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IN HER OWN WORDS:
Twilight Series Provides Multicultural Insights

Dr. Shari Williams-Clarke

by Dr. Shari Williams-Clarke, VP for Multicultural Affairs, Marshall University WV

A new type of ‘other’

While educators and diversity trainers have spent decades teaching students, faculty, staff and corporate audiences about the glorious world of inclusion and acceptance of difference, the Twilight series of books presents a host of characters in the Cullen family who differ from the norm because they’re vampires.

The treatment the Cullens receive from members of the Forks community in Washington is based on their physical traits and perceptions of their lifestyle. Typical of those who face discrimination, the Cullens are different from the majority in skin color, facial features and physical traits.

They don’t look like the rest of Forks’ society. They have extremely pale complexions the color of alabaster white, icy cold skin, fl awlessly perfect beauty and fl uid movement, with overstated grace and strength. They speak with voices and infl ections that represent other worlds.

Edward Cullen, the novel’s hero, uses phrases that hint at another time, another century. Before the reader knows of the family’s physical strength, the immediate visual clearly indicates the Cullens are different. Something is abnormal about their appearance, which raises a level of discomfort and jeopardizes their acceptance into the community.

Hanging together

Like other minority groups, this vampire family falls into a group defi ned as both multicultural and minority. The Cullens seek support and comfort from each other. In high school the Cullens sit together at the lunchroom table, alone as a group. Their lifestyle is also questioned, because they live together and outsiders suspect coupling by these alleged foster siblings.

Like others who embody diverse physical traits, views and ideologies, the Cullens remain tight knit and closely linked.

Dr. Beverly Daniel Tatum, president of the prestigious Spelman College GA, in her book entitled Why are all the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? (1997) provides insight into why all the vampires sit together in the cafeteria: to negate questions, diffuse curiosities from onlookers, and eliminate the need to explain who they are and why they’re not eating cafeteria fare.

Like other minority groups, the Cullens sit together in the cafeteria due to historical kinship, shared life experiences, tradition, cultural understanding and familiarity.

Trying to fit in

As the Cullens strive to fi t into society, they assimilate to the dominant culture. They don’t honor their true dietary calling of devouring human blood for sustenance; instead they adhere to a strict vegetarian diet. They attend high school, study, live in a gorgeous home on the outskirts of town and explain their absence on sunny days for hunting/ feeding as family camping trips.

Patriarch Carlisle Cullen has a prestigious position as a physician in the community. His ability to heal the sick and wounded adds validity to outward appearances and assimilation into the mainstream culture by the Cullen family.

While penetrating mainstream culture, the Cullens maintain their own customs. Their vegetarian diet is a major deviation from the vampires that they are at the core. They must consume blood to survive; their chosen diet allows them to suck the blood of large animals (not humans) to quench their insatiable thirst.

This single major life adaptation allows them to live in human society. The Cullens recognize they must respect and honor human life in order to survive as members of a civil society.

Avoiding the sun

To avoid suspicion, the Cullens remain indoors on sunny days, which protects their identities and alleviates fear of being discovered for who they really are. While they take many measures to fi t into society, the Cullens are still targets of rumor, suspicion and doubt. Typical of stereotypes that accompany those who deviate from the perceived norm, the Cullens are too white, too beautiful and too aloof.

Because other high school students have diffi culty with their perceptions of the Cullens, they don’t interact with them unless they’re forced. They cannot figure out why the Cullens are so distant and vague and so they are labeled “weird” and “different.”

The Cullens are seen as clannish and dismissive of other students, thus reinforcing the prejudicial behavior ascribed to them by their high school peers. “They don’t like us anyway, so why should we bother with those Cullens who are strange?” is the students’ philosophy.

From the book’s outset, Bella Swan’s skin tone is a topic of discussion. Her pale complexion is noted in frequent discussions. She is from Arizona but is not tan, and lacks an olive hue. I wonder if Bella’s pale skin was one reason Edward is attracted to her. Bella’s lack of coloring was comfortable for him, familiar because it mimicked his own physical makeup.

Meyers takes readers on a journey into the rich traditions and culture of the Quileute Tribe, but the uniqueness of the Cullen clan of vampires provides insight into issues of diversity through a cultural perspective that refl ects the issues of prejudice, discrimination, stereotypes, acculturation and historical familiarity.

Reach Williams-Clarke at
clarkes@marshall.edu
or 304.696.4676