The Notebook: Chapter 3 Summary & Analysis

Noah and Allie stand still looking at each other for so long that Allie begins to worry Noah doesn’t recognize her—or worse, that he’s forgotten who she is. Finally, she greets him by saying hello. Noah is dumbstruck—he says he cannot believe that Allie is standing in front of him. Allie feels something twitch inside her, and she grows dizzy. Allie reminds herself that she is an engaged woman—but she cannot stave off the sensation. She finds herself thinking that she has at last come home. Allie and Noah embrace wordlessly and hold each other. Allie begins to cry. She laughs as she pulls away from Noah and begins explaining having found an article about his home renovation in the Raleigh paper. Noah compliments how beautiful Allie looks, and Allie blushes.

Noah asks why Allie has come to New Bern. She finds herself swept up in old feelings, but she pushes through them and tells Noah that she has come here to tell him something. Noah asks what she has to say, but Allie says she doesn’t know how to find the words. Noah’s three-legged dog, Clem, comes rushing out of the house and excitedly greets Allie. When Allie remarks upon the dog’s missing leg, Noah says that he adopted the dog, who was hit by a car, when no one else would. Allie then compliments Noah on the restoration. He replies that it was hard work—so hard that he might not do it again if he had the choice. Allie tells him that she knows he would. She stops herself, however, reminding herself that the two of them are essentially strangers now.

Allie says how “crazy” it was for her to just show up, but Noah comforts her by telling her how pleased he is to see her. He suggests they take a walk. He takes Allie by the hand and leads her down toward the riverbank. As Noah watches Allie walk along the bank, he thinks she looks like a “living poem.”

The two of them begin catching up, and Allie quickly blurts out that she’s come to tell Noah she’s engaged to be married—and that the wedding is just three weeks away. When Allie mentions her fiancé’s name, Lon Hammond, Jr., Noah instantly recognizes the family name. Lon is part of a powerful, influential family who made their millions in cotton long ago. Noah doesn’t ask Allie about Lon’s money or his work—all he asks is if he treats her well. Allie hesitates before stating that Lon is a “good man.”

As Noah and Allie continue walking, they share memories of their summer together years ago and talk about their present lives. When Noah asks Allie how long she and Lon are staying in New Bern, Allie tells him that she has come here alone—and that her fiancé doesn’t know the true purpose of her visit. Noah asks Allie if she loves Lon, and Allie says that she does—but Noah senses hesitation in her voice. He warns her not to go into marriage halfheartedly. Allie sharply retorts that she knows she is making the right decision in marrying Lon. She wonders aloud if she should have written to Noah instead of showing up in person, but Noah says he’s happy to see her and is willing to try to be friends.

Noah invites Allie to stay for dinner and offers to boil some crabs he’s caught in a trap along the dock. Allie agrees to join him for the meal. As she watches Noah head down to the dock and haul the traps out of the water, she finds herself attuned to the sounds of nature—and deeply attracted to the muscular, strong Noah. Allie joins Noah on the dock, feeling at peace in nature and relieved by having told Noah of her engagement. From the dock, she can spy a tree on which, 14 years ago, the two of them carved their names an then encircled them in a heart.

As dark falls, Noah and Allie head back up to the house. While Noah starts on dinner Allie wanders around the house, touring its halls and many rooms and admiring all the work that Noah has done. When she returns to the kitchen and glimpses him again, she struggles to fight the feelings of arousal stirring inside her by reminding herself that she’s an engaged woman.

Allie compliments Noah on the renovation. He thanks her for her kind words and tells her about how hard he worked. Though he started the renovation alone, he soon hired people to help him—even with the extra hands, he ended up working each evening until midnight to finish the house. Allie asks why he pushed himself so hard, and Noah struggles not to reply, “Ghosts.” When Allie asks if he has opened the house to any guests, Noah tells her that she’s the first person who’s come to see it. Allie is touched and surprised.

Allie helps Noah chop some vegetables for dinner. As Noah watches her, he smiles to himself—he has missed his “surprising” Allie. Like all artists, Allie is fiery, passionate, and totally spontaneous. Noah thinks of a painting Allie gave him before she left New Bern that fateful summer—it was a “sensual” and abstract work which Noah has kept safe all this time. Noah puts the crabs in a marinade to soak and invites Allie to join him on the porch.

Outside on the verandah, Allie and Noah reminisce some more about the summer they shared together. Allie recalls the night they snuck over to this very house—she came home so late that her parents reprimanded her for spending time with Noah. Allie tells Noah how her mother, Anne, told her that sometimes, one’s future isn’t dictated by what they want but by who they are. Noah recalls Allie telling him about that conversation long ago. Allie tells Noah that she and her mother have not enjoyed a happy relationship since that summer—there is always distance between them. Allie says she does not forgive her mother for teaching her that one’s social status is more important than one’s passions.

Noah asks Allie why she never answered his letters. Allie appears confused—she says she never got any letters from Noah. Noah and Allie realize simultaneously that Anne must have checked the mail diligently and kept the letters from Allie all these years. Allie says it was wrong of her mother to do such a thing—but she also suggests that her mother was trying to protect her. Noah boldly asks Allie if she thinks the two of them would still be together if she’d gotten the letters. Allie hesitates before admitting she thinks they would be.

Noah asks Allie about Lon. Allie tells him that Lon is the perfect man in many ways—yet there is something that is missing between them. She admits to Noah that she is still looking for the kind of love that the two of them shared during their fateful summer. Noah, uncomfortable, gets up to check on the crabs and start fixing dinner. Alone on the porch, Allie struggles to interpret her own confusing feelings. She feels herself wishing that she weren’t engaged—but then she tries to tell herself that she doesn’t miss Noah, simply what the two of them once were.

Noah comes back out and sits down. He asks Allie if she still paints, commenting on what a talented artist she used to be. Allie replies that she doesn’t paint anymore, and when Noah asks why, she refuses to answer. Noah leads Allie to the living room, where she gasps as she realizes that the painting she gave him so long ago is hanging over the fireplace. Allie confesses that though she majored in art in college and received heaps of praise from her professors, her parents didn’t think a career at an artist was proper. She admits that she has not picked up a brush in years and doesn’t know if she ever will again. Noah tells Allie that she is an artist through and through, no matter what. Allie gently touches Noah’s hand, amazed at how after so many years, he knows just what to say to comfort her.

Noah and Allie head into the kitchen to finish up the food and ready the table. As Allie sets out plates and utensils, Noah hurries to his room to grab a shirt for her to put over her dress—eating crabs, he explains, is messy business. Allie feels comforted and aroused as she allows Noah to wrap her up in his shirt. The two sit down to dinner and continue talking about the past. Allie asks Noah about his friend Fin, and Noah reveals that Fin died in the war. As Allie and Noah delve deeper and deeper into their discussion of the past, they talk about the hard times they each had during the war. Halfway through the conversation, Allie realizes that she and Lon never talk this way—they don’t truly share their feelings and thoughts the way she and Noah are doing right now.

After dinner, Allie and Noah return to the porch. As Noah sets Allie up in a rocking chair with a blanket, he realizes that over the course of the evening, he has fallen in love with her again. He wonders privately if there might be anything that he could say or do to make her stay with him, but he feels too afraid to be honest with her. Allie asks Noah to read some poems to her. He begins reciting some verses from memory, and Allie feels soothed as she listens to Noah’s voice. She realizes that Lon never has—and likely never will—evoke such feelings in her. She has never had sex with him, and their relationship is devoid of the passion that defined her romance with Noah. Allie realizes that Noah has gone quiet, and she delights in the idea that he is thinking about her while she’s thinking about him.

Allie finds herself growing tired. She tells Noah it’s time for her to get back to the hotel. He helps her out of her chair and walks her to her car. She starts to remove the shirt he gave her to wear over her dress, but he urges her to keep it. Noah tells Allie that he had a good time tonight and asks to see her again tomorrow. Allie deliberates for a moment, but she quickly tells Noah that she’d like to see him the next day too. He asks her to come over at noon so that he can take her somewhere special for a surprise. Allie ducks into her car and drives away.

As Noah returns to his rocker, he replays the evening in his head over and over. As he thinks about how much he loves Allie—and about the fact that she’s engaged to someone else—he is overcome by his own longing and begins to cry.