Individual Text Feature: The Host

Ashley Noel

LIT 4333

Individual Text Feature

The Host by Stephenie Meyer

Stephenie Meyer’s The Host features an Earth invaded by “peaceful” aliens. In a scientific fiction twist, Meyer utilizes dystopian society to question humanity, philosophy, and normal gender roles in regards to the female hero. 

The novel introduces a new species called the Souls, parasitic aliens that live and control the bodies of other lifeforms. These souls have an interesting moral complex. While preaching peace and tranquility, they justify their invasions of different planets with ethics. Essentially, if they believe the species of a given planet is damaging or wasting its resources away, the Souls will proceed to take over. They have an implantation procedure where the lifeforms are anesthetized, cut, and later the Soul is placed inside. Typically after the Soul is placed, the consciousness of the life form disappears leaving only knowledge and memories. Souls naturally are kind and despise any form of violence. They are advanced lifeforms. Souls are not gendered as other species are. Wanderer’s past lifeforms were female or rather were of the child bearing variety. Thus, she identifies as female more easily. Another interesting topic to explore: the idea of gender normativity.

The host starts with the implantation of Wanderer, a Soul, into the body of a teenage girl named Melanie Stryder. Only problem is that Melanie is spitfire who refuses to submit to Wanderer. Melanie represents the resistance or the rebel humans who are in hiding. Now a unique problem exists. The Soul cannot suppress the conscience of Melanie. As a result, Wanderer can’t tap into her memories and try to find the other rebels. This inability worries the other Souls. Wanderer’s advisor, Seeker, starts suggesting more surgical procedures to excise Melanie. Wanderer, however, doesn’t like Seeker nor does she want to surgical remove Melanie. Here Meyer introduces another facet of humanity: compassion. Despite Melanie’s resistance, she ultimately can not completely block out Wanderer. The Soul eventually gets peak at Melanie’s memories and sees her younger brother Jamie and her boyfriend Jared. In effort to protect them, Melanie uses her memories to convert Wanderer to her side. Ultimately, Mel’s plan works as Wanderer soon garners compassion for Jamie and attraction for Jared through the memories. 

Eventually, Melanie and Wanderer form a friendship that leads Melanie to divulge clues to Uncle Jeb’s hideaway. Melanie’s uncle has a large group of people hidden in deep in some caves in Arizona. With their newfound companionship, Mel and Wanderer try to make their way there and hopefully find Jamie. One problem remains: Seeker is still on their tail. While Wanderer no longer fully agrees with the practice of her people, Seeker still prescribes to the notions of their superiority. Here is another issue I would like to develop: humanity. The Souls would describe themselves as peaceful, and yet, they are comfortable with total invasion of multiple planet. They remind me a of misguided hand or entity that thinks what they are doing is for the greater good. That also makes me question what exactly is the greater good? Who does that really affect? 

Melanie and Wanderer lose Seeker in the desert in Arizona. Luckily Uncle Jeb finds Melanie’s dying body and brings her into the hideaway. When they finally wake up, they are met with a very scared and skeptical crowd of rebels. They know that Wanderer is inside of Melanie’s body and don’t believe that Melanie still exists. After much debate and the pleas of Jamie, they decide not to kill Wanderer and thus Melanie, but instead give her kitchen duty and place her under strict supervision. At this time, Wanderer gets the nickname “Wanda” from Jeb. This change signifies her acceptance by some of the humans. Nicknames provide a sense of familiarity and camaraderie. Wanda gets closer with Jamie. He is excited to have some form of communication with his sister. Jared, Melanie’s boyfriend, is very wary of Wanda at first. But as time passes, he begrudgingly accepts Wanda. The rest of the rebels follow suit as Wanda is a hard worker who never complained about any discrimination or judgment. There are some that are resistant to accepting her.

Wanda’s biggest threat in the hideaway is Kyle O’Shea, who harbors intense hatred for Souls since they captured his significant other Jodie. At one point, Kyle tries to drown Wanda though Jeb ordered that she not be harmed. Wanda shows her compassion and saves Kyle who almost drowns in his attempt at murder. Again Wanda makes me questions what is humanity. While humanity includes being “human”, she portrays a lot of facets that humans and Souls lack. In essence, she is a hybrid and I think that represents the gray area that is humanity. Another character filled with compassion is Ian, Kyle’s brother. He befriends Wanda easily and ultimately falls in love with her while she’s in Melanie’s body. 

Major conflict arises when the Seeker finds her way out of the desert and close to the caves. The rebels capture her and another ethical situation is posed: should they kill her or should they spare her? Wanda ultimately tells Doc how to excise Souls. They put Seeker in a capsule that sends her back to her home planet. They don’t need to fear retribution because it takes over thousand human years to get back. Selfless Wanda now wants to do right by Melanie and leave her body. The others find out about Wanda’s premeditated suicide and stop it before it can come to fruition. They instead place her in other human body, which could not be restore. Ian still loves Wanda and doesn’t care about her form. Everyone ends up with a significant other even Kyle who falls for the Soul placed inside his girlfriend’s body.

Ultimately, I want to focus on the development of the female hero within dystopian novels. Melanie and Wanda are both strong female that gain their strength and redeeming qualities in different ways. They are parallels of each other. Melanie becomes strong to survive in stressful situations while Wanda is product of her environment and culture. I’d like to track how the differences between the two and see how it reflects trends in YA literature. Additionally all the existential questions about humanity and ethics bring an hint of realism to the novel making its readers decide for themselves the shades of gray in life. I’d also like to track how romance in the novel follows YA trends. Is it to further the plot device or just to appease a hormonal crowd of readers?