Everybody's heard of Twilight, the latest bestselling, mind-numbing romance novel that has many teenage girls dreaming. It talks about true love between the sickeningly dependent, clinging girl Bella and her lust and obsession with Edward the vampire. They meet, it's true love, and everything is perfect.
Has anybody noticed it's this kind of book that has been popping all over libraries and bookstores these days? Books about true love, crushes, summer romances, etc are cluttering the shelves. And what kind of things are inside those books? Steamy make-out sessions and illusions. Bella cannot survive without Edward. Without him she feels like a hole has been ripped out of her chest, and she’s going to completely ruin her life and lose interest in the things she should be caring about because Edward left her. Anybody seeing any wrong message being broadcasted here? Obviously it’s “When your boyfriend dumps you, stop wanting to live.” That is not the kind of message that should be broadcasted to millions of die-hard fans. Nowadays, all popular books must have some unrealistic lust and obsession in them.
These kinds of books and their underlying, subliminal messages are brainwashing legions of teenage girls. The game of love is not easy. There are going to be times where you date a jerk, or you date someone who seems perfect but your relationship just doesn’t work out, or when you’re completely rejected by that secret crush of yours that you’ve been SO sure was your one and only soul mate. But romance novels like Twilight are leading girls to believe that one day their Edward will swoop down and be perfect and not have any flaws and love them unconditionally. They think love will be easy, that all they need to do is wait for their Edward to kiss them and then marry them for a happily ever after. Sorry to break it to you, but THAT DOESN’T HAPPEN. Every guy has flaws and that perfect guy isn’t going to put what you want first for everything and save you every time you’re in danger.
Long term relationships cannot last on obsessive love. It can’t last on passion either. Relationships require constant tending, like growing a beautiful flower. You can’t eagerly start out tending to it but then neglect it once the bud starts to grow. It’ll wilt and die, even though you oh so passionately tended to it when it was just a seed. After a while the excitement of being obsessed grows away and you’re left with a wilting flower-a breakup or a divorce. There is currently a 50% divorce rate in the US for first marriages. Most of those divorces is because the relationships were built on illusions. They think that the small spark could become a lasting flame without even thinking or trying. They think that their passion can be enough to live together forever. Right after high school, Bella jumps headlong into marriage, then childbirth, and everything seems to work out for her. She forsakes college and a future for her boyfriend so he won’t lose interest in her when she’s 70 and he’s still 17. That’s another bad message. “Base your whole life on your boyfriend or lover.” Relationships are unstable, and there are plenty of times where a girl sacrifices everything for her boyfriend to have him coldly walk away. Her whole life is ruined because she believed the fantasy that they would be together forever.
I’m not saying romance books are bad. They may be good pieces of writing, but people need to realize that fiction is fiction, and real life love is nothing like fiction.