Would you have let Eli infect you?

[gattoparde59]

Having lived about 40 years longer than Oskar, I have some idea what the consequences would be to live like Eli. There is no way I would want that for myself. Immortality is useless if you are not really allowed to live, as Eli laments in the book.

[J.J.]

An eternal life of unhappiness must be something really terrible...

[a_contemplative_life]

An eternal life of unhappiness must be something really terrible...

Yeah. Maybe it would just turn out to be an eternity of making the same mistakes, over and over.

After all, you can't escape yourself.

[Ash]

An eternal life of unhappiness must be something really terrible...

Yeah. Maybe it would just turn out to be an eternity of making the same mistakes, over and over.

After all, you can't escape yourself.

Probably not so much like Groundhog Day but more like The Picture of Dorian Gray as Eli questions her claim to humanity after killing so many others.
She doesn't know who/what she is after all the murders. Oskar give her the hope of being something beyond the beast. And she grabs at it like all of us would.
Someone willing to accept (justify) our sins (our method for existence) despite all of our wrongdoings, is something too good to pass up. Oskar, like the priest in the confectional, provides "pro multis" and the sin share is now halved. Like Charles Manson teaming up with Son of Sam as defense attorney she can now rest her case. But murder is still murder.

[Casper]

After thinking about it quite a bit (30 minutes), I think it would depend on circumstances, that what's it really boils down to. If I was in Oskar's place, I would have definitely already started considering it by that point. But like Oskar, there would have to be that final straw that completely sets the scale towards that decision. Being with Eli is something I would see as an all or nothing. I couldn't go halfway and grow old with her, that just gets ugly for both of us and leaves her alone yet again and with a potential cycle of infinite heartache. If I really decided to commit, and that final straw was broken, then I would commit, and the only way I could truly commit is to turn.

I also weigh into this equation that Eli seems to kill indiscriminately, and we know it really gets to her at times. Perhaps enough time has passed where she can see a stranger's life as insignificant in the scope of a few centuries. Perhaps there is a numbness created by centuries of self-loathing. Maybe Eli is resentful enough towards humans where it's strong enough to overcome any sense of altruistic duty to kill herself. Whatever the case, and knowing this, I would probably love her enough to suffer through it with her, to hold her hand and wall through hell together as it were.

[SFTifoso]

After thinking about it quite a bit (30 minutes), I think it would depend on circumstances, that what's it really boils down to. If I was in Oskar's place, I would have definitely already started considering it by that point. But like Oskar, there would have to be that final straw that completely sets the scale towards that decision. Being with Eli is something I would see as an all or nothing. I couldn't go halfway and grow old with her, that just gets ugly for both of us and leaves her alone yet again and with a potential cycle of infinite heartache. If I really decided to commit, and that final straw was broken, then I would commit, and the only way I could truly commit is to turn.

I also weigh into this equation that Eli seems to kill indiscriminately, and we know it really gets to her at times. Perhaps enough time has passed where she can see a stranger's life as insignificant in the scope of a few centuries. Perhaps there is a numbness created by centuries of self-loathing. Maybe Eli is resentful enough towards humans where it's strong enough to overcome any sense of altruistic duty to kill herself. Whatever the case, and knowing this, I would probably love her enough to suffer through it with her, to hold her hand and wall through hell together as it were.

You hit the nail on the head. If you love another person/vampire, you're either all in or might as well get out of it ASAP. There is no middle ground... or rather, there can't be no middle ground. Forcing Eli, or whoever your lover is, to watch you grow and go through life, would be very cruel, as that's something Eli can't ever have. If you love this other person enough to kill for him/her or at least be an accomplice (which Oskar is), and to accept the fact that a big portion of who he/she is is a human killing machine, then I think the answer is as clear and glaring as the sun.

[Zeb]

Not sure if i would.

Although im a bit of a night owl and usually go out working at 2.00am (im not a man whore or anything like that!) i do love to feel the sun on skin-especially on my shaved head.