The Host-Final Thoughts as I yet again reach the Conclusion

As stated in the previous post, friendship is a major concept in the novel. Meyer analyzes the complexities of friendship and even the burden that one receives along with newfound friendship. At the beginning of her adventure with the humans, Wanda works hard at her assigned chores, in order to earn a place that she doesnt feel she deserves in the awkard society, striving hard to remain out of sight and out of mind of the large men that will try to kill her. Among these "killer" types are Kyle, Jared, Ian, Andy, Wes and Heath-though it is important to note that the list is endless at the beginning of the story but begins to dwindle as the Wanda's adventure in the caves progresses. This is because the cave dwellers are forced to work with Wanda and are thus exposed to her personality and see her harmless and kind nature. By the end of the novel, Wanda has become friends with almost everyone in the caves and each one of them (even Kyle who tried to kill her not once, but twice by this point) has come to take up a special part in her heart. "I've never had friends like this before. My friends on other planets were all blurred together in my head; the souls were so similar, almost interchangeable in some ways. Walter was distinctly himself. When he was gone, there would be no one who who fill his place exactly" (Meyer 331). This brings up another idea in the novel, that of individuality. Each character that the reader meets adopts a different persona to fit this individuality. Wanda is kind and naive, Jared is dark and passionate like fire, Ian is cool and soothing like water (if he had a soul calling he would be a Comforter), Kyle represents anger and a harsh and hard to deal with personality, Jamie is innocence, and Jeb is spontanaeity. Each character can be considered in some ways to represent a particular elemental symbol or one of the individual emotions of the human being. Friendship is especially important in the novel because it is what leads Wanda to analyze herself and her mission as a soul and finally through the point of view of the host species-she had never before considered their thoughts and feelings and is now thrown head first into their turmoils as she enters the caves. " 'There was no hatred in your heart,' I whispered. 'That you existed is proof that we were wrong. We had not right to take your world from you, Walter. I hope your fairytales are true. I hope you find your Gladdie' " (Meyer 361). Then to furthur delve into this idea of friendship and  personalies analyzes from a group of friends, there is the confliction between Melanie and Wanda. Melanie is loud, hard-headed and rebellious. Wanda is mild, calm, and shy. Like the Chinese symbol of Yin and Yang, the two bring balance to each other. Wanda teaches Melanie that restraint and subordination at times is necessary and will help the individual. An example of this is when Melanie sees Jared and attempts to sway Wanda to embrace him. When Wanda sees the look on Jared's face, she knows that he will not take to this kindly because he does not realize Wanda also has Melanie within her. Therefore, restraint and self-control lead to survival in the 'animalistic' cave society. Melanie then teaches Wanda the need to take control of a situation, the importance to express one's inner feelings and emotions and the need to adopt a mentality that life is too short and "you never know how long you have..." as Melanie would say. Again, everything in this novel ties together-the Ying-Yang balance between Melanie and Wanda, and the resulting life lessons of Melanie, bring up the underlying theme of time-we only have so much time on this Earth and it should not be wasted. In times of struggle, such as the revolution of humans against the alien race that has taken over their society, Meyer is trying to pervay that life is too short to wonder what will happen with love, that one needs to take the plunge into the unknown pond that could contain rejection in order find out how the other person feels. This idea is strong in the imagery of the work, at time you can just picture Melanie sitting in the back of Wanda's mind, frustrated that she cannot be with the love that she had lost, that Wanda restrains her feelings so much. As I reach the end of the book, I have noticed that in my path, I have left about 20 different pages dogeared (Yes-I'm a bit ashamed I have actually dog-eared a precious book, but highlighting has always seemed more destructive to me) with ideas and quotes that I would love to talk about. This post covers about three of the dog-eared pages......I'm tempted to even go ahead and continue on this Host path and analyze it until the end of the story. But, if I do it at the rate I'm going, it might be the end of next year before I finish! That is the sign of a good book, the ability to endlessly study and find new and interesting ideas within pages you have read hundreds upon thousands of times.