Trinity Jin, Period 1, 05/05/22

Literacy & Learning

Write about your thoughts regarding any of the fiction or non-fiction covered in class. Reflect on any new information you have learned in English class by considering how that learning influences your critical perception. How is what you’re learning applied to any other classes/the world around you?

Recently, we read Anne Rice’s Interview With The Vampire, which essentially documented the life of Louis and how his path became intertwined with Lestat when he was persuaded to choose immortality over death. This novel enlightened me on the topic of morality and made me question how we can decipher right from wrong when the lines become blurred. From Lestat’s perspective, he states, “God kills, and so shall we; indiscriminately He takes the richest and the poorest, and so shall we; for no creatures under God are as we are, none so like Him as ourselves” (88). In his mind, Lestat believes vampires play a role in the divine plan because he acts as if he is God himself, whereas Louis struggles between his human and vampire natures. Louis is constantly concerned that being a vampire automatically makes him evil and therefore, fights his instincts to feed on human blood by feeding only on animals. However, his desire for human blood eventually consumes him and he succumbs to his urges, yet he continues to detest himself for each kill. When Claudia dies, Louis becomes emotionally detached and allows himself to give in completely to his vampire nature, losing all sense of humanity in the process. Throughout the reading, we learn that vampires are simply following their natural instincts when they feed on human blood, so is it fair to fault them for that? Or are they so fundamentally similar to humans that the moral principles still apply? Is it wrong for them to feed on humans if they have the option to feed on animal blood instead? Could their instincts be compared to how humans choose to eat animals when vegetarianism is an option? This novel raises the issue of morality and while it has shown how it can be difficult to distinguish between right and wrong in certain situations, it has also enlightened me on its application to morality in the real world.