Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Notebook, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Love and Destiny
Wealth and Fulfillment
Memory, Pain, and Mortality
Comfort and Logic vs. Passion and Instinct
Summary
Analysis
Exhausted and sad, Allie drives toward the hotel with tears in her eyes. She has no idea what she is going to say to Lon, but she knows she must come up with something. As she arrives at the parking lot of the inn, she sees Lon’s car in a front spot. She parks her own car across the lot from his even though the spot next to it is open. Then, she shuts off the engine and fixes her face in the mirror.
Allie is not doing well with the decision she seems to have made. She clearly regrets leaving Noah behind—she’s not excited to see Lon at all, and she’s only fretting about the pain, pressure, and perhaps punishment that seeing him will bring.
Themes
Allie is almost ready to go inside—but before doing so, she decides to open one of the letters from Noah. She reaches into her purse for the yellowed packet of letter and pulls a letter from the bottom of the pile—it is the final letter Noah ever wrote to her. Allie opens the envelope and begins reading, picturing Noah writing the letter as she does so. In the letter, which is dated March of 1935, Noah expresses to Allie that he has at last accepted that things are over between them. He writes that though he and Allie came from different worlds, only she could show him the true power of love. He is not bitter, he says—on the contrary, he wishes Allie only love and happiness in whatever she does.
Reading Noah’s happy wishes for Allie from 1935—a time when he thought she no longer wanted anything to do with him, when he accepted that she was happy with her life without him in it—makes Allie realize just how deeply Noah has always loved her. He truly wants what’s best for her, no matter where she ends up. This forces her to see what a good man Noah is and how invested he is in her happiness regardless of whether or not she finds it with him.
Themes
Allie reads the letter three times before putting it back into the envelope. Knowing she cannot delay going into the inn any longer, Allie puts the letters back into her purse and steps out of the car. She still has no idea what she is going to say to Lon—but when she opens the front door, enters the lobby, and sees Lon standing there, the right words come to her at last.
This chapter ends on a cliffhanger without answering what Allie decides to do—whether she rebukes Lon or decides to pursue a life with him—but it heavily foreshadows the idea that Allie will end up choosing love and desire over the stale, passionless foundation that Lon offers her.
Themes
