Midnight Sun by Stephenie Meyer Book Analysis

In Stephenie Meyer’s companion novel to the Twilight Saga series, Midnight Sun, the main character shows a number of intense emotions. In the first seven chapters, the more you read and try to comprehend his inner monologue, you start to understand all of Edward’s sentiments so far have revolved around negativity and ill feelings. For instance, in the first chapter the main character, Edward Cullen, feels an overwhelming amount of unease and slight panic when he tries to listen in on Bella Swan’s thoughts. Edward’s special ability that came with his immortality as a vampire entails mind-reading. This ability usually doesn’t accompany peace because whenever Edward is around any other individual, whether it be vampire or humans, the thoughts are shouted at him and it’s taken him decades to learn how to tune them out, focus on one stream of thoughts at a time and separate someone’s thoughts from what they’re actually verbally saying. Hence, Edward feels immediate agitation when he attempts to hear what Bella Swan, the new girl at their high school, was thinking. Another time Edward was showing an intense amount of negative emotions was in chapter two, when Bella Swan entered his Biology class for the first time. Bella had walked by a fan and the scent of her blood had awoken the worst side of Edward, the part of him that he keeps stashed away and caged. Throughout the entirety of the Biology class, Edward was drowning in his own mind with feelings of regret, impulsiveness and even contempt for Bella Swan. He had thought of a hundred ways to kill her and any witnesses in the room and he was disgusted with himself that he kept unintentionally expanding on the thought. He felt anger and hatred towards Bella for no other reason than for making him think like the creature that he was, especially since he had been able to control his thirst around hundreds of humans every day. Later, it’s learned that Bella is his “blood singer”, which essentially means that her blood's scent would have a more extreme effect on him and test his self control tremendously. In chapter four, Edward learns where involving himself with Bella Swan can lead through his sister, Alice Cullen, who has the ability to see subjective visions of the near future. Alice foresees that Bella Swan will either die at the hands of Edward because his temptation becomes too much for him or she will one day become one of them and a part of their family. Edward is cynical about this and is in complete and utter denial about either option because he A) doesn’t want to give into the murderous and reckless part himself and expose his entire family for being vampires, especially since they have lived with the humans in peace for years and have survived on the blood of animals and B) he hates the thought of damning someone to the life he has. He oftens thinks that vampires don’t have souls and are monsters because of their impulses, which is one of the many reasons he and his family have undertaken animal blood. With this in mind, in chapter four page 86 it states, “Alice’s bleak vision filled my head, and I writhed internally with the agony it caused. Meanwhile, the monster in me was overflowing with glee, jubilant at the likelihood of his success. It sickened me. This could not be allowed. There had to be a way to circumvent the future. I would not let Alice’s vision direct me. I could choose a different path. There was always a different choice.” This quote from Edward’s inner monologue shows just how much Edward is suffering with the weight of both futures on his conscience and how the non-human part of them is just ecstatic about it’s luck. Edward feels strongly negative towards both futures and is determined to deter it to his favor, even if it means to remove himself from the equation. Overall, in every chapter so far, whether it’s different encounters, conversations, impetuous actions or backlash from his family, Edward has experienced some sort of affliction in every occurrence.