We’ve been kind of waiting for this section, because it’s part of the explanation of what exactly Edward and the Cullens are. On the other hand it’s difficult because Bella has no reason to believe that Edward is anything more than a dreamy sociopath who is paying out random compliments and affection like a sentient slot machine. Before we get down to it let’s look at the “proof” that Bella has: she perceives a color transition in his eyes that is correlative with his mood, he sits isolated with his family from the others, he is convincing when he needs to be, and there is the miraculous way in which he saved her from the accident…which again is a great leap of logic that she makes. None of this points to him being anything other than a normal person aside from the certain personality traits that he shares with Ted Bundy.
All the kids are at Mike’s party at the beach. They have just returned from the tidal pools (and an example of a great description) when Bella notices that the number of kids have swelled. It seems that some of the locals from the reservation (you Jacob fans can inhale now) have joined the other kids at the beach. None of them are given much attention, the leader of the group is noticed because he is older and obviously there leader in a way that Mike is for the Forks kids. One of them is given some particular attention because he notices Bella who for once does a good job at catching a name, “…and the one that noticed me was Jacob.” (Now you can exhale)
They have history together, it seems that Bella’s father bought the truck off of his father and as young children they used to hang out together. A nice reunion but something is amiss. The jealous catty girls don’t like that Bella is getting attention again and one of them mentions that they thought Edward and the Cullens were going to show up. The older reservation kid snaps back, “The Cullens don’t come here,’ he said in a tone that closed the subject, ignoring her question…his tone had implied something more–that they weren’t allowed; they were prohibited.”
That’s one interpretation, and reluctantly I have to admit it’s realistic. Bella has dreamed up some fantasy around Edward and since the Cullens don’t come to the reservation it’s actually consistent that she would think they were barred for some reason or another. We are spared her magical reasoning, but not her intense curiosity regarding the situation. She eyes up Jacob, who is showing a great deal more interest in her than anyone else. She seeks him out, in a sense of inconsistent confidence luring him to a private walk on the beach like a creep in a van with promises of candy or puppies in order to extract information from him, and I wish I was just making assumptions about her but I’m not. “I hoped that young Jacob was as yet inexperienced around girls, so that he wouldn’t see through my sure to be pitiful attempts at flirting.”
Jacob, who is 15, takes the bait. Bella certainly has learned something from Edward, unfortunately it’s how to manipulate people into telling them whatever she wants though. However, she doesn’t need magical super powers to do so, in the end that means she’s better at it at the age of 17 than Edward is at around 100. Still, it does mean that I feel sorry for poor Jacob, a sentiment that I’m told is going to be consistent throughout the book series, he’s just a poor kid being led around by feelings that he barely has a grasp on. The first thing he does is betray his people’s tribal secrets which aren’t supposed to be shared with the pale faces (his words not mine).
The first story, “The ancient Quileutes tied their canoes to the tallest trees on the mountain to survive like Noah and the Ark.” The above quote is a bit out of context, Meyer doesn’t imply that Noah and his family did the same thing, but that’s how the indigenous people survived the flood. It’s a nice bone to throw because it explains how a group of people that are older than the flood but didn’t originate in the Middle East exist at all. I wonder two things though: how did Aboriginal Australians do it and save the Koala at the same time? And secondly does this mean that God’s plan at worldwide genocide wasn’t fool proof?
The second story he tells is that his people are descended from wolves, consider them relatives, and that is why it is illegal to kill a wolf for a Quileute. He says that the original people of his tribe would be called werewolves by Bella’s people.
The third story revolves around the “cold ones.” We know what they are, it’s unclear if Bella does but Jacob isn’t that great a story teller no matter what Bella says to goad him along. His label has no context, he never explains why they are called “cold,” but we know what to expect so we just skip over it (which is why I read each section twice…I missed it the first time), it needs context because there is no reason thus far in Meyer’s world to think they exist other than that we read the back cover of the book before we purchased it. In movies this is called, “breaking the fourth wall,” an appeal to the audience. C3P0, in the Star Wars saga does this repeatedly.
Like every story that has Vampires and Wolves, “the cold ones are traditionally our enemies,” says Jacob without, again, explaining why this is the case. He might be nervous about betraying the trust of his tribe, and he’s clearly not thinking with the bone atop his shoulders, but this is the “big reveal” and one of the few times pages and pages of explanation are actually permitted in a story. He should go on, and Bella should be encouraging him for more information but she doesn’t. She doesn’t because in her head Jacob is just confirming something she suspects, Edward is even more dreamy because he’s actually different.
Meyer though rescues herself. Jacob explains that a truce exists between the cold ones and his people as long as the Cullens stay the hell off the reservation. It seems that Dr. Carlisle isn’t descended from that original pack of cold ones, his is the exact same pack with two new additions–a man and a woman. Predictable, as to who one of the new ones are, but not trite so we let it slide. Finally he explains what a cold one is, “Blood drinkers,’ he replied in a chilling voice, ‘Your people call them vampires.”
“Blood drinkers?” Sigh, a good writer should do her research and come up with something like this, “uno’nu okwe.”* Which means “cold person” in the language of the Seneca Nation of Indians. The whole thing about her people calling them ‘vampires’ is moot because Jacob’s people don’t seem to have a word for them. It wouldn’t really matter if there is no actual word in Quileute for the concept, but if she’s getting her information from the cliche of the wise native it should sound like it’s coming from them, just come up with something from one of the languages or choose the one that sounds/looks the coolest. They did in the movie Stigmata, where the Gospel of Jesus was supposed to be written in Aramaic but the movie used Ancient Hebrew because it looked better on film. The real “pale faces” reading the book aren’t going to know, and I wouldn’t have taken the time to look it up if there was something there.
Jacob, though, has outlived his usefulness and Bella promises to see him again but she’s full of shit. She’s teased enough information out of him that she’s satisfied and it is coincidentally time for them to leave. She lays her head down in the car and tries not to think about everything. Which is nice because it shows how gullible she really is, some kid looking to hook up tells her exotic stories of his people and she buys every single word of it. We know Jacob isn’t lying, so far he’s the least manipulative character in the story, but she isn’t even the least skeptical. Even the odd story of the flood didn’t raise an alarm in her. I know people that have used unique ethnic backgrounds and weird ancestral stories to impress girls, and it’s very similar to what happened here. The only difference is that Jacob, so far the most like able character, didn’t want to say anything. However now he has gotten a taste of it, Bella might have unwittingly doomed large numbers of women to an attractive man with unique stories when he gets older. The damage this book does just keeps going up.
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*Elapsed time in looking that up: ~5 minutes
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