And That's What It's All About

Lately I have noticed that when I am reading a book I read it not only for the story like most normal people tend to do, but also for the literary content and the message that the author is trying to present. Sometimes when I read a part in a book that really stands out to me, I even mark the page so I can go back later and read it again. I find a story so much more beautiful when you jump in and try to figure out what the author's purpose in writing the story was instead of reading it simply because its a romace novel or an incredible action story. I think it was partially because of this that I enjoyed reading the Harry Potter series so much, but I'm not allowed to write about that yet because Danielle hasn't finished the last book.

Right now, I'm reading through the last few chapters of a book called The Host, and I must say it's one of the strangest books I've ever read. It's basically a story about aliens and how they take over earth, but it's not one of those typical sci-fi alien stories. The aliens(souls as they call them in the book) are just little worm-like creatures who have to be inserted into a body in order to function. They are only a soul, useless without a body as a host. In the story, the souls are living basically this perfect life. Hatred and violence doesn't exist in their world, and the only reason they took over earth was because they truly felt like it was the right thing to do. When they look at earth they see people killing each other every day. They see parents abandoning their children. They see hatred, deciet, hopelessness, and despair; and they feel the need to put an end to it. So they do. And then the world is at peace. I remember at one point in the book they were watching a baseball game on tv and there was a converstation between two players that went something like this, "No, I think you were safe." "No, I'm pretty sure I was touched before I hit home plate. It was definatly an out." It was so ironic because, in our lifestyle, the arguement would be completely opposite. The world now lives a Utopian lifestyle where everybody did the right thing. There was no need for money because everybody was honest. The souls didn't have jobs, they had Callings; and everybody did their part.

One part I marked in my book was when the main soul of the story, her name was Wanderer, began to realize what human life on earth was about. She started to see that maybe turning this corrupted planet into a "perfect" planet wasn't the best thing. She said, "This place(talking about earth) was truly the highest and the lowest of all worlds--the most beautiful senses, the most exquisite emotions...the most malevolent desires, the darkest deeds. Perhaps it was meant to be so. Perhaps without the lows, the highs could not be reached." This is really when I started to pick up on Stephenie Meyer's hidden meaning in this story. I think she's trying to get the point across that there is a reason for all of this imorality. That's a thought I've always struggled with. I never have really understood why God allowed the fall of man to happen. Why did Adam and Eve have to sin in the garden. I always knew that it was part of his plan, but it never made much sense to me.

It's strange how such simple things such as reading a book about aliens taking over the world can open your eyes up to things you never really thought about before.

When Wanderer spends a great amount of time with the few humans left, she really begins to understand what love is. With the souls, everbody "loved" everybody just simply because hate basically didn't exist. With humans, it was different. These were her thoughts,

"What was it that made this human love so much more desirable to me than the love of my own kind? Was it because it was exclusive and capricious? the souls offered love and acceptance to all. Did I crave a greater challenge? This love was tricky; it had no hard-and-fast rules--it might be given for free, as with Jamie, or earned through time and hard work, as with Ian, or comopletely and heartbreakingly unattainable, as with Jared. Or was it simply better somehow? Because these humans could hate with so much fury, was the other end of the spectrum that they could love with more heart and zeal and fire? I didn't know why I had yearned after it so desperately. All I knew was that, now that I had it, it was worth every ounce of risk and agony it had cost.
It was better than I'd imagined. It was everything."

So that's when I figured it out. Or at least I think I have. The reason we need hatred, the reason we need violence, the reason we need deciet, and all other immoral things is because that is what creates love. If none of that existed, then neither would love. And without love, hate wouldn't have meaning either. And now it seems so obvious to me. Why didn't I think of that before? Without hate, love would be non-existant.

~*Elizabeth