Alyssa Abed, Period 8, 04/05/22

 Modern Mythology 2022

Alyssa Abed, Period 8, 04/05/22

Literacy & Learning

In 8th grade I was a part of my school’s book club. The leader of the book club, our school’s librarian, spent a good part of the year trying to get me to read “Interview with the Vampire”. I remember repeatedly assuring him I would and writing it down in my book list and everything. And yet I never got around to it—until now. It wasn’t because I wasn’t interested in reading it or anything like that, it was actually quite the contrary, I just simply never got around to it because I always had something else on hand to read. But, now that I have read it, I’m happy I waited. It was definitely worth the wait, Anne Rice truly created rich and interesting characters that, along with her writing style, kept me engaged despite the delayed climax of the book. The book gives us a refreshing take on the well-loved but somewhat overdone vampire genre. But enough vague summarizing, I want to talk about Claudia. Warning: I know we haven’t finished the book yet in class, but I couldn’t help but go on so…spoilers ahead. This book definitely has a lot of mature themes in it and at the center of that is Claudia. Claudia is fascinating to me. First off, right off the bat I knew she was going to be trouble, not only because of the disturbing ways that she came to be, but also because of the age at which she was turned. 5 years old—that’s when children are still developing social and emotional skills. At that point a child hasn’t started to puzzle out their moral compass or have a strong grip on their own emotions, so it came as no surprise to me that she turned out to be predatory and cold (on top of that, she had bad guidance, think Lestat). Claudia is manipulative through and through and I honestly can’t blame her for it, her fate was sealed the moment Louis picked her up. And while her ill-fated end did take me by surprise, I can’t say I mourned for her. And in a way, I don’t think she would have mourned for herself. Towards the end, justifiably, it seemed like she was beyond tired of being trapped in her body. It was also only fitting that she went out in fire, cleansed. Before we started Interview with the Vampire, we learned a lot about the evolution of vampires through the ages and the symbolism behind them. I’ll be honest, before that lesson, I hadn’t given vampires any deeper thought or analyzed them. I hadn’t once pondered on how they came to exist in mainstream media or even as a myth. That lesson seriously changed my critical perception, not only of vampires, but also of other monsters. On how they came to be. On the cultural aspects behind them. On what they represent. On the symbolism behind them. And on how they’ve evolved with us through the years. I had viewed vampires as these mythical creatures that sucked blood and didn’t age—nothing more. But now I know to look at what these features really hint at, at the monstrous characteristics that actually exist within reality. The vampire has an unsatiated hunger for blood, which can represent a person’s unsatiated lust for power, sex, or money. The drive is so strong in them that they will do anything to get it, even if it means losing their humanity. Louis struggled with that for a long time, with becoming a vampire and the loss of his humanity. His morals. I think that lesson, this book, and everything we’ve been discussing thus far has helped me in coming closer to what my definition of what a monster truly is. I used to firmly separate the monsters in myths and the “monsters” around us every day, but now, I’m not sure how strong that distinction is.