, Bella continues to perform very small, but significant, selfless acts that define her character. Many of these acts are displayed on behalf of Edward Cullen, even before she knows he is a vampire. When he saves her from a fatal car crash, all she can worry about is Edward and his safety; she asked numerous times if he was hurt, she felt extremely guilty for potentially risking his life, and she kept his super-speed act a secret to protect him even though it confused her. When Bella learns of Edward’s secret, that he is a vampire, she makes up lies and risks her safety so that the Cullen family won’t be discovered and be forced to be relocated. She flawlessly keeps their secret even when she feels scared or in …show more content…

In vampire-talk, ‘trackers’ are vampires that not only kill humans for fun, but pinpoint special victims and hunt them down for sport. Bella unfortunately becomes the center of James’ attention when he notices the way Edward protects her during their encounter. To James, Edward’s over-protection of Bella is seen as a challenge. Lucky for Bella, Edward can read James’ thoughts and he can sense that even though the three vampires were, at first, simply passing through and happened to stumble upon the Cullen family, James had found a new hunt and was not going to give it up until he had killed Bella. The Cullen family wasn’t going to let Bella be killed by James because of them; they loved Bella and they made plans to protect her from James’ grasp. Even when Bella’s life was critically at stake, all she could worry about was what would happen if James hurt her dad out of spite, or if he got to one of the Cullens before they got to him, or if someone got hurt on behalf of her. Even when she was most scared, her humility took precedence of her