My group chose to read Anne Rice’s Interview With a Vampire primarily to be able to analyze an extremely convoluted gender relationship that we’ve heard oh-so-much about. Personally, I wanted to read this book because I have read the Twilight series, liked it okay, and heard that much of it was based on Rice’s vampire series. The book, however, isn’t written like any normal novel. It’s very similar to The Princess Bride. There are two plots occurring simultaneously; one between the vampire and the interviewer, and the other of the vampire’s tale. So far in the book, the vampire, Louis, is relaying the array of events that led up to and occurred while Louis became a vampire. Louis came from a wealthy New Orleans plantation owning family; since his father died, Louis served as the head of the household, taking care of his mother, younger sister, and younger brother. The interviewer soon is told of how Louis’s brother claims to have seen saints and the Virgin Mary, and that they asked for his family’s property. Louis laughs in his brother’s face when he hears this, and suddenly his brother dies. Louis struggles to determine whether the death was his fault, and ultimately is unable to conclude why his brother died. Louis visits a priest, who claims that the brother had been possessed by the devil. I believe that Louis’s brother was faced with the opportunity to become a vampire, before even Louis had become a vampire or knew vampires existed. My theory is that the vampire Lestat (who would later turn Louis into a vampire) wanted the plantation, so he approached Louis’s brother. Louis’s brother wanted to become a vampire, but in order to do so had to give Lestat all of his family’s property. When Louis denied giving his brother the plantation, his brother was so ashamed to face Lestat again that he killed himself. And that is why Lestat later approached Louis to turn him into a vampire instead, and gain access to the plantation and Louis’s family’s wealth. So far, I don’t know if this theory of mine is correct, or if I will ever know. However, it is true that Louis was approached by Lestat to become a vampire. However, as Louis describes, although he was given the choice, there was no possible way for Louis to deny the proposition.
The story continues as Louis completes his transformation into a vampire, and learns the implications of being a vampire. Lestat serves as Louis’s guide, to teach him how to survive as a vampire. Unfortunately for Louis, he despises Lestat, but he is the only vampire Louis knows, and therefore the only person Louis can learn from.
It’s very interesting, this entire beginning of the book is background and character development, but I still feel as if Lestat and Louis have just been introduced. I automatically am drawn to liking Louis, because the story is told from his perspective, but there are no character attributes that I like about him (he was cruel to his brother and didn’t fight to prevent Lestat from killing innocent people). On the other hand, I hate Lestat, just as Louis does, but have no justification for doing so… he hasn’t done anything to make me hate him yet; I simply hate him because Louis does.
