Deus Ex Machina literally translates as "the hand of god." It's almost never good to hear someone describe a plot device as the hand of god. It comes to use as the author of a story is the god of the world they are writing. Literally they can do anything with their pen, and if they get stuck the ancient writers used to bring the actual gods in to solve the problem. Think of Homer and the Iliad where Athena literally grabs the hair of Achilles to stop him from slaying Agamemnon. Better yet the Eagles of Middle Earth, who show up always where there is no escape for heroes. Gandalf on the pinnacle of Orthanc, Frodo and Sam in the lava flow of Mt. Doom, the battle of five armies in The Hobbit, and since the Eagles are emissaries of the Valar they literally are a hand of god. To use this concept is cheating, because it means that no matter what problem the hero is in the author can just make up something to get them out.
I'm getting ahead of myself though, let's see what Bella does this time. Bella decides that she needs some girl time and takes a trip to Port Angeles to help her friends Angela and Jessica pick out dresses for the big dance. This isn't intrinsically odd, but there are some unusual tidbits here. The first concerns her in the department store as she is picking helping, "I encouraged her to go with the blue; why not play up the eyes?"
Why not? This is odd because up until now we don't have much of a read on Bella's fashion sense. This line makes it appear as though she is superior, yet again, to her friends. It's entirely devoid of context since the only times she has even remarked on clothing style is in noticing the impeccable style of the Cullens.
We are also made aware that Tyler is claiming that he is taking her to the prom. A two-fold issue because Prom is a late Spring thing and now it's approximately early Spring. This just means that the school really likes to keep the students in a busy schedule. The other thing is that Bella reacts to it with rage. Now, I've been in a situation similar involving a girl in college who was calling me her boyfriend when I barely knew the person. That elicited confusion on my part. To be fair, I don't know how a woman would react if the situation was reversed. Tyler's motive is obvious, he's still trying to make amends for almost pulverizing our intrepid protagonist. The news comes as a surprise to Bella, which is also odd because all of these people sit together at lunch and she knew nothing of this. None of other suitors (Mike and Eric) mentioned it to her. The school is so small but the people are so distant it seems.
The dresses and the all-important, all too mysterious to men, shoes are purchased (we really don't notice them ladies) so the girls decide to go to dinner. Sounds good? Well it doesn't work out. Bella needs some alone time and decides to travel to a book store that she is pretty sure exists in the town. I am not sure what Jessica and Angela are up to since they agree to meet in an hour but they go somewhere. This is where the story takes a sharp turn.
Bella walks around, "I had no trouble finding the bookstore, but it wasn't what I was looking for. The windows were full of crystals, dream-catchers..." she sees the hippy/Wiccan owner decides against it, "I decided that was one conversation that I could skip." In Toledo there used to be one of those shops at the corner of Secor and Central near the Beaner's coffee shop. These types of places are not bookstores even if that's what they call themselves, they are New Age shops. You will find a Philosophy section but it's not Philosophy it's Deepak Chopra, The Secret type of bullshit. The shelves are lined with books on Tarot, Faries, Magic (although with the alternate spelling "magick"). The queer thing about it is that this should be exact type of place Bella needs to visit. There aren't going to be many other places where she could find rows of books on the supernatural, even finding a book on Vampires that will undoubtedly cast them in a good light. I would have skipped it as well, but I don't believe in Vampires.
"I decided to turn East at the next corner, and then loop around after a few blocks..." Our hero makes a series of stupid decisions. The first is to wander around looking for another bookstore that may not actually exist, it would be nice if we knew what she was looking for but since we don't we just follow her around. Instead of staying in the tourist shopping district she wanders in one direction well past the point where the stores are. Then she sees a group of four men that frighten her but she decides to walk past them. That's stupid decision number 2. Her instincts told her to not associate with Anime Eric but now in real danger she decides to toughen up?
Two of the four people are behind her and she is spooked. Meyer does a good job creating the tension. Bella is genuinely frightened and it comes off very well in the writing. Especially with the objection that I would normally have. One of the men cat calls her and then later she notices two of them behind her. Normally I would ask why she was scared, even Bella does so, "Breathe, I had to remind myself. You don't know they're following you."
Excellent. I've walked through some dangerous areas before with people behind me (downtown Detroit was an interesting one), this thought ran through my brain multiple times. People do have places to go that may or may not have anything to do with you. Her initial thought to save herself is to jump in front of a car, I'm not certain where that comes from since it is obviously going to be far more dangerous than she expects. Her paranoia abets itself when she notices that the two men behind her have increased their distance.
Her relief is short lived, "I realized then that I wasn't being followed. I was being herded."
She sees the remaining two in front of her, somehow they anticipated her direction. A completely lost woman, a strange town, and they have expertly pushed her into a trap. A trap, that seems completely unnecessary as she walked right by the four of them on an isolated street earlier.
We don't know what they were planning, we can assume, like Bella, that at the very least they are going to rob her. Bella made a couple of stupid decisions but we're not going to blame the victim. Her fear and the whole situation is extremely well written, conveying both her fear and the attempts of her mind to solve the situation. Her self-deprecation is not only justified here it lends more credibility to her status as a character. She claims that she has no self-confidence and for the first time it appears to be genuine.
As the tension begins to boil and as soon as it does Edward shows up in his Volvo. All of the sudden he comes to her rescue. It was good in the parking lot of the school because it made sense that Edward would be there. In Port Angeles, away from her friends, on an obscure street away from the populated areas for Edward to just show up is going to take a good deal of explaining. Tolkien's Eagles are sent from the gods so it makes at least some sense that they show up in times of peril. Edward isn't the herald of the gods, Meyer has a nice corner to write herself out of.
I'm getting ahead of myself though, let's see what Bella does this time. Bella decides that she needs some girl time and takes a trip to Port Angeles to help her friends Angela and Jessica pick out dresses for the big dance. This isn't intrinsically odd, but there are some unusual tidbits here. The first concerns her in the department store as she is picking helping, "I encouraged her to go with the blue; why not play up the eyes?"
Why not? This is odd because up until now we don't have much of a read on Bella's fashion sense. This line makes it appear as though she is superior, yet again, to her friends. It's entirely devoid of context since the only times she has even remarked on clothing style is in noticing the impeccable style of the Cullens.
We are also made aware that Tyler is claiming that he is taking her to the prom. A two-fold issue because Prom is a late Spring thing and now it's approximately early Spring. This just means that the school really likes to keep the students in a busy schedule. The other thing is that Bella reacts to it with rage. Now, I've been in a situation similar involving a girl in college who was calling me her boyfriend when I barely knew the person. That elicited confusion on my part. To be fair, I don't know how a woman would react if the situation was reversed. Tyler's motive is obvious, he's still trying to make amends for almost pulverizing our intrepid protagonist. The news comes as a surprise to Bella, which is also odd because all of these people sit together at lunch and she knew nothing of this. None of other suitors (Mike and Eric) mentioned it to her. The school is so small but the people are so distant it seems.
The dresses and the all-important, all too mysterious to men, shoes are purchased (we really don't notice them ladies) so the girls decide to go to dinner. Sounds good? Well it doesn't work out. Bella needs some alone time and decides to travel to a book store that she is pretty sure exists in the town. I am not sure what Jessica and Angela are up to since they agree to meet in an hour but they go somewhere. This is where the story takes a sharp turn.
Bella walks around, "I had no trouble finding the bookstore, but it wasn't what I was looking for. The windows were full of crystals, dream-catchers..." she sees the hippy/Wiccan owner decides against it, "I decided that was one conversation that I could skip." In Toledo there used to be one of those shops at the corner of Secor and Central near the Beaner's coffee shop. These types of places are not bookstores even if that's what they call themselves, they are New Age shops. You will find a Philosophy section but it's not Philosophy it's Deepak Chopra, The Secret type of bullshit. The shelves are lined with books on Tarot, Faries, Magic (although with the alternate spelling "magick"). The queer thing about it is that this should be exact type of place Bella needs to visit. There aren't going to be many other places where she could find rows of books on the supernatural, even finding a book on Vampires that will undoubtedly cast them in a good light. I would have skipped it as well, but I don't believe in Vampires.
"I decided to turn East at the next corner, and then loop around after a few blocks..." Our hero makes a series of stupid decisions. The first is to wander around looking for another bookstore that may not actually exist, it would be nice if we knew what she was looking for but since we don't we just follow her around. Instead of staying in the tourist shopping district she wanders in one direction well past the point where the stores are. Then she sees a group of four men that frighten her but she decides to walk past them. That's stupid decision number 2. Her instincts told her to not associate with Anime Eric but now in real danger she decides to toughen up?
Two of the four people are behind her and she is spooked. Meyer does a good job creating the tension. Bella is genuinely frightened and it comes off very well in the writing. Especially with the objection that I would normally have. One of the men cat calls her and then later she notices two of them behind her. Normally I would ask why she was scared, even Bella does so, "Breathe, I had to remind myself. You don't know they're following you."
Excellent. I've walked through some dangerous areas before with people behind me (downtown Detroit was an interesting one), this thought ran through my brain multiple times. People do have places to go that may or may not have anything to do with you. Her initial thought to save herself is to jump in front of a car, I'm not certain where that comes from since it is obviously going to be far more dangerous than she expects. Her paranoia abets itself when she notices that the two men behind her have increased their distance.
Her relief is short lived, "I realized then that I wasn't being followed. I was being herded."
She sees the remaining two in front of her, somehow they anticipated her direction. A completely lost woman, a strange town, and they have expertly pushed her into a trap. A trap, that seems completely unnecessary as she walked right by the four of them on an isolated street earlier.
We don't know what they were planning, we can assume, like Bella, that at the very least they are going to rob her. Bella made a couple of stupid decisions but we're not going to blame the victim. Her fear and the whole situation is extremely well written, conveying both her fear and the attempts of her mind to solve the situation. Her self-deprecation is not only justified here it lends more credibility to her status as a character. She claims that she has no self-confidence and for the first time it appears to be genuine.
As the tension begins to boil and as soon as it does Edward shows up in his Volvo. All of the sudden he comes to her rescue. It was good in the parking lot of the school because it made sense that Edward would be there. In Port Angeles, away from her friends, on an obscure street away from the populated areas for Edward to just show up is going to take a good deal of explaining. Tolkien's Eagles are sent from the gods so it makes at least some sense that they show up in times of peril. Edward isn't the herald of the gods, Meyer has a nice corner to write herself out of.
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