Vampires (Interview with a Vampire)

What do you do when you are immortal? Well it seems the same things humans do, love, hate, and lust, albeit in a different form. Interview With a Vampire to me was like one of those young adult novels set in a high school, just with more mature themes. Louis is in an identity crisis as most young adults, except in this case he’s doomed to it forever. There’s Lestat the bully, Claudia the best friend, The Theatre des Vampires who are the popular kids, and Armand the new love interest. Not actual love interest, but the person who is threatening to ruin your current best friendship, which is in this case with Claudia. The only twist is that they suck blood, and then there’s the issue of what do you do with immortality? Then of course there’s the boy doing the interviewing which in this case I cast as the middle school student who can’t wait to get into high school.

But I can’t hold that against the book because from some research I’ve realized that it was one of the first brooding monster books. As values go, in Interview with a Vampire, I am inclined to believe that the vampires actually represent a lack of moral values. Louis is so different because he still values the pursuit of knowledge, he values his human identity and struggles to keep it. But as much as he tries, it’s simultaneously being destroyed by Lestat and Claudia in vastly different ways. He stays with them out of fear of being alone. It’s a tale of good versus evil, but the struggle is internal. He fights against the nature of a vampire and in the end loses. It’s a story about how with time, values fade. Like how at first Louis was determined to stick to animals, but eventually succumbed to humans. Which brings me to the real life example of politics. Many of the very loud, strongly opinioned far-sided political supporters are young. As they get older, they grow more moderate. Interview with a vampire is a cautionary tale of not letting what you believe in and stand for fade as you get older. You don’t have to be a vampire to get complacent with your place in life.