Steph Saranchuk
Mrs. McConkey
ENG 3UE
December 5, 2011
How has this novel influenced your view on current media?
After completing my reading of Dracula, I noticed that my perception of the current media craze with vampires was forever altered. Going into to this assignment I was underwhelmed by the whole thing, but after reading this book I had a greater respect for this genre. What this novel did was it forced me to look at the evolution of vampires. I saw how vampires used to be something scary, that struck fear into the hearts of all that heard their name. This is not always the case today.
In Dracula, Dracula is a blood thirsty monster, who wants nothing more than to fulfill his selfish desires. Upon reading this novel I started to look into the evolution of other vampires. From Dracula and further research I came to the conclusion that vampires in the early 1900's were much like a nightmare and represented people's fear of the unknown. Later on in the 60's and 70's vampires were very desirable as the outlaw role because they were dangerous and created pathos. Then in the 90's vampires became mainly for the youth much like they are today. In the present decade vampires have become very sexual and more mortal. They have become creatures that we finally want to be like, they have become human.
I found the evolution of vampires from someone to be feared, to the current vampire, who is like the guy next door, quite outrageous. At first I found this quite hard to except that we had drifted so far from the roots, creating something almost laughable. This was only the case until I started to examine it further. I started to think about why this occurred, then I finally got it. Society has changed, and the evolution of vampires has mirrored this. We have changed the vampires to reflect our current societal values and experiences. This is when my respect for the vampires of today sparked. I started to see how truly amazing it is that vampires have lasted this far. They truly have enduring qualities that make them classics. While many of the characters of the 1800's faded with time, vampires have not. When confronted with adversity, their popularity fading, writers have freshened up the theme, making a new, revitalized look for vampires.
From this information I have discovered a new found respect for vampires. I went into this assignment with a disgust for vampires and their writers. I felt that vampires had become overly sensationalized with no real content behind them. I found it very difficult to enjoy a movie or respect the writers of a movie where vampires sparkle and are moody teenagers. After looking at the evolution of vampires from Dracula to now, this completely changed. Although I may not always enjoy the current media that vampires exist in, I can now at least respect them. The writers of these movies have worked hard to revitalize the vampire to something that can be appreciated and they have succeeded. From now on my opinion of the entire vampire cult will be that of respect and admiration.
