Interview With the Vampire
By: Anne Rice
Terri Thampan 804
So, recently a lot of stuff happened in my book. Like the attempted Murders of Lestat! We still don't know if he's survived the last murder "attempt" as in he hasn't made another appearance yet to say that he's still alive. Claudia and Louis go around looking for other vampires; find some that are absolutely barbaric (as in they just attack and kill and don't even seem to be capable of thought); go back to France, this time Paris, and meet some vampires that can actually think!
So as I read on, I started to realize that my suspicions about the book were slowly being answered. This book is about gay vampires. I thought so. I was sort of rooting for Lestat and Louis as like they had a kid together (A.k.a Claudia)! Also, Louis is starting to take back his harsh judgments about Lestat. Then, the whole Armand (the oldest vampire in the vampire group that can think) is in love with Louis made me think one thing; Louis is a player. He is capturing hearts left and right! And he's not even trying! Plus, he actually is a very thoughtful character, as he is a very human vampire.
What I really wanted to talk about was Claudia. Claudia was turned at a very young age. She will forever remain a child because of that. And though her body stays the same, her mind is starting to grow. She grows enough to try and kill one of her father figures, and that's when we first find out that Claudia isn't truly a little girl. She's intelligent and is on a quest for knowledge about her kind. And then, when her hopes are crushed by the barbarians she finds in Europe, and the mindless socialites (mindless in the sense as they don't truly think deeply, they aren't that intelligent, they're just like nobles who think themselves better than everyone else) apart from Armand who apparently just wants her dead, and that causes her to grow too in a sense. She starts acting different, and she starts displaying maturity in a different way.
I find it a saddening thing, what has happened to Claudia. It would come eventually, but she soon becomes a woman. And the sad thing is, she is a woman in a child's body. She has never experienced life, for she was dead before she could truly live. She is stuck as a child, and longs for what she cannot have. What she sees are women who are much younger than her (She's been a vampire for quite a while) who have bodies that she herself wants and longs for. She wants to look like an adult so that people stop treating her as a child. It's really easy to relate to her, as in most kids want to be treated equally with adults, especially teenagers. This is a woman who is older than most adults alive, but because she is in the body of a child, she is treated as a child, and no one truly takes her seriously. I myself feel for Claudia because she finds that her state is fragile and needs to be protected and somewhat useless as it can't truly fight, for she has such tiny appendages (I think she was turned at the age around 6 years). This longing for a better, more mature body is what drives her to hate Louis as much as she loves him. It's a very sad thing, and a very unhappy ending. I guess for vampires, long lives can make one unhappy, and then unhappy endings arise from an ever growing and maturing mind.
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