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The notebook novel character analysis
Literary analysis of the notebook
Literary analysis of the notebook
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In spite of many fears and emotions love can bring, true love can conquer the impossible. In the words on Nicholas Sparks, “We fell in love, despite our differences, and once we did, something rare and beautiful was created. For me, love like that has only happened once, and that’s why every minute we spent together has been seared in my memory” (Sparks, 1996). In The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks, Noah Calhoun is reading to his wife, Allison Nelson, from his nursing home. He suffers from cancer and severe arthritis in his hands. Noah tells the story of the lifer they shared together. It was filled with joy, tears, arguments, and most of all, the feeling of love that didn’t dimmed throughout the passage of time, but only got stronger. The prevalent theme in this book- love conquers all, was expressed by Noah’s determination and persistence of not giving up on Allie, her leap in faith, as well as Allie’s progressive disease- Alzheimer’s.
“So it’s not going to be easy. It’s going to be really hard; we’re going to have to work on this every day, but I want to do that because I want you. I want all of you, forever, everyday” (Sparks, 1996). After a summer romance with Noah, Allison leaves the city with her parents against her will. In hopes of them continuing their relationship, Noah writes letters to her, every single day for a year. He couldn’t face the fact of letting go of the girl that changed his view of life. The memory of that summer tormented him for fourteen years. Noah had many opportunities of finding somebody else, but the love they had was stronger and better than anything both of them had ever experienced. He didn’t want anybody else, he wanted her. His actions affected him as well as others, much like Allie’s leap ...
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...to us in the future, every day we are together is the greatest day of my life. I will always be yours” (Sparks, 1996). In The Notebook, Noah’s persistence in not giving up on the girl he loved like no other, Allie’s choice of life, and the fatal disease that was now in their hands, were all clear examples of how love can conquer all. Noah wrote letters every single day to the ghost that came to dominate his life, Allison. She followed her heart and decided to stay with Noah. Finally, Noah’s devotion towards her wife outweighed the problems hurling towards them, even her illness. The author, Nicholas Sparks, shows us that love might last a moment, an afternoon, or a lifetime, but that doesn’t diminish its value. We are left to treasure those memories for the rest of our lives (or life’s). Noah and Allie experienced true love, and in the end, nothing stood in its way.
Many hearts are drawn to history's greatest love stories, such as Romeo and Juliet, Bonnie and Clyde, and Helen and Paris to name a few. One could argue that humanity’s way of finding happiness is to seek love. Pure, unadulterated love is one of the hardest feelings to acquire, but when one does, they’d do anything to keep it. Through Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter and his characters, Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale, readers discover that this innate desire to be accepted and loved is both our most fatal flaw and our greatest virtue.
Love and hope, together are a timeless literary thematic duo, which continue to inspire countless variations and sub-genres of romance literature. For the last many centuries, romance as a genre, is arguably the most popular of all narratives. However, the theme of love often takes presentences and overarches other thematic interpretation of stories. So why then are people seeking romance in the literature they ready? Suzanne Collins wrote The Hunger Games with the intent to introduce her young adult readership to a number of politically charged themes. Although Collins's work is acknowledged for successfully presenting themes of sacrifice, versions of reality, and power, her audience conversely identifies with the debatable sub-them of love. Social forums, such as the Official Hunger Games Facebook Website exposes an insider's perspective of sort, which reveals public perceptions and interpretations of Collins's work. Even though the purpose for the fan-website built around The Hunger games is to provide a discussion space. Participant's discussions however, unintentionally reveal a...
The idea of love is very complex and can be interpreted in a variety of ways. Both “The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien and “Araby” by James Joyce portray the lives of two individuals who are in love. “The Things They Carried” is about a young lieutenant named Jimmy Cross during the Vietnam War. Lieutenant Cross was incapable of focusing on the war because of his constant thoughts of the girl he loved, Martha. “Araby” is about a boy who is infatuated with a girl he has never had a conversation with. Although both protagonists in “The Things They Carried” and “Araby” eventually realize that the girls they loved didn’t feel the same way about them, Lieutenant Cross tried to move on by destroying everything he had that reminded him of Martha, while the boy in “Araby” was left disappointed.
In Song of Solomon, through many different types of love, Ruth's incestuous love, Milkman and Hagar's romantic love, and Guitar's love for his race, Toni Morrison demonstrates not only the readiness with which love will turn into a devastating and destructive force, but also the immediacy with which it will do so. Morrison tackles the amorphous and resilient human emotion of love not to glorify the joyous feelings it can effect but to warn readers of love's volatile nature. Simultaneously, however, she gives the reader a clear sense of what love is not. Morrison explicitly states that true love is not destructive. In essence, she illustrates that if "love" is destructive, it is most likely, a mutation of love, something impure, because love is all that is pure and true.
... eventually realizes that there is absolutely no way to control whom you will love or when one will fall love. Xuela admits, “It is sad that unless you are born a god, your life from its beginning, is a mystery to you.” (Kincaid 202). The love that both Janie and Xuela feel, testifies to the incalculable and expected, nature of love.
Romance narrative is a type of writing that usually features a hero and his journey or quest. The hero reaches a transcendent goal through tests or trials. The narrative is often represented as a circle because the story begins with the hero’s goal. It then continues with the hero’s journey through the difficulties that he must overcome to achieve that goal and finishes with the initial goal accomplished. It’s a popular format because it externalizes the internal struggles that people face in their own lives in overcoming problems and especially in defining themselves as they transform from childhood to adulthood. The narrative follows a pattern of initial innocence, acceptance of duties and trials, then failure and despair. The failure is
There exists no power as inexplicable as that of love. Love cannot be described in a traditional fashion; it is something that must be experienced in order for one to truly grasp its full enormity. It is the one emotion that can lead human beings to perform acts they are not usually capable of and to make sacrifices with no thought of the outcome or repercussions. Though love is full of unanswered questions and indescribable emotions, one of the most mystifying aspects of love is its timeless nature. Love is the one emotion, unlike superficial sentiments such as lust or jealousy, which can survive for years, or even generations. In the novel The Gargoyle, the author, Andrew Davidson, explores the idea of eternal love between two people, a union that spans over centuries spent both together and apart. Davidson, through the use of flashbacks, intricate plot development and foreshadowing, and dynamic characterization, creates a story that challenges the reader’s preconceived notions regarding whether eternal love can survive even when time’s inevitable grasp separates the individuals in question.
Noah reads their love story to Allie everyday in hopes that she will remember him and everything they have experienced together. Throughout most of the day as he reads to her, she does not recall that the story is about herself and Noah. She also does not remember who her children and grandchildren are when they come to visit. At the end of the film Allie becomes lucid for a few moments and realizes that the story Noah is reading is their own and they begin to dance together. After a few short moments Allie relapses into Alzheimer’s and has no idea who Noah is and why he is there with
In Toni Morrison’s Beloved, love proves to be a dangerous and destructive force. Upon learning that Sethe killed her daughter, Beloved, Paul D warns Sethe “Your love is too thick” (193). Morrison proved this statement to be true, as Sethe’s intense passion for her children lead to the loss of her grasp on reality. Each word Morrison chose is deliberate, and each sentence is structured with meaning, which is especially evident in Paul D’s warning to Sethe. Morrison’s use of the phrase “too thick”, along with her short yet powerful sentence structure make this sentence the most prevalent and important in her novel. This sentence supports Paul D’s side on the bitter debate between Sethe and he regarding the theme of love. While Sethe asserts that the only way to love is to do so passionately, Paul D cites the danger in slaves loving too much. Morrison uses a metaphor comparing Paul D’s capacity to love to a tobacco tin rusted shut. This metaphor demonstrates how Paul D views love in a descriptive manner, its imagery allowing the reader to visualize and thus understand Paul D’s point of view. In this debate, Paul D proves to be right in that Sethe’s strong love eventually hurts her, yet Paul D ends up unable to survive alone. Thus, Morrison argues that love is necessary to the human condition, yet it is destructive and consuming in nature. She does so through the powerful diction and short syntax in Paul D’s warning, her use of the theme love, and a metaphor for Paul D’s heart.
After Allies father catches her and Noah making out in the truck, he tells Allie that he wants to have the chance to meet her friend, so he politely asked Allie to invite Noah over Sunday for dinner. While seating at the dinner table, Noah was asked what job he does for a living. After Noah stated that he was a laborer it was pretty clear by their facial expressions (especially her mother’s) that they did not approve of their relationship. Later, Anne makes the statement that “summers almost over” giving her daughter the idea that her and Noah probably will not be seeing each other anymore. Moreover, Anne decided to tell Noah about Allie’s school plans, and how he was not in the plan. Anne believes that their relationship is just a summer fling, or a short-term initial attraction. This scene most certainly relates to chapter nine. Allie was unable to develop her Relationship of Choice simply because they did not find Noah suitable for her, mainly because he was not wealthy. Al...
A lot has changed in the past few decades, not to mention centuries. Perhaps you’ve heard your grandparents, or any adult in general, talking about how much the world is changing. In the past few decades, commitment has gone on a rollercoaster. At times it’s going uphill-marriage rates are up, divorce rates are down, and people are happy in their relationships. At other times, it has been quite the opposite. In A Brave New World, they show a glimpse of a possible future society; the novel serves as a warning to help the world slow down when it comes to technology and love. The expression of love has evolved throughout time due to the decrease of chivalry and the increase in divorce rates because of the change of “steps” in a relationship.
The man, Noah, is a poet in Allie's eyes and he expresses love as, "Our souls were one, if you must know and never shall they be apart; With splendid dawn, your face aglow I reach for you and find my heart" (183). As teenagers, the two of these "love birds" had one summer of intense passion that was ended abruptly by Allie's parents disapproval. When Allie left New Bern the couple planned to keep in touch by writing letters, but because Allie's moms did not approve of Noah, she hid all his letters from her without Allie knowing. Noah continued to write but without a reply, his hopes dissolved. While Noah sat on his porch playing his guitar with his three-legged dog Clem, he reminisced about the adventures they had, foreshadowing the events that followed. "And if, in some distant place in the future, we see each other in our new lives, I will smile at you with joy, and remember how we spent a summer beneath the trees, learning from each other and growing in love. And maybe, for a brief moment, you'll feel it too, and you'll smile back, and savor the memories we will always share together" (151). There are surprises one would never expect and descriptions that one can't even imagine; they pull the reader in and paint a picture in the mind. This novel will make the reader cry, gasp, sigh, and cry once more.
When most people think of love, they imagine a beautiful concept, one of which is and should be a part of life. Some will imagine the unconditional love of God, others will picture a spouse or family members, and some may even think about materialistic things. While there are many ways in which love can be defined as, it usually has positive connotations. This is not necessarily the case in Lewis’ novel Till We Have Faces, at least through the character Orual. Love is a major theme in the novel and is portrayed in both a humanly and a divine way. The humanly love which Lewis displays is mainly shown through Orual and is demonstrated as a perverse love. The divine love is presented through Psyche and is portrayed as selfless. In Till We Have Faces, C.S. Lewis differentiates perverse love and selfless
In her novel Beloved, Toni Morrison explores the paradoxical nature of love both as a dangerous presence that promises suffering and a life-giving force that gives the strength to proceed; through the experiences of the run-away slave Sethe. The dangerous aspect of love is revealed through the comments of Paul D and Ella regarding the motherly love of Sethe towards her children. Sethe's deep attachment to her children is deemed dangerous due to their social environment which evidently promises that the loved one of a slave will be hurt. On the other hand, love is portrayed as a sustaining force that allows Sethe to move on with her life. All the devastating experiences Sethe endures do not matter due to the fact that she must live for her children. Although dangerous, Sethe's love finally emerges as the prevalent force that allows her to leave the past behind and move on with her life.
“Violence repeatedly usurps the space that love might hold. Commonly the fantasied antidote to psychic wounds and losses, real and imagined, love is an expected unguent, a form of medication, pain's "natural" anodyne. But Morrison takes a harsher, tougher, less romantic view of love, one fashioned from the accumulated wisdom of the ages, a wisdom infused throughout her novel”. (Mc Dowell)