Greed and Rapacity in Twilight and Vampire Academy: Kleinian Models of Maturation for Young Adult Readers

This paper considers the Twilight novels alongside the Vampire Academy books, as young adult readers regularly invoke these series as touchstones of the contemporary adolescent Gothic genre. The abiding appeal of these vampire novels is related to the ways they reflect the experiences of young adults with the rapacity and greed displayed in our time, especially in our recent financial crises. This paper examines the limitations of Stephenie Meyer's resolution to the conflicts attending growing up among vampires through a comparative analysis of her novels and those of Richelle Mead. The theories of psychologist Melanie Klein about infant development are used to show that these two series represent different responses to the greed of our times. Klein's insights distinguish Meyer's Bella Swan and Mead's Rose Hathaway with respect to their psychic integration and in the way each models a process for readers of dealing with a society structured by vampiric rapacity. Bella learns to control herself in the stage Klein calls persecutory anxiety, but without the larger-scale integration that betokens maturity. She displays an acceptance of the fundamental nature of her world, with no attempt to revise or improve it beyond gaining peace for her own household. Rose achieves a better balance on the personal level, and she works to effect change in the fabric of her society. Her actions convey a message of hope to readers with respect to the struggles they must undergo in their own world. The contrasting way of dealing with societal greed that is exemplified by these books is especially important to young adults who are in the process of developing their personal identity, providing them with assistance with the anxiety attending their changing attitudes to financial responsibilities.