True Blood vs Twilight Essay Example for Free

True Blood vs Twilight Essay The year 2008 saw the book-to-screen translation of two human/vampire love stories: Twilight and True Blood. True Blood, a television show on HBO, is a single volume of the book series Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris. Twilight is an adaptation of the book series by Stephanie Meyer that has transformed into multiple motion pictures. Twilight is set in Forks, Washington where vampires are merely a myth to humans, and True Blood is set in the fictional town Bon Temps, Louisiana, where vampires have come out of hiding to try and cohabitate themselves into human society because of the invention of synthetic blood. When considering the legend and lore of vampires, the characters, and the actual production value of the story, True Blood and the Twilight series run as two dynamically opposite tales. The mythology of vampires puts forth the notion of the undead and their supernatural abilities. True Blood respects the original vampire culture by never straying too far from it’s familiar conventions, such as having fangs, requiring blood for nutrients, burning when exposed to sunlight or silver, and having the ability to fly. As for the under-played Twilight version, the mocking ability of a vampire’s skin sparkling when they step into the sun is almost as threatening as â€Å"My Little Pony†, and taking away the monstrous quality of having fangs completely destroys the classic horror theme. Another over-dramatic trait of Twilight’s vampires is that they do not require sleep, yet they have an immeasurable amount of strength. True Blood holds the more logical approach that vampires must rest during the day or else they will get weak and develop a condition known as â€Å"the bleeds,† where they bleed out of the orifices of their face. Besides the physical characteristics, Twilight has stunted the belief that vampires are an â€Å"equal race†, by giving each of their characters a different ability. For example, in the Cullens family (Twilight), Jasper has the ability to calm a room, Alice can predict the future, and Edward can read humans’ minds (except for Bella’s). Despite these enchanting traits of a rather vicious creature, True Blood keeps it simple and understandable by all of their vampires having the same ability to â€Å"glamour† a human, or mesmerize them, and have super speed and strength (when well rested). Twilight’s â€Å"glamour vamps† lack excitement and originality while True Blood’s vamps wear their entire being on their cold, lifeless sleeves. A crucial component for building hope and suspense for a reader would consist of having well-suited characters that add spark to the story. Twilight tells the viewers about the potential plot that could unfold, leaving no suspense, whereas True Blood’s viewers have a visual component, making it easier to connect and empathize with the characters. Twilight’s Bella Swan is a self-conscious, introverted human teenager, while True Blood’s Sookie Stackhouse is an independent, strong-willed human waitress. Both heroines seem to find themselves fascinated with the vampires they each encounter and eventually struggle with their lovers’ â€Å"dark side†. When Bella first sees Edward, she is instantly attracted to him but does not outwardly express it and does not initially insert her interest in any way, unlike Sookie who strikes a conversation with Bill as soon as she sees him and later saves his life all within the first episode. Twilight’s Edward Cullen seems to be an egotistical snob that talks a big talk but takes action demonstrating his â€Å"vampire† abilities, especially when compared to True Blood’s Bill Compton, who will use his supernatural powers to any extent when it deems necessary to him, even though his being a vampire shames him. Edward only speaks of being a threat to his lover, Bella, while on the other hand, Bill stakes another vampire in the second season to save Sookie’s life (a criminal act worth the death penalty in the vampire world). Both vampires demonstrate their love, but Bill clearly acts on his feelings and instincts as a supernatural creature rather than Edward, who basically sits and complains about his negative self image. True Blood, being a television show of three seasons, has had the luxury of thirty-six hours of run-time to shape their story, describe their world, and add depth to their characters, whereas Twilight has had less than eight hours (including all three motion pictures) to evolve it’s repetitive love story. While Meyer’s story revolves around teenage angst, True Blood caters to a more mature audience by giving them heaping doses of adult content, like: sex, violence, and tons of blood. By True Blood integrating vampires into a modern-type society, it allows the show to tackle things that are normally controversial like racism, segregation, and religion. In contrast, Twilight simply keeps vampires hidden away from the human race, spending most of their budget on special effects and young, attractive actors, serving to the youth culture. Twilight strains its ability to genuinely connect with the audience by having one of the main characters, Bella, narrate the movie from a first-person perspective, limiting the audience to her emotions and point-of-view. Although Sookie Stackhouse is the main character of the story, the plot is not limited solely to her perspective; True Blood makes sure that there is plenty of time spent developing the other main characters’ story lines that solidifies the show’s strong ensemble cast that includes: Sookie’s younger, air-headed brother Jason, her strong best friend Tara, Tara’s gay cousin Lafayette, Sam the bar-owning shapeshifter, and Eric the vampire sheriff of Louisiana. When diving into possibilities of a fantasy on screen, there is always a pinch of realism needed in the story in order keep the viewer grounded in reality. By basing the series on the possible outcomes of vampires and humans incorporating their worlds, True Blood stays true to the egregiousness of the vampire reputation. Twilight minimally does the same thing every year or so, while lacking the excitement that True Blood gives it’s viewers on a weekly basis. True Blood is a fiendishly fun and breath-takingly baleful series featuring insane characters filled with life and thrill, while Twilight is a teen centric sulk-fest filled with silence and shame.

Granite :: essays research papers

Granite Vigorously wiping off the dead grass and dandelion petals from the rock, the girl’s hand brushed a jagged edge roughly. As she quickly drew her hand away for examination, she saw what her hand had lain upon. The right upper corner of the baby’s headstone was broken off. She took a moment to contemplate her blood expanding into the crevices and gullies of the edge’s gap. She scanned the knoll ahead and around it and spotted the chunk. She walked over and picked it up, her knuckles getting whiter every second as she clutched the severed edge firmer and firmer. Then she spotted the culprit. An old rusted mower and a tactless, overweight nimrod with gray hair crowning it. With a shot of adrenaline, she hurled the stone edge after the tractor. Had this man no respect for the souls he so violently cut over? The stone dropped ten feet short, and the man was oblivious to it. The girl, innocent and full of rage, dropped to her knees at her deceased brother’s headstone. The only way she’ll ever see him. Only one tear fell the whole night, though. She wasn’t as mad as she was blown away at the whole idea that, even though he was her older sibling, he’d always be preserved in time, like the granite above him, as a four-day-old infant. She considered this while shifting her vision to the huge slab of white stone near the left road. This was the children’s saint, with most of the children buried around it. When her family came to the grave when she was in grade school, she used to love to climb on the smooth stone and hear the sparrows in their tiny trees dotting the plateau of the dead. She shook this thought off with a cold shiver as the first droplets of a new rain fell tumbling on her jersey. Her eyes showed she was inattentive to it while she kneeled, slowly outlining the word "Joey" with her left pinky. She’d always regretted the fact that she never felt any real depression from his death, but how could she? She wasn’t even a twinkle in her parents’ eye when it happened.

Identified

The Struggle life of a Mexican-American In today's society, racial profiling is not unheard of, actually it is quite common. It is still at debate whether the act of racial profiling in moral or not. In the essay â€Å"Exile. El Paso, Texas†, Saenz describes his personal experience of discrimination due to his ethnic background. Saenz is a Mexican-American and because he lives in El Paso, which is a border town, he is often mistaken for an illegal immigrant by other Americans. Throughout the essay, Saenz’s feeling about his identity as an American had changed.He feels like he is always being judged by Americans sorely on his appearances. Towards the beginning of his essay, Saenz feels like he belonged to America and he had a positive view about everything around him, special is the nature throughout his desk view. Saenz says, â€Å"I looked out my window and stared at the Juarez Mountains. Mexican purples – burning. † (p. 20). We can see that Saenz is enjo ying his desk view. He goes further in describing how he feels, â€Å"All this color, all this color, all this color beneath the shadow of the Juarez Mountains.Sunset Heights: a perfect place with a perfect name, and a perfect view of the river. † (p. 20). These colors, especially the purple, represent the beauty of El Paso for him. At this point, it is easy for Saenz to find the beauty of El Paso. But later, Saenz's feeling had changed because Saenz is stopped on the streets of his neighborhood and questioned by the border patrol officers. When she first saw him, she suspected that Saenz was not American. She asked him where he came from and later she repeated the question in Spanish because the thought Saenz could not understand English.Even thought Saenz said he was a U. S citizen, she still kept her suspicious about his identify and kept asking him some questions to make sure. Despite the rude questioning of the female border patrol officer, Saenz tried to stay friendly a nd appeasing. Afterwards, Saenz regreted the way he handled the situation saying, â€Å"I was embarrassed, ashamed because I'd been so damned compliant like a piece of tin foil in the uniformed woman's hand. † (p. 22). At the same time Saenz becomes annoyed and says to himself, â€Å"pretty soon I'll have to carry a passport in my own neighborhood. â€Å"( p. 22).Because he thinks when people stops him and starts to ask him the same questions, he would show them the passport to confirm that he is American then they cannot be mean to him. Besides, Saenz was affected by the questions of the border patrol officer and the attitudes, so he tried to do anything to get these questions out of his mind. As the result, he went for a run, he kept running until he could no longer hear â€Å" Are you sure you were born in Las Cruces? †. The next encounter, the border patrol officers still had doubt about him and they asked him some question such as: â€Å"Do you live in this nei ghborhood? , â€Å"Where down the street? † (p. 23). But in this encounter, he became more confident for his answers and with each pursuing officer Saenz becomes more aggressive. He replied they:† are you planning on making a social visit? â€Å"(p. 23). Couple months later, he was stopped again and be asked by the similar questions:† where are you from? † (p. 24). Saenz was so upset and he asked them to leave him alone. In another day, when he was in Juarez with his friend, Michael, the custom officer asked them to declare their citizenship.After they answered that they was U. S citizens, the officer kept asking Saenz about where he was born in America and did not ask Michael. In this situation, Saenz noticed that his friend did not be asked about the identity because he had blue eyes, white skin which makes him look like an American. Thus, Saenz feels like he was being discriminated against because his appearance. Saenz's total shift is completed in his f inal confrontation of the essay. In this run in with the border patrol Saenz's defiance is most blatant.Saenz is pushed past his threshold and snaps, saying to the officer, â€Å"Read me my rights, throw me in the can, or leave me alone. â€Å"(p. 26) The reader is able to view Saenz's change in attitude. Saenz feeling of annoyance turns to pure hatred. Saenz states, â€Å"He hated me as much as I hated him. â€Å"(p. 26). We can see the feeling of Saenz had changed from the beginning through the end of the essay. When the first meet up with the female border patrol officer, he did not get upset about what she acted to him and her rude questions.Nevertheless, his feeling had changed day by day because of the behavior of the officers that makes him feel like he is separated from his neighborhood. Saenz’s lifestyle has been an ongoing struggle for him because of all the harassments and discrimination he encountered in El Paso. He realized that people judged him sorely based on his appearance and treats him different than his other American friends just because he doesn’t look like an ideal American. Throughout the essay he becomes less and less aware of his identity and who he really is.

True Breeding Plant A Definition in Biology

A true-breeding plant is one that, when self-fertilized, only produces offspring with the same traits. True-breeding organisms are genetically identical and have identical  alleles for specified traits. The alleles for these type of organisms are homozygous. True-breeding plants and organisms may express phenotypes that are either homozygous dominant or homozygous recessive. With complete dominance inheritance, dominant phenotypes are expressed and recessive phenotypes are masked in heterozygous individuals. The process by which genes for particular traits are transmitted was discovered by the scientist and abbot Gregor Mendel (1822–1884) and formulated in what is known as Mendels law of segregation. Examples The gene for seed shape in pea plants exists in two forms, one form or allele for round seed shape (R) and the other for wrinkled seed shape (r). The round seed shape is dominant to the wrinkled seed shape. A true-breeding plant with round seeds would have a genotype of (RR) for that trait and a true-breeding plant with wrinkled seeds would have a genotype of (rr). When allowed to self-pollinate, the true-breeding plant with round seeds would produce only progeny with round seeds. The true-breeding plant with wrinkled seeds would only produce progeny with wrinkled seeds. Cross-pollination between a true-breeding plant with round seeds  and a true-breeding plant with wrinkled seeds (RR X rr)  results in offspring (F1 generation) that are all  heterozygous dominant for round seed shape (Rr). Self-pollination in F1 generation plants (Rr X Rr) results in offspring (F2 generation) with a 3-to-1 ratio of round seeds to wrinkled seeds. Half of these plants would be heterozygous for round seed shape (Rr), one quarter of them would be homozygous dominant for round seed shape (RR), and one quarter would be homozygous recessive for wrinkled seed shape (rr).