Cortez,
Jayrol
Alfonso,
Imee Florence
Comparative Analysis
Literature 2
9:30-10:30 MWF
March 13, 2012
Breaking Dawn Part 1
Movie
Breaking Dawn Part 1
& Part 2 of the Book
I.
Introduction
a.
About
the author:
Stephenie
Meyer graduated from Brigham Young University with a bachelor's degree in
English. She lives with her husband and three young sons in Phoenix, Arizona.
After the publication of her first novel, Twilight, booksellers chose
Stephenie Meyer as one of the "most promising new authors of 2005" (Publishers
Weekly).
Praise for Twilight:
·
A New York Times Editor's Choice
·
A Publishers Weekly Best Book of
the Year
·
An Amazon "Best Book of the
Decade...So Far"
·
A Teen People "Hot
List" pick
·
An American Library Association
"Top Ten Best Book for Young Adults" and "Top Ten Books for
Reluctant Readers"
·
Has been translated into 20 languages
"Propelled by
suspense and romance in equal parts [this story] will keep readers madly
flipping the pages of Meyer's tantalizing debut."
— Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"The novel's
danger-factor skyrockets as the excitement of secret love and hushed affection
morphs into a terrifying race to stay alive. Realistic, subtle, succinct, and
easy to follow, Twilight will have readers dying to sink their teeth
into it."
— School Library Journal (starred review)
b.
History
Originally,
Meyer wrote a book titled Forever Dawn, which was a direct sequel to Twilight.
While the basic storyline remained the same, Forever Dawn was narrated
completely from Bella's point of view, the werewolves and Jacob were "only
sketchily developed", Victoria and Laurent were both alive, and there was
an epilogue. Meyer went on to say that she "may post some extras someday
if I ever have time to go back through the Forever Dawn manuscript—it's
just as long as Breaking Dawn."
The
plays The Merchant of Venice and A Midsummer Night's Dream both influenced Breaking
Dawn. Meyer decided that Alice would write her instruction to Bella on a
page from The Merchant of Venice to give a clue that the final confrontation
at the end of the book would be a mental one—not a physical battle—like the one
at the end of the play. It also hints that the novel would have a happy ending
for the couples, as in The Merchant of Venice. Originally it was Jane Eyre that Alice tore a
page from, but Jane Eyre had nothing to do with the story, so Meyer
changed it.
II. Summary/ Plot
Analysis
The book is divided into three(3) parts,
based from the perspective used.
Breaking Dawn picks up just before Bella
and Edward's wedding, which of course, Alice goes over the top on. But finally,
they are married and off to Esme's private island for their honey moon. Even
though Edward is worried about breaking Bella, they do have sex. They both
thought it was impossible but she did get pregnant. Edward rushes Bella home to
"take care" of the quickly growing fetus, but Bella has other plans.
At this point, Jacob Black takes over the story telling. He thinks that Bella
has been turned into a vampire and wants the pack to attack the Cullens, but
Sam, the pack Alpha, votes for peace. This all changes when Jacob discovers
that Bella is pregnant with a half-vampire. Sam now wants to attack, to kill
the monster growing inside her. Jacob asserts his inherited rights to be Alpha
and breaks away from the pack. Seth follows him. They rush back to the Cullen's
house to warn them and help them defend Bella. Sam's pack decides not to attack
now that they have lost the element of surprise and have a smaller pack. Leah
joins Jacob and Seth after a while because she is still in love with Sam.
Edward and Jacob don't agree on much, but they do agree that the fetus will
kill Bella. They both want to save her, but Rosalie is protecting Bella and the
baby. Emmet and Esme are on her side too and Carlisle won't help Edward when
Esme is against him. Bella has to drink blood in order to nourish the fetus,
which is strong and keeps breaking her ribs. Finally, only a few weeks after
getting married, the baby comes. Bella's heart stops in the process, and Edward
injects her with venom to turn her into a vampire. Jacob believes that she is
dead and leaves to find and kill her daughter, Renesmee. But Jacob imprints on
her, instead, and his whole outlook on the world changes.
Bella again takes over the story telling. She almost dies, but remembering her
daughter, who she only saw for a second, she forces herself to hold on. Then
the pain of becoming a vampire is intolerable. She can't scream or move because
she has morphine in her system. When she awakes, she is the most in control
newborn the Cullen's have ever met. Because of this, they allow her to see
Renesmee. Bella is furious when she learns that Jacob imprinted on her
daughter. All of this is soon forgotten, though, when Alice has a vision. The
Volturi, all of them including their wives, are coming.
Alice leaves some cryptic instructions and then, with Jasper, abandons the
family. The rest of the Cullens recruit the wolf packs and their vampire
friends to act as witnesses. The Volturi think that Renesmee is a forbidden
vampire child, and they will have to prove to them that she is growing and part
human in order to escape the Volturi slaughtering them all. There is little
hope, as they believe the visit is really just an excuse to add Alice and a few
others with special abilities to their ranks. Bella follows some of Alice's
instructions left for her, and buys Renesmee and Jacob fake passports and birth
certificates. She is planning on dying to allow Jacob time to escape with
Renesmee. Since Bella's mind is shielded, she will be the only one who knows
that they are leaving. She doesn't even tell Edward. She also practices
extending her mental shield to include others with the other vampires.
At the confrontation with the Volturi, Bella's fury allows her to control her
power better and she is able to protect everyone on her side. The Volturi pause
when they see the wolves, giving Edward time to explain that Renesmee is part
human and her existence did not break any laws. They look for more excuses to
attack, and decide that they don't know how she will grow up. They claim she is
a threat to keeping vampire existence a secret. They decide to vote on keeping
Renesmee alive. While Aro, Caius and Marcus debate, Jane and Alec attack. Soon,
they realize that their mental abilities are of no use, as Bella is shielding
everyone. Then Alice shows up with Jasper, two vampires and a full-grown
half-vampire. He proves that Renesmee will not be a threat as she grows older.
The Volturi leave and the Cullens are safe once again. At the end, Bella pushes
her shield away in order to show her thoughts to Edward. It only works for a
while, but she shows him how much she loves him by bringing up memories of her
time with him.
III. Comparison
(Breaking Dawn Part 1 movie vs. Breaking Dawn Part1 & Part 2)
a.
What
is in the book that is missing in the movie?
There’s not much,
it’s like, the movie is the summary of the book, since what is missing would be
the elaborations of has been shown on the movie. Like:
·
Charlie
and Renee’s reactions with Bella being pregnant and her whole engaged drama,
with Jacob missing on the side. It was all shown in the first 5 minutes of the
movie.
·
The
movie left out the part in Bella’s dream where she saw a child on top of all
the corpses on her wedding day.
·
Quil
and Claire, his young girl of an imprint. Although it may look somewhat
insignificant, the position of their introduction in the story is actually
material, it hinted of the possibility of an imprint to be born later than the
wolf-mate.
·
The
way Jacob assumed the Alpha position unknowingly. That is, when he severed the
bond he shared with Sam, it gave the others the choice whether to join him or
stay in the pack. And also, Leah didn’t join him just after Seth did, hours
passed before that.
·
No
explanation on the supernatural biology, like how vampires have 25 pairs of
chromosomes, and weres have 24 pairs. There’s a chance that it may be discussed
on the Part 2 or not at all.
·
The
part where Jacob went out, to clear his mind, and maybe try and look for his
imprint.
·
Lastly,
Jacob’s interaction with Alice was not shown in the movie.
b.
What
is in the movie that is missing in the book?
Mostly, some part
of the movie that wasn’t in the Breaking Dawn book is found on the other books,
because the movies corresponding those books left out the parts.
·
The
reception messages where family and friends deliver speeches for the
newly-weds.
·
Irina
of Denali clan wasn’t supposed to be on the wedding, but she showed up in the
movie.
·
The
honeymoon lovemaking. Not that detailed in the book as it was in the movie.
·
When
Jacob knelt as his eyes met Renesmee, although that is the best physical
manifestation of what went on his head after seeing her for the first time.
·
Sam’s
pack attacked the Cullens on the night Bella gave birth, only to be stopped by
Jacob who had just imprinted on Renesmee. There was supposed to be no action in
the end of Jacob’s perspective.
IV. Characterization
a.
Isabella
Swan-Cullen
Officially
Mrs. Edward Cullen starting from the chapter 3 of Breaking Dawn, she is the
human Edward “the vampire” fell in love to. Eighteen-year old transferee from
Arizona, she fell in love with him just the same, and insisted of being turned
into a vampire like him. She has this latent talent as a shield when she is
still a human, and that talent magnified with her becoming a vampire. She grew
from being the spoiled and insensitive girl of Twilight to the slightly
insensitive mother of Breaking Dawn, her maturity levels having to have increased
a thousand folds during the transition of the 3rd and 4th
installment of the series.
b.
Edward
Cullen
A
vampire frozen to his teen self forever, he found love and everything in Bella
Swan. Although hesitant in siring her, he proposed the deal of marriage from
which Bella never stopped to think about and just said yes. Since he already
has a century’s time to mature, his growth as a person is not noticeable. He
remained the learned and mature vampire that he is from the very beginning. The
only thing that unearthed him would be the experience of being a biological
father, one from which at first, he didn’t how.
c.
Jacob
Black
He
is a half-human, half-werewolf whom Bella turned into a confidante and best
friend, and remained as such, even after he confessed how he feels for her. His
feelings for her aren’t love, because that feeling is reserved only for his
imprint who turned out to be Renesmee, the child Bella would soon be
conceiving. He has inherited Alpha genes from his grandfather, thus makes him
the legal Alpha of their pack, although he had not assumed the position until
the latter part of the story.
V. Symbols
·
The cover is a metaphor for Bella's
progression throughout the entire series; she began as the physically weakest
player on the board, the pawn, but at the end she becomes the strongest, the
queen. The chessboard also hints at the conclusion of the novel "where the
battle with the Volturi is one of wits and strategy, not physical violence.
·
The title, Breaking Dawn, is a
reference to the beginning of Bella's life as a newborn vampire. Originally,
Meyer wanted to title the book Forever Dawn, but she thought the name
was very "cheesy". Wanting to add a "sense of disaster" to
the title to match the novel's mood, she called it Breaking Dawn.
Another reason for giving the book this particular title is that it matches the
book's plot, which centers around "a new awakening and a new day and
there's also a lot of problems inherent in it.”
VI. Lessons
· Stick to the right
thing.
A baby is a baby, no
matter what race, or kind or pedigree, or whatever. Bella and Rosalie’s stand
was admirable, although they had different intentions.
· Being rational over a
lot of things.
Instead of letting
you emotions rule your decisions and ending in a hopeless battle, Carlisle
tried so much to turn the confrontation between the Cullen and the Volturi a
bloodless one. Cauis expected that one when he killed Irina, but thankfully,
Carlisle and Edward stopped Tanya and Kate’s outbursts. (Breaking Dawn Part 3)
· Trying to reach out
to others rather than cutting off everyone.
Shown on both the
vampires and werewolves sides. Instead of remaining as eternal enemies, because
one decided to try and reach out to the vampires and vice versa, an alliance
and a friendship was formed.
