Marked by Myth: Colonial Desire and the Making of the Quileute Werewolf from a Postcolonial Perspective

Although Twilight is most commonly criticised for its depiction of women and its deeply anti-feminist love story between human Bella and century-old vampire Edward, it is hard to ignore the problems it has with the Native American characters in its world. Whilst there has been some scholarly engagement with this issue, it has not reached mainstream discussion of the text. The shape-shifting Quiluete wolves who exist to fight the “cold ones” are characterised as noble savages, and we’re going to explore the application of postcolonial theory to the wolves, and in particular, their involuntary ‘imprinting’. This blog post will discuss and deconstruct the Twilight novels, Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse and Breaking Dawn, rather than the films. 

What is the Twilight Saga?

The Twilight Saga follows Bella Swan as she moves to Forks, Washington and meets Edward Cullen, an one-hundred-and-four-year old vampire. They fall in love, but this causes some trouble, since Edward's vampire urges make him want to kill Bella and drink her blood. Other vampires in the Twilight-world also want to harm Bella, and her best friend Jacob Black, a shape-shifting Native American werewolf tries to pull her away from the vampire world for her own safety. At times, it's a bit of a fever dream, but here we're just going to focus on how the novel upholds colonial stereotypes.

What is post-colonialism and the trope of the noble savage?

Post-colonialism is a branch of critical theory that looks to examine how people dominated by colonial power reacted to that power, and how culture reinforces that domination as legitimate. Within literature, applying a postcolonial lens means asking how the text is affirming colonial power, how the text others oppressed persons under colonial powers or how the text portrays Indigenous cultures. Franz Fanon (1925-1961) was one of the first postcolonial scholars, and in his 1961 book The Wretched of the Earth, Fanon uses psychoanalysis to deconstruct how colonialism affects the individual. He writes that:

“Colonialism, which has not bothered to put too fine a point on its efforts, has never ceased to maintain that the Negro is a savage; and for the colonist, the Negro was neither an Angolan nor a Nigerian, for he simply spoke of "the Negro." For colonialism, this vast continent was the haunt of savages, a country riddled with superstitions and fanaticism, destined for contempt, weighed down by the curse of God, a country of cannibals —in short, the Negro's country.” (Fanon, 1961, p. 211)

The trope of the noble savage is centuries old, and involves characterising people of colour as primitive, living by instinct and natural urges, or as ‘backward’. They exist outside the realm of civilised society, with their nobility coming from the fact they live in harmony with nature, but are savage for their lack of ‘progress’, measured by the Western ideal. 

Who are the Quiluetes?

The Quiluete’s in The Twilight Saga are a Native American clan who live on a reservation just outside Forks. The son of an Elder in this clan, Jacob Black, becomes Bella’s best friend over the series, sparking the love triangle that dominates the latter three books. 

It is important to note that the Quiluetes are a real Native American nation who live in the real La Push on a reservation near the Olympic National Park. They did not receive any compensation for their culture being used in the franchise, and negative stereotypes stemming from the series remain (Burke Museum of Natural History & Culture 2010). 

The Quileutes as Noble Savages

The “noble savage” trope is particularly relevant to the Quileutes as shapeshifting wolves who ruled by desire, diametrically opposed to the cultured, reserved and beautiful Cullens. Imprinting is the involuntary mechanism by which the Quileute wolves find their soulmates, and attach onto another person to protect and love for the rest of their life. Although these relationships do not necessarily become romantic if the object of the imprinting does not consent, they mostly do, as evidenced by the relationships between Sam and Emily, Paul and Rachel, Jared and Kim and Jacob and Renesmee. However, the interesting aspect of imprinting is the lack of control the wolves have over it. 

The Quileutes are not able to control who, where or when they imprint, and it is not a conscious choice: it is driven by natural instinct. Jacob comments in Breaking Dawn as Bella accuses him “How dare you imprint on my baby? Have you lost your mind?”, that “It was involuntary!” (Meyer, 2008, p. 292). This leads to some interesting plot developments, with two instances within the text of fully-grown Quileute men imprinting on children; Quil Ateara V upon Claire Young when she was two, and Jacob upon Renesmee immediately after she was born. Quil and Jacob do not embark on romantic or sexual relationships with Claire or Renesme within the text, as Jacob maintains the relationships with young children are not sexual, in that "Quil will be the best, kindest big brother any kid ever had” (Meyer, 2007, p. 108). Although it is difficult to ignore the creepy undertone of this, it is also difficult to ignore how this aspect deepens the Quiluetes being portrayed as noble savages. Whilst the involuntary and unexpected nature of imprinting neatly attempts to explain away the disturbing implications of grown men selecting their future mate as a young child, this constructs the wolves within the text as predators acting on a natural, uncivilised instinct rooted in their Native American ancestral need to “ pass on the wolf gene” (Meyer, 2008, p. 209). 

Just as Fanon describes people of colour in The Wretched of the Earth as “riddled with superstitions and fanaticism, destined for contempt, weighed down by the curse of God” (Fanon, 1961, p. 211), the Quileutes in Twilight are cursed by ‘God’ to involuntarily act on these impulses, even when they produce outcomes which are considered uncivilised. These representations matter because they not only reinforce stereotypes of Native Americans as noble savages, but have also directly harmed the real-life Quiluete clan by representing them and their culture as a pack of wolves. 

Reference List:

Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture 2010, Truth and Twilight, Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture, viewed 30 September 2025, <https://www.burkemuseum.org/static/truth_vs_twilight/>.

Ellingson, T 2001, The Myth of the Noble Savage, University of California Press, Berkeley. ff

Fanon, F 1961, The Wretched of the Earth, Grove Press, New York. 

Mango in the North,  2020, ‘Postcolonial Analysis of the Twilight Universe; A Complete Problematic Mess’, online video, YouTube, viewed 28 September 2025, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZm-Dj3pNIc>

Meyer, S 2005, Twilight, Little, Brown and Company, Boston. 

Meyer, S 2006, New Moon, Little, Brown and Company, Boston. 

Meyer, S 2007, Eclipse,  Little, Brown and Company, Boston. 

Meyer, S 2008, Breaking Dawn, Little, Brown and Company, Boston. 

Pearson, J 2011, ‘Representations of Native American Characters in Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight Saga’, Masters Thesis, East Carolina University, Greenville. 

Siegel, J 2011, ‘Vampires, Werewolves, and Other Humans: Learning from Participatory Responses to the Representation of Native Americans in Twilight’, Working Papers in Educational Linguistics, vol 26, no. 2, pp.79-103.