(These two book covers are different. Can you point out the differences?)
Bet you didn't know, I have a minor in comparative literature.
Here's my essay on 50 Shades of Grey and Twilight (yes, I wrote an essay on the topic. Just now. Don't judge me.) And it's not the best writing of my life, I'm a little rusty. Give me a week and this essay could be decent.
Stephanie Meyer Should Be Pissed at E.L. James for Ripping
Her Book Off, But Who Really Cares, Both Books Suck.
Despite
the few differences between Twilight by Stephanie Meyer and 50 Shades of Grey
by E.L. James, it is clear from the vast amount of similarities that 50 Shades
of Grey and Twilight are pretty much the same book, with the one obvious exception
that Twilight has vampires and 50 Shades of Grey does not.
The
main female characters are the same.
Both Ana (50 Shades of Grey) and Bella (Twilight) come from broken
homes. They find themselves bonding more
with their father figures due to their mothers’ selfishness and need to be with
their new husbands over their own daughters.
Both girls have low self esteem. Ana
and Bella believe they are not that smart, fretting over doing poorly on tests,
and comparing themselves to the seemingly smarter, more accomplished women
around them (Ana to Katherine and Bella to Alice) despite both being avid readers of the classic romantic novels (both love Austen) and doing well in school, Bella having good grades in
many honors classes, and Ana about to be graduating from Washington State University. Both are brunette (brown hair)
and seem to think this is the main difference between themselves, unattractive (ugly)
girls, and attractive (hot blonde) girls. Because they are obviously smart and
attractive, (long hair, skinny with
beautiful faces and men are interested in them), one can only deduce that both
girls are actually dumb and inherently stupid for believing they are not that
smart and unattractive according to 1970’s standards of physical beauty. And both Ana and Bella are noted for being
clumsy and uncoordinated.
The
love stories are setup the same way.
Girl meets mysterious man after they selflessly make some kind of
sacrifice for a weak woman they really love and care for. Bella sacrifices her happiness in a sunny
warm place and moves to sunless dreary Forks, Washington to give her mother a
chance to be with her new husband. Ana
sacrifices studying for her finals to interview a handsome billionaire in place
of her sick bestfriend/jounalist roommate. After meeting their future love interests,
they go through their self defacing “why
would he ever want me, he is so hot and
ungettable and I’m so ugly” moment. They
fall for each other despite knowing only the most rudimentary things about the
other (he works here, lives here, has this has that. She lives here, works here, has these
friends). The authors convey that they
do not need to know anything about the other, they have instant chemistry which
is described in both books as physically “electric” that they cannot, despite
all efforts, ignore. There is also a
love triangle in both books. Ana has her
economically poor rape-y best friend, and Bella has her economically poor rape-y
best friend too. Coincidently, Bella and
Ana’s “best friends,” whom they are initially totally uninterested in, are both
of ethnic decent (black hair, dark copper skin, so in other words, not hot).
The main male love interests are
the same as well, with the exception of the vampire detail. Both Edward and Grey are mysterious, shrouded
in bachelor hood, possess insanely good looks (which are also the same, chiseled
face and body, copper tousled hair), immense wealth, and the only people who
really know who they are, are their prospective adoptive family members. Edward and Grey are older gentlemen (Grey is
28, 7 years Ana’s senior. Edward is
100+, Bella’s literal geriatric senior).
And they are both dangerous, and are not forthright about how dangerous
they are to the women they are interested in.
Both Edward and Grey convey their love by being stern father figures to
their love interests. They make huge
declarations of their love by going against their better judgment and stepping
in to save Bella and Ana from sexual predators (while instantaneously stalking
those women themselves), not unlike father figures who fret over the virtue of
their virginal daughters. Grey and Edward also commit to their father figure roles by buying expensive gifts for their love interests.
In summation, 50 Shades of Grey and
Twilight are so much a like in plot and details, that they could very well be the same
book. With older male love interests, love
triangles, self sacrificing self hating clumsy brunette female characters going into
dangerous situations by being in love with these mysterious men, the only
real difference between these books are the word vampire. And apparantly all the sex in 50 Shades of Grey (I haven't gotten to that part yet because I was too distracted by how much of a rip off this book was of Twilight, not that I really care though, both books suck, and yes, I love reading them, shut up).
Jenny
