So, it was probably a given that I would write about "Breaking Dawn" this weekend, but even I didn't anticipate what would strike me about the movie.
Of course, there's the beautiful wedding. There's the love story. There's the drama of death giving birth to new life. There are so many possible topics.
But what really grabbed my attention about the way "Breaking Dawn" is brought to life on film is the story of belonging, and the significance of that feeling to our lives.
The most obvious portrayal of belonging is the Quileute wolf pack. Because of the tight bonds within the pack, one member can't think without the other members hearing the thought. They operate as a unity. They belong together.
Less obvious, but equally compelling as the substantive bonds are tightened, is the sense of belonging within the Cullen Clan. The members of the Cullen family are related by venom, not blood, but as they struggle to support, love and protect each other, their bonds are no less strong than if they truly were family.
When Bella's seemingly foolhardy decision to follow through with her "vampire" pregnancy puts the Cullen Clan at even greater odds with the Quileute pack, the two groups seem destined to rip each other to shreds. Up to this point, the two have endured a quiet and uneasy peace--both groups honoring a treaty that allows both to coexist in an otherwise intolerable scenario.
Bella believed she was trading her human life with the potential of traditional marriage and family for a forever fantasy as a vampire. Her fantasy comes crashing to the Earth as the impossibility of motherhood creates a connection with something even stronger than the connection she has with Edward. The connection of motherhood and family is actually strong enough to die for.
We watch as Bella's connections to her human life seem to be unraveling. As she leaves for her honeymoon, she is saying good by to her human family. Until this point, Bella's connection has appeared to be loose at best. It is only when she must cut her ties that the choice of giving up those connections becomes real. She seems only to truly understand the meaning of her connection with her family group when she is leaving it behind.
These kinds of strong connections become a common theme in the book as well as the movie, but the movie projects the theme so profoundly that it is easy to identify with the pain and struggle we all experience when those kinds of connections come under threat or are coming apart.
As Jacob watches Bella wasting away, the connection he has with her begins to deteriorate as well. As he struggles to cope with Bella's choice, he forms a bond with his enemies that becomes stronger than the bond he shares with his fellow pack members. The bond is strengthened because everyone is pulling together to save Bella's life. The bond within the Quileute pack strengthens because of biology and the threat that Bella's choice presents to the greater humanity the wolves have vowed to protect.
Sometimes connections falter because of such choices. Sometimes our strong bonds are challenged by our convictions and what we know in our hearts is right. We find ourselves on the outside--on the periphery of the "packs" of which we have long been a part. At those times, we find the pain of our struggle to do what's right equal to the pain of the connections that loosen.
Bella's decision to sacrifice herself for the life of her child, destroys the uneasy peace between the Quileute pack and the Cullen Clan. Two groups who had worked together to turn away the threat of Victoria and her newborns find themselves at irreconcilable odds and the only solution is to fight each other to save what each group is unwilling to sacrifice--be it principle or family, respectively.
The chaotic struggle is difficult to watch, in part because ultimately both groups actually share the same values, but express those values in different ways. Both share the desire to protect innocent life, but they differ on the definition of innocent.
I think we all find ourselves in those situations, though probably not to the same dramatic degree. We're often trying to go the same direction as others, but have different ideas about how to get there. We sometimes let those differing ideas separate us, instead of working hard to protect our connections and to pull together. Our group dynamics and connections with each other become fragmented and torn.
If you've read this far, it's probably because you know the story of Edward and Bella, and you know that Bella survives her gamble and that the child from her union with Edward survives. If you know all that, you also know that Jacob finds himself irrevocably connected to Bella and Edward's child.
In the end, it is connection that saves us. It is connection that gives us our sense of hope, meaning, and self. Whether those connections are with our family groups or with groups of close friends, they are no less invaluable for us. In those moments where the connections are injured, we don't always know how we will be drawn back together. Sometimes, we are restrung by the shared values we have to rediscover, or a future that arrives before we know how to see it.
We belong.
We Belong--Pat Benatar
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