Twilight Lexicon Discussion Forums

A friend of mine has my book right now or else I would look it up to be 100% sure, but I do remember thinking when reading the book that it seemed like he was falling for Bella more while she was pregnant. I could be wrong, and you could be right, but I'm pretty sure I remember thinking it, so when I get my book back I'll be sure to look through it to see why I thought that cuz it was for some reason.

Well, I just read parts of it last night, while searching for a particular exchange between Jake and Leah. His pain, his love for her, his fear for her, all of that is pre-existing. The attraction caused by Nessie is evident in the fact that he can't leave her, and she needs him to be there.

I have the quote I think you're looking for here.

Breaking Dawn, page 296:

"Also funny how, even knowing that it was almost over, the hold she had on me only got harder to break - as if by getting bigger, she was gaining gravitational force.
For a minute I tried to look at her from a distance, to separate myself from the pull. I knew it wasn't my imagination that my need for her was stronger than ever. Why was that?"

and later: page 355:

"But there was nothing there, just me, just him.
Working over a corpse.
Because that's all that was left of the girl we both loved. This broken, bled-out, mangled corpse. We couldn't put Bella together again.
I knew it was too late. I knew she was dead. it knew it for sure because the pull was gone. I didn't feel any reason to be here beside her. She wasn't here anymore. So this body had no more draw for me. The senseless need to be near her had vanished.
Or maybe moved was the better word. It seemed like I felt the pull from the opposite direction now. From down the stairs, out the door. The long to get away from here and never, ever come back."

Based on both the above quotes, I see the pull being Jake's wolfy subconscious awareness of Renesmee's presence. As her presence grows as a being with the growth of her body, so does the pull Jake has for her that he doesn't yet realize what it is. He keeps attributing it to other things. Do I also think that Jake absolutely had real feelings for Bella long before Renesmee? Yes.

Now, after Bella "dies" he initially seems to think it's gone. BUT he then realizes that it's simply moved out the door and down the stairs. Now, he doesn't realize that that's where Renesmee is, so he just thinks he's needing to run away.

That first quote was exactly what I was looking for, thanks!

I think the second one, about her death, refers to both his love for Bella AND the "pull", and it sort of separates them, IMO. His feelings for Bella go away, but the "senseless need to be near her" only "moved."

I didn't see anywhere in the text where he feels "nothing". I see where he feels "empty", but that's something else entirely.

Definition 4 of "Empty".
4.Lacking purpose or substance; meaningless: an empty life.

When someone dies that you care about, I can totally understand feeling empty. Especially since Jake's entire purpose was keeping Bella alive/out of danger.

From S.M.'s FAQ on Eclipse:

"Q. What are the characters' biggest mistakes in Eclipse, their tragic flaws?

"Jacob doesn't have a tragic flaw. He has one goal and one hope. His goal is to save Bella's life. His hope is that he'll win her heart in the process. He fails at both. But that doesn't mean he regrets trying. If he could do it over again, he'd do the same thing. Jacob couldn't live with himself if he didn't give saving Bella his best effort—he knows it's going to hurt when he loses, but he knows it would hurt worse if he didn't try. Does he do everything right? Heck, no! But he's sixteen and he's making it up as he goes along. Those who are upset by some of his tactics should consider his youth and the fact that he is, after all, right. Bella is in love with him. (In the end, it's truly healthier for her to be aware of this as she goes forward with unalterable decisions.)"

RoseSpecialist wrote:I have the quote I think you're looking for here.

Breaking Dawn, page 296:

"Also funny how, even knowing that it was almost over, the hold she had on me only got harder to break - as if by getting bigger, she was gaining gravitational force.
For a minute I tried to look at her from a distance, to separate myself from the pull. I knew it wasn't my imagination that my need for her was stronger than ever. Why was that?"

and later: page 355:

"But there was nothing there, just me, just him.
Working over a corpse.
Because that's all that was left of the girl we both loved. This broken, bled-out, mangled corpse. We couldn't put Bella together again.
I knew it was too late. I knew she was dead. it knew it for sure because the pull was gone. I didn't feel any reason to be here beside her. She wasn't here anymore. So this body had no more draw for me. The senseless need to be near her had vanished.
Or maybe moved was the better word. It seemed like I felt the pull from the opposite direction now. From down the stairs, out the door. The long to get away from here and never, ever come back."

Based on both the above quotes, I see the pull being Jake's wolfy subconscious awareness of Renesmee's presence. As her presence grows as a being with the growth of her body, so does the pull Jake has for her that he doesn't yet realize what it is. He keeps attributing it to other things. Do I also think that Jake absolutely had real feelings for Bella long before Renesmee? Yes.

Now, after Bella "dies" he initially seems to think it's gone. BUT he then realizes that it's simply moved out the door and down the stairs. Now, he doesn't realize that that's where Renesmee is, so he just thinks he's needing to run away.

I think that's where I got that from. Yes, it's no doubt that Jacob loved Bella regardless of Nessie ( I believe he loved her when they were kids before Bella moved back to Forks), but during the pregnancy it pulled him closer to Bella. That's where I got that he started to feel more love for her, but it was really just Nessie. And, about the corpse, that's what I've said how he felt before....he loved her, not her body. To Jacob, after Bella died, that wasn't her body anymore, it was just an empty corpse, nothing. When Bella died, to Jacob, she's was completely gone, the body was nothing without the soul inside of it.

I was wondering. Would Jacob smell bad to Rensemee and vice versa? Well I guess if they would smell to each other it wouldn't be as strong as the other vampires/ shape shifters would smell to them.

Well, since Nessie isn't fully vampire, I guess she wouldn't smell half as bad to Jacob as Bella or Edward does. But I'm not sure how Jacob would smell to her, as he isn't "half shape-shifter." I guess the pull Jacob had after imprinting on Nessie was strong enough to ignore the stench, if there was one at least.

Well, vampires smell bad to wolves because it's sickly sweet, it burns your nose and it's icy cold because they're icy cold. Since Nessie's not actually a full vampire, she only smells sweet, and not cold.

Yeah I'm new to this thing so I'm just going to try to jump in. Something else that I always wondered was why Renesmee was so much warmer than Jacob if she was half a vampire. Wouldn't it have made sense if she were a bit colder than most people?