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(Excerpt from Sin and Syntax, by Constance Hale)
The approach I use when diagramming sentences is called the Reed-Kellogg system. To be honest, I’m not sure that my diagrams are 100% correct because I was never taught how to diagram sentences in school. (I get help from Boyfriend and reference books.)
Reed-Kellogg diagrams are fantastic exercises that force you to consider the relationships between words in a sentence. My primary purpose in diagramming Meyer’s sentences is to make it undeniably apparent how much rambling she does.
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New Moon
What I hate the most about New Moon: Meyer romanticized suicide.
I understand that teenagers (and grown-ups, too) have volatile emotions. A broken heart really can seem like the end of the world. People get depressed and feel like they have nothing to live for. I know.
Though I’m not a person who has been suicidal, I am a person who has agonized over how to help someone who is. From this vantage point, I’m especially wary of dangerous influences.
Depression and suicidal ideations are real and should be taken seriously. These are issues that have a perfectly valid place in discussion and literature. The subject of suicide isn’t the problem; the presentation is.
Here we are at the end of New Moon. Everyone is safe and sound, despite the self-destructive behavior of our protagonist and her true love. What changed? What stabilized the will to live? Edward loves Bella; Bella loves Edward. Bella wasn’t dead; Edward wasn’t dead. The suicidal problem was only resolved because their relationship was revived. No one decided that life was worth living for the sake of being alive.
It pains me to do so, but I’m going to revisit the Romeo and Juliet comparison. In New Moon, Bella wonders if either of the star-crossed lovers would have been able to survive without the other, so what about the readers of this book still left with the question of what would Bella or Edward do if no one straightened out their mess of miscommunications? If the love of your life doesn’t want you or you have to live without someone you love, killing yourself is still presented as a viable option.
When you purposely write a bland protagonist to make it easier for the reader to relate to that character, you have an obligation to get the message across that suicide isn’t the answer. I’m not swayed by the fact that “it’s just a book,” because if readers can be inspired to greatness by books (and I believe people can be), the flip-side is that books can ignite destruction.
Darlings? Please know that suicide is not the answer. Please.
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