Twilight

Twilight was written by Stephenie Meyer.

Exposition:  This story takes place in Phoenix, Arizona and the dreary climate of a small town called Forks in Washington.  Bella and Edward are the main characters in the novel with their families and Jacob being secondary characters.

Conflict: Bella, a 17 year old girl makes a difficult choice to leave her home in Phoenix with her mother and moves to a place that is at odds with her own desire.  Shortly after her move she meets and falls in love with a vampire named Edward and must again make a choice to live the life she has always pictured for herself or cast all hopes of normalcy to be with the vampire she now loves. Making this choice creates a deep conflict between Bella and Jacob, her best friend who is a descendant of an ancient Indian tribe that has a historical struggle with the “cold ones”.

Rising Action: Though a constant struggle, Bella and Edward seem to be making their relationship work until a small group of nomadic vampires cross their path.  This creates an intense situation due to Bella becoming the immediate target of James, the leader of this nomadic group.

Climax: James tracks Bella and leads Edward and his vampire family through a deadly game of hide and seek working his way back to Phoenix where he intends to kill Bella.  Bella makes a decision to meet James alone at a ballet studio.

Falling Action: Edward and his family arrive in time to prevent Bella’s death and kill James in the process of protecting her. Though he was able to save Bella, Edward wants to keep her from more attacks in the future by removing himself from her life, but realizes that would be to hard on her.

Resolution: Bella and Edward return to Forks.  They attend her high school prom because he does not want her to miss out on any of her human experiences even though she seems to embrace the idea of becoming a vampire at his will.

Two literary elements that would be easy to teach with this novel are mood and the way the setting plays into it and character development as we see the characters grow and change with one another in the novel.

Meyer, S. (2005). Twilight . New York: Little, Brown and Co.