Responsibility Verses Moral Indoctrination in “Twilight”

Before I began the reading assignment I knew practically nothing about either Stephanie Meyer or Twiglight, beyond the fact that the text had something to do with vampires and had caught the attention of a staggeringly large number of readers, including my 13 year old niece. My niece is typically a reluctant reader, and consequently her avid interest in this particular book became a foreground concern for my reading. I was curious, and looking forward to discovering what appealed to her about the novel, and what ideas the novel might me communicating or suggesting to her.
Very early in my reading, the latter of those points became my dominant and worrisome concern. Even if I put aside, at least for the moment, the issues of gender and sexual politics which we discussed extensively in class, there are several passages in the novel which reek of moral posturing that I marked in the course of my reading; here is one I found particularly troublesome:

“I knew I was far too stressed to sleep, so I did something I’d never done before. I deliberately took unnecessary cold medicine – the kind that knocked me out for a good eight hours. I normally wouldn’t condone that type of behavior in myself, but tomorrow would be complicated enough without me being loopy from sleep deprivation on top of everything else.”

I understand, of course, the need to exercise responsibility when composing a text for young readers, but if that’s the line of thinking behind the above passage, why include it at all? Meyer herself describes the scene as, “gratuitous drug use,” two paragraphs later, and in terms of plot, she’s right – the sequence is wholly unnecessary. The sole purpose of the passage is to present a backhanded condemnation of the act. There are similar passages which deal in like ways with drugs and alcohol, and, or course, sexuality and abstinence.
When I learned, after I’d finished the novel, that Meyer is a devout Mormon, it was a moment of revelation for me. I’ll attempt to tread lightly here, and let me make it clear that it is not my intention here to disparage the Mormon religion or condemn anyone for adhering to the tenants of their faith. Still, I disagree with the Mormon Church’s stance on a great many issues, including the use of substances and the importance of abstinence education. If one has a social responsibility not to celebrate or condone, for example, the use of drugs or alcohol in a novel intended for younger audiences, I would argue that the same responsibility extends to preaching rigid personal ideologies and demonizing experiences which are generally an essential part of the transition into adulthood. Frankly, I take offence at the fact that my niece and her peers are being preached to in such an under-handed way.
“At least their reading,” is a phrase I’ve heard often, particularly in regards to this text. The idea that it doesn’t matter what someone is reading as long as their engaging in some way with the written word is a popular one in my family, and one I’ve espoused myself. Yet, as I think over the strong female characters and moral complexity I encounter every week over the course of my regular television viewing, and contrast those elements against what I encountered in Twilight, I can honestly say I’d rather see my niece put the books down and plant herself in front of the tube.

Meyer, Stephanie. Twilight. New York, NY: Little, Brown and Company, 2006.