Vampires are not as bad as you think.

The first book in the Southern Vampire series, Dead Until Dark, it is most obvious that vampires are symbolic of the minority populations in contemporary society. As a result of being represented as minorities, vampires are discriminated in the novel. The US has come a long way since the civil rights movement, almost 40 years before the novel was even written, yet many descriptions of segregation are apparent between vampires and people.

              Vampires in this world stand for groups that the majority of the population fears and hates for no justifiable reason – not only from the standpoint of skin color or sexual orientation, but from being undead. The first page of the novel in fact describes Sookie’s excitement of meeting a vampire by saying “Ever since vampires had come out of the coffin two years ago, I’d hoped one would come to Bon Temps. We had all the other minorities in our little town—why not the newest, the legally recognized undead?”(pg. 1).

Many vampires in the novel try to eliminate the prejudices against them. Bill tries to “mainstream” by surviving off of synthetic blood and interact normally with humans. He speaks at Gran’s meeting called Descendants of the Glorious Dead to recall his experiences to the crowd and hopefully create an accepting image with the fellow townspeople. Another vampire, Eric, also mainstreams by opening a bar for fang-bangers, or “men and women that hang around with vampires and enjoy being bitten” (pg. 22). These are few of the examples of vampires who desire to fit in and live the same rights are humans do.

But what’s a story when there are no bad guys. Not every vampire in the novel is about mainstreaming and that’s where the main conflict of the novel comes from. Some vampires unwillingly take blood from their human victims since it is more fulfilling than synthetic blood. They possess powers such as intimidation, which makes their victim forget the incident entirely, and superhuman speed and strength. These vampires believe that they can be superior to humans by their immortality, similar to the vampires that Bill lives with. And just how group stereotyping happens, the negative actions of one vampire can speak for the entire population of vampires.

As a result, the novel mainly portrays actions that are done to discriminate or inflict harm against vampires. The Rattrays would have drained Bill’s blood to make money off it had it not been for Sookie. Some citizens of the Bon Temp area, where the novel setting is, torches a house ablaze, killing 4 vampires in it. Rene Lenier is a prime example of vampire hatred, as he kills women linked to vampires due to his bad history with them.

In fact, there were times when vampires showed altruistic behavior towards people. Bill’s actions save Sookie’s life when she was about to die from the Rattray’s attack but she drinks his blood to stay alive. There have been times when Bill committed violent attacks such as killing the Rattrays, but his acts are justifiable to protect Sookie or future vampires that would fall victim to them.

Dead Until Dark emphasizes that humans and vampires alike can be evil and do evil things. But in terms when it comes down to who feels superior to the other, each side has their own views. Although vampires are oppressed by the greater population of people, they do attempt to reconcile with them by setting aside their differences and assimilate to their culture.