Interview with a Vampire

In this week’s reading, Interview with a Vampire, one thing that stood out to me is how Anne Rice portrayed an interesting perspective on a nontraditional family. The novel is based on the vampire life story of Louis, showing how becoming a vampire impacts his life morally as well as emotionally. Lestat, the vampire that transforms Louis, is who louis seems to depend on throughout nearly the entire novel. It was an interesting power play introduced by Lestat from the very beginning, when he changed louis. He was able to find the vulnerability in Louis and used that to his own advantage. Lestat almost made it seem like Louis had a choice in the matter of transforming with his controling demenor. He controlled the household they shared and was Louis's only way to live. He taught him how to feed, and made him seem lesser for only sucking the blood of animals. This ended up being morally taxing on Louis through the novel, the stress of feeding, and the guilt of killing. Louis and Lestat’s dynamic through the whole novel was representative of a toxic codependent relationship. Two men who lived together, who fed together, and who had no choice in living a long life together, often had completely different methods and opinions. The family aspect began with the introduction of Claudia. Claudia, a 5 year old child, became depended on her newly found vampire fathers. She was transformed by Lestat after Louis had nearly killed her during a feed, but since she was just a child she was not as powerful. They both had to take care of Claudia which seemed to bring the two men closer together. Though Claudia ends up resenting Lestat so much for transforming her when she was just a child, she ends up trying to kill him, leaving just Louis and Claudia to fend for themsleves. But soon after Lestat's death, the two of them move to Paris, but are captured by another group of vampires. Though Louis manages to escape, there is no way for Claudia to stay out of the sun and dies. Leaving Louis to suffer completely alone and completely dismantling the family he once had.