In this weeks reading, Interview with a Vampire, something that stood out to me was the way the author depicted what was considered good versus evil. Since the majority of the book is told from Louis's perspective, through dialogue in his interview, we get to learn about his beliefs as a vampire versus the other vampires around him. For example, Louis is depicted as a generally good character at the beginning. This is shown through his squeamish and hesitant nature about killing humans and his empathy towards their lives. He also points out that he doesn't realize he is able to take animal's blood rather than a humans. This appears as a sense of morality. This morality is directly contradicted with the personality of Lestat. He is depicted as a tough vampire who doesn't feel empathy and will hunt anyone he pleases. Later in the book he turns a little girl into a vampire which leads to his "death." He later comes back to life on more than one occasion to get his revenge. There is a constant comparison of this good vs. evil, and Louis is made out to be a romanticized and good vampire, even when his actions could be considered questionable in modern society. When he sets the theatre on fire, it is justified because the other vampires had killed Claudia and Madeleine. While the good vs. evil trope is the over-arching theme here, the most interesting part of that is how the vampires and their actions are still written in a romanticized way. Rather than just the fact that they kill and turn humans into vampires, there's much more context and perspective of their side. Overall, the vampires in this book seem to depict very similar emotions and themes as human society; such as love, hate, dissatisfaction, and lust. The good vs. evil can appear to be between the vampires on the surface, but it is more about the individuals fighting the evil inside of themselves. Most of the vampire characters are seen as mostly-human with the disease that is being a vampire and needing to survive off of blood. This is where the internal struggle of morality comes through. Overall I thought it was a slow read but very interesting and makes me think that is a precursor to many vampire stories that we know today.
For this week I read Neil Gaiman's The Ocean at the End of the Lane . I really enjoyed this short novel and the underlying themes that went along with it. Some of the things I noticed were the revealing of reality and how it is never as it seems, comparison of adulthood versus childhood, and the idea of other universes. The one theme that I want to mention and expand on is the idea that every person or being has a different side to them, that is not outwardly visible. In the father's case, it seemed that he was being controlled by the "flea" Ursula Monkton and almost drowned his son in the bathtub. This makes you wonder - did the evil person/creature make him do this or was there something evil and resenting in him the entire time? With the main antagonist, Ursula Monkton, she is an evil creature from another world that entered the world that we know it, disguised as a human. This provides some interesting perspective, that sometimes the evilest traits and experiences...
What a great entry this week! I thought you make some great points on the topic of good verses evil that was explain throughout the book.
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